BIG has grill, vulnerability and the joy of honest food: “My two favorite paste on vacation are chips and ketchup.”
A book born by accident and adventure
Surprisingly, Hasan admits that his new book was “actually a mistake”. After the success of his first, the publishers strived for a follow-up. “I wanted to go to Mexico, I wanted to go to Jamaica, I wanted to go to Japan,” he says and remembers ambitious parking spaces that went through when no sponsors of the airline did not come about. The fallback? A deep diving in Turkish food and culture.
First he hesitated. “I didn’t want to be the Turkish child who was sent to Turkey. It almost feels to Token,” he admits. But, driven by curiosity and the need for self -discovery, he booked a flight and spent two months traveling through Turkey, living the book like a local and talks with strangers.
“The book was slowly written by small conversations with locals. I ended up there and I thought I have no idea what I was doing here. It basically wrote itself.”
Find food, family and yourself
What sets Smoke and experienced bread Apart from that, his vulnerability is. This is not just a collection of recipes, it is a memoir, a love letter to Hasan’s father and a raw report on personal growth.
“It is definitely a vulnerability,” he says. “Look like me, talk how I speak and represent the cultures in order to have this book in which I talk about my relationship with my father and my identity crisis as a child – it’s more than just eating.”
Writing the book coincided with a time of therapy and self -reflection. Hasan describes moments of fear and the fear of “reading my diary”. But he is proud of the result: “I want it to be well received. I want it to be as good as possible. But there is a fear of the unknown.”
The joy of traveling – and the power of ketchup
Hasan’s passion for discovery extends beyond the kitchen. It lights up when he talks about the sensory joys of travel – especially about the small joys such as chips and ketchup abroad.
“My two favorite jobs on vacation are chips and ketchup.
It grows lyrically over “Super Crunchy” Spain chips and the thrill to find new aromas abroad, even if they cost a small fortune at home in Great Britain.
Unexpected flavors: soy sauce in a Turkish kebab?
By traveling through Turkey, Hasan’s eyes were opened by the variety of regional food. A surprise? The use of soy sauce in Turkish dishes.
“There is an ink fishing dish that is marinated in a flowering oregano, Turkish chilli flakes and garlic and is served with a soy sauce prosecution hunter as if it were sushi. I dipped it into the soy sauce and I was like, that makes sense.”
He also met a kebab called “Dirty Chicken”, which was marinated in soy and milk, and proves that Turkish food is far more diverse than the classic doner and mixed grills that most British know.
Honest food, honest life
For Hasan, the best meals are more than technology, but about love, community and memories.
“If you told me you will eat with someone and eat something, it will be with my family and eat kebab,” he says. “And when I say family, it doesn’t necessarily mean bloodline for me. We grew up in a house where the door was always open.”
He quickly rejects the idea that great food has to be chic. “If I have told you to you now, what’s your favorite thing? Under no circumstances will you be, oh, I had the best biscuit in a bistro. Under no circumstances. It is pure nostalgia.”
Growth, grit and a little chicken
Hasan’s trip was not uncomplicated. He left the school with just a few qualifications, worked security jobs that he hated, and only found his appointment after he was connected to Jamie Oliver fifteen. Kitchens gave him a purpose, but it is his willingness to be open to anxiety, identity and failure that distinguishes him.
“I would like to inspire someone to write a book if I wanted to write a book. Or I could now let my tools drop and run to India if I wanted. There is only a greater purpose to bring nice things to plates.”
His culinary confessions? Thanks to the lessons in precision and patience, he cooks a common chicken. But he also admits to kitchen coasts, such as the family -cooked birds of the family – “dangerously moist” – and after an evening disaster disaster once outsourcing a dessert to a Turkish restaurant.
The great has philosophy
What does good food mean for big?
“I think it could only be love. I think good food for me is not necessarily about what is on the plate. It is the common experience. It is the people around them. It’s the way you feel like you on that day.”
With every smoky kebab, every honest conversation and every page of his new book, Big has shown that the best meal is especially eating with heart.
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