A Father’s Day feast: Istanbul’s art, stories and sweet traditions

Welcome to Al-Monitor Istanbul.

June 15 is celebrated as Father's Day in Turkey, so this is our fathers’ issue — stirred by a recent restaurant and gallery hop with my father, who, at 85, still teaches hospitality business at Ozyegin University. When we go out, students-turned-chefs and hoteliers greet him like visiting royalty, and I tag along as his entourage.

This week, we raise a glass to Istanbul's father figures: the bakers of Kadikoy, the painters of still life and the legacy-leavers with their swords, suitcases, sourdough and symbolism.

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Thanks for reading,

Nazlan

P.S. Have tips on Istanbul’s culture scene? Send them my way at nertan@al-monitor.com.

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1. Leading the week: A feast for the eyes

“Untitled” by Ismet Birsel, a painter and Turkey’s former representative to the Council of Europe. (Photo by Nazlan Ertan)

"Taste and Art: Delicious Paintings," now on view at Turkiye Is Bankasi Museum of Painting and Sculpture, tempts both eye and appetite. Curated by writer and art historian Gul Irepoglu, the show features over 200 works by 90 artists — from Ottoman-era pioneers like Seker Ahmet Pasa to early Republican modernists such as Bedri Rahmi Eyuboglu and Hale Asaf.

The exhibition sprawls across two floors and into themed sections like "Generous Nature," "Blessing from the Sea" and the delightfully wry "Degustation" — a nod to poet Orhan Veli's famous verse about a snobbish lover who wouldn't be caught dead at a tasting let alone a fish market. My father and I wandered through the images of citrus groves, fish markets and raki tables, marveling at how food has seasoned the Turkish artistic imagination (and tried not to make a dash for the museum’s terrace restaurant, Venise de l’Entrecote).

There's urbane elegance in diplomat-painter Ismet Birsel's diners in black tie (above), and rustic intimacy in Nuri Iyem's Anatolian families against the Anatolian landscape (below). "Delicious Paintings" is a visual feast and a summer must.

“Resting in the Fields” by Nuri Iyem. (Photo by Nazlan Ertan)

Location: Turkiye Is Bankasi Museum of Painting and Sculpture, Istiklal Caddesi 144

Dates: Through Aug. 31

2. Word on the street: Beyaz Firin and Brasserie

For Father’s Day. (Photo courtesy of Beyaz Firin website)

Established in 1836 by Kozma Stoyanof, a Macedonian immigrant who started baking simit (Turkish bagels) in Balat, Beyaz Firin is a five-generation story of grit and glaze.

In the 1930s, Kozma's son Dimitri moved the shop to Kadikoy. Dimitri's son Lambo passed it to Mitko Stoyanof, who turned it into a neighborhood patisserie in the 1960s, adding layered cakes, iced cookies and their now-iconic potato Turkish brioche.

Today, Mitko's daughter Nathalie Stoyanof Suda runs the show and the patisseries all around town, balancing legacy and reinvention. The almond cookies, the tahini rolls, and that unsalted, light, nostalgic chickpea cookie still carry the family's flour-dusted signature, but avocado-and-chicken bowls, eggs and a special chocolate line bearing her name are also on offer.

A special Father’s Day Cake is available, too. For those who want to take the story home, Nathalie's illustrated cookbooks offer recipes that are equal parts instruction and inheritance.

3. Istanbul diary

“Flag” by Ramazan Can at G-Art Gallery. (Courtesy of G-Art Gallery)

• At G-Art Gallery, the group exhibition “Everybody Knows…” brings together 16 artists, including Nil Yalter, a pioneer of feminist and migrant narratives who received the Golden Lion of Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale last year, and weaving wizard Ramazan Can. The exhibit, which confronts democracy’s decline and explores art’s role in resisting authoritarian drift, runs through June 28.
• Art On Istanbul's “Summer Selection” opens June 15 at Piyalepasa Carsi with a Father's Day event, featuring artists like Ekin Kano, Erdal Inci and Canan Dagdelen. The group show runs through June 28.
• Turkiye Is Bankasi Museum presents a Father's Day exhibit in its historic Vault Hall (June 14 to July 16), exploring family memories through toys, ties and handwritten notes. Family workshops take place on June 15 — register via issanat.com.tr.
• The Istanbul Music Festival continues through June 24. For Father's Day flair, consider gifting tickets to Fazil Say and Camerata Salzburg (June 14, AKM) or the genre-bending Geneva Camerata (June 18, Zorlu PSM). Info here.