The major element in distinguishing different cultures is their languages but in a not-so-surprising way the palate also gets involved. Turkish cooking, like Anatolia, is a mixture of cultures. The book includes various, 147 in all, recipes from all of these cuisines just as they were cooked in the past in palaces or mansions. Recipes include easy to use and commonplace measurements and are accompanied by photographs that look almost real. This, last fact, facilitates the understanding of the cooking instructions as you can easily visualise what to expect at the end of your efforts, even if you were not certain about what you were doing. The ingredients are very rare and culture-specific ingredients and they can easily be found almost anywhere, anytime. However, the resulting dishes will create hard to find and unique meals with which you can entertain all your guests. Yelda Sönmez was born in Istanbul. After researching Turkish cuisine and various other world cuisines for years, she used her findings to serve delicious menus to her guests in Bodrum, Hadigari Restaurant-Bar. She has been studying Istanbul cuisine for four years, gathering recipes, knowledge and documents about kitchen culture from oral and written sources. (Arka Kapak)