Famous Restaurateur Alan Yau, “Turkish Pide opened my eyes”

Alan Yau at his Turkish pop-up restaurant Yamabahçe in Marylebone

Turkish food has captured the imagination of one of the UK restaurant industry’s biggest icons. Alan Yau OBE, the Hong Kong-born founder of national and international East Asian restaurant chains Wagamama, Hakkasan and Busaba Eathai, sees real potential for Turkish dishes to feature in his plans to bring “mono product” concept restaurants to the fore in London. To find out more about his interest in Turkish cuisine and to hear his thoughts about Harringay’s own eateries, the Green Lanes Special Edition met Alan at his Turkish pop-up restaurant Yamabahçe in Marylebone.

Alan’s long-held passion for Turkey’s food comes in part from his love of Istanbul. “I go to Istanbul twice a month, and I tend to do a lot more eating out there” he said. “I have a real love for Istanbul as a city. I like cities with a waterside, and also I think Istanbul as a city is tremendous in terms of energy, it’s incredible” he added, “When you get off the plane at twelve midnight, you don’t feel tired”.

Alan’s visits to Istanbul gave hima special appreciationfor Pide, a Turkish pizza-style flatbread dish produced by placing fresh, raw ingredients on top of a dough base and baking them together in a stone oven.

He first saw Pide in London and has been working with it for over 20 years after one of his trips to Turkey. “It was really only until I saw it for the second time in Istanbul, it kind of opened my eyes,” he said,adding that it made him aware of the dish’s taste profile and that “the quality of the product can transcend beyond the ethnic core [of Turkish and Middle Eastern people]”.

Alan is also passionate about Pide because of its potential as both a comfort food, namely a meal combining a carbohydrate and red meat such as Chilli Con Carne or Spaghetti Bolognese, and as a mono product, a food concept that he believes will be a big trend in the future. “Pide attracted me because of the mono product dynamic, meaning one product with a maximum three components” he explained, “with Pide, whether you look at the more traditional style, the Karadeniz style from the Black Sea or the Kayseri Develi style from Middle Anatolia (the Asianpart of Turkey), they are all either based on lamb or beef i.e. red meat with dough”.

When asked about the popularity of Turkish food in Britain, Alan said that Turkish cuisine is not yet as popular as Indian, Chinese or Italian cuisine but added that British pallets need time to get used to certain partsof the Turkish menu.

“I think Turkish cuisine still suffers the cultural discrimination of the cheap kebab, similar to what Indian and Chinese experienced … twenty or thirty years ago” he explainedwhilestill praising the Doner Kebab despite this image as “the most iconic Turkish dish,” and “the most underrated product” also sharing his view that an upmarket version of Doner could compete with luxury or “better burger” outlets in future.

Comparing his experience with Pide to pizza, Alanadded“if you use the traditional formula for Pide, it lacks what I call the junk food taste formula. The junk food taste formula that exists in pizza is overpowered, over-spiced and over-salted, so if you look at the core components that go into pizza, things like anchovies and parmesan cheese, pepper, all these things are extremely powerful … whereas I think the most traditional Pide, Develi style which includes minced beef, green peppers and tomatoes, it is extremely pure in form and it hasn’t got enough of the junk food mentality to allow the non-foodie pallet to absorb, which means it’s an acquired taste at the moment, it takes time.” For now Alan’s main aim is to find a recipe that appeals to British preferences without compromising the food’s authenticity.

“Green Lanes works because it offers very good food at a level that is accessible. The abundance and value for money allows for crossover”

Alan also sees a special place for Harringay in the evolution of Turkish food in Britain as the street bridges the gap between ethnic corecustomers and British ones, “Green Lanes works because it offers very good food at a level that is accessible. The abundance and value for money allows for crossover” he explained adding that the street’s “energy is incredible, especially during the evening … I am truly amazed by the volume [of Turkish food there]”.

When asked if he’d ever consider setting up a restaurant in Harringay, Alan showered the street with praise saying, “I never had an ambition - even though I’m approached every other month - to put a Chinese restaurant in China Town, I’d love to put a Turkish restaurant in Green Lanes, seriously, I actually find the whole thing quite romantic.”

Alan Yau (left) Rob Tao (centre) Timur Ekingen (righht)