A Century-Long Palace Feast

DATE June 20, 2016 VENUE The Marmara Esma Sultan Mansion In memory of our dear friend Mr. Muhtar Katırcıoğlu—who played a major role in the development of written culture in this field through his writings and translations and who possessed our country’s most significant collection of menus, and who passed away in 2013—we presented a menu from his collection. Our concept was “In the Light of Muhtar Katırcıoğlu: A 100-Year-Old Palace Banquet.” During German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II’s visit to Istanbul during World War I, Sultan Mehmet Reşad hosted a banquet in his honor on the evening of October 18, 1917 (18 Teşrinievvel 1333) at Dolmabahçe Palace. We savored this menu with friends along the same stretch of the Bosphorus, just a few buildings away, under the same sky, and nearly a century later.