First of all, there are indeed three major cuisines in the world.
Google search for “3 Great Cuisine” or “3 Grand Cuisine” will bring up the debate about the three major cuisines. And the three major cuisines mentioned in foreign countries are indeed the three cuisines of China, France and Turkey.
So, why are the three major cuisines Chinese, French, and Turkish?
1.Abundant products
China itself is rich and diverse; Turkey (more precisely, the Ottoman Empire) can obtain various ingredients and spices from the Mediterranean and the Middle East; France is the most suitable land for agriculture on the European continent, and can also obtain Various continental ingredients. These ingredients are symbols of culinary prowess and tradition.
2.Court kitchen
The extravagant royal family is the first customer of high-quality cuisine, and it is also the driving force for the innovation of cooking methods. China has thousands of years of centralized tradition and imperial kitchens; Turkey has inherited the imperial kitchens of the Eastern Rome and the Ottoman Empire; France is the center of European court culture.
3.Historical inheritance
Tradition is based on history. Only a country with a long history can form a distinctive food tradition, and only a country with a long history can have a profound impact on the surrounding area.
From a geographical point of view, the three major cuisines of China symbolize the East (East Asia), France symbolizes the West (Continent Europe), and Turkey connects Europe and Asia, integrating the traditions of the East and the West (Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, Central Asia). From this perspective, the selection of these three countries is sufficiently representative.
What is Turkish cuisine like?
Turkey is located at the crossroads of the east and west, north and south of the Eurasian continent. It has been the intersection of Eastern and Western civilizations and products since ancient times. The diversity and richness of Turkish cuisine is largely due to location and history, not religion. In general, the ingredients and tastes of Turkish dishes belong to the Eastern Mediterranean and Caucasus dietary traditions. It is not appropriate to use Turkish dishes to represent Middle Eastern or Halal dishes.
Today’s Turkish cuisine largely continues the gastronomic traditions of the Ottoman Empire. It is precisely because of the existence of such a prosperous, vast and culturally diverse empire as the Ottoman Empire that there is a fusion of the East and the West and a rich variety of Turkish cuisine. The ruling class of the Ottoman Empire believed in Islam, and spoke the Turkic language that originated in Central Asia and the Persian language that was popular in the Middle East at that time. In terms of political system and culture, they inherited a lot of heritage from Eastern Rome, as well as food culture.
Yummyadvisor, I found a website with most of the restaurant information in Turkey. It can browse restaurants by city, food type, or even business district. It can help you know more about Turkish cuisine.
