Coming from a Turkish Cypriot family, Selin’s obsession with food was cemented from an early age. Her culinary school education gave classical foundations to her instinctive, personal and passionate style of cookery. Selin’s fortuitous meeting with chef Peter Gordon led to her working at The Providores and Tapa Room, where she was exposed to global food, fusion flavours and a well organised commercial kitchen. This proved to be vital experience for Oklava, Selin’s renowned Turkish Cypriot restaurant which brought a new style of Turkish food to London for a decade (sadly closing its doors in January 2023). Oklava celebrated the diversity of Turkish cuisine and shone light on often overshadowed regional delicacies. Ultimately Selin doesn’t want her food to be categorised as either ‘traditional’ or ‘modern’ Turkish, it doesn’t need to be defined or categorised. Selin cooks from the heart with an instinctive and personal style, she shares what’s delicious and continues to take great joy in that.
