Emre Inanir

Coming Up

Since 2023, Emre Inanir has held the Executive Chef role at Tuğra Restaurant in Istanbul, Turkey, where Ottoman and Turkish cuisine is carried into a contemporary service context. The appointment places him in a kitchen shaped by palace memory, seasonal produce, and the changing geography of the Bosphorus, with the work resting on precision, restraint, and the handling of inheritance in real time.

Where They Are Now

At Tuğra Restaurant, the kitchen frame is as important as the title: an Ottoman-facing Turkish dining room in Istanbul, where history is handled as daily practice rather than display. Emre Inanir works within that setting through textures, flavor, and atmosphere that keep the past active on the plate. The menu sits inside a lineage that runs from court cooking to waterside Istanbul and rural Ottoman memory, with Emre Inanir's own hand holding the balance. That kind of layering gives the cuisine its shape: tradition remains legible, but it is not frozen, moving forward through shifts in balance, temperature, and contrast.

In Their Words “We call this zucchini-flower lalangı, because in Ottoman cuisine lalanga means crisping or making something crunchy.” “We mix it with buffalo yogurt and combine it with fresh sea bass.” The kitchen logic in these lines is plain: etymology, technique, and composition are all working at once. The dish moves through crunch, acidity, and creaminess, with fresh sea bass set against buffalo yogurt in a deliberate texture contrast.

Honors

Emre Inanir's honors include Michelin Guide recommendation and Gault & Millau 3 Şapka Ödülü. The recognition places his work within the wider trade conversation and points to a kitchen that understands its source material and executes it with discipline.