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Authentic Turkish Cuisine at its Best Local Chef serves up delicious Turkish meals in a warm, homey atmosphere WORDS BY KAREN MEURER PHOTOGRAPHY BY TATYANA SEMENOVA
It’s obvious Chef Yuksel Gultekin loves to cook. He can whip up a beautifully laid out classic Turkish sharing platter in fifteen minutes flat, then bring it out to you with a smile. Glutekin’s path to co-owning Sofra Turkish Restaurant & Wine Cellar with wife Chandra is a fun one. Once a professional soccer player in Turkey, he needed to rethink his career when his knees were permanently injured. He soon picked up jobs in restaurants, learning the nuances of the cuisine. Next he spent five years working in kitchen’s on cruise ships but with working 10 months straight of the year he found it hard to have a life outside of work. Glutekin reminisced, “Staff told me one day, if you’re still working here in five years you’ll be here for life.” He quit a few days shy of his five year anniversary and came to Canada.
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