Fatih Tutak

The Climb

Bolu Mengen Culinary School gave Fatih Tutak his first formal grounding before he moved through a series of kitchens that demanded precision, pace, and control. The education started in school, but the real training was cumulative: each stage added a different discipline to the same question of how a cuisine can move forward without losing its core. His professional path began as apprentice under Paul Pairet in Turkey, then continued as chef at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, Nihonryori Ryugin in Tokyo, and Noma in Copenhagen. Those roles widened the frame around technique and execution, while keeping the same pressure on the work: how to carry a cuisine’s essence across contexts and still make it legible in a new setting. Between 2015 and 2017, Fatih Tutak was Head Chef at The Dining Room of The House of Sathorn in Bangkok, then Director of Culinary Operations there from 2017 to 2019. The shift from leading the kitchen to directing its wider operation marked a move from line-level precision to broader responsibility, with the same emphasis on coherence.

Today

Since 2019, Tutak has been owner and chef at TURK Fatih Tutak in Istanbul, Turkey. The restaurant is the direct expression of his stated method: Reinterpreting Turkish cuisine through research, curiosity and new techniques, while keeping the roots and traditions intact. Istanbul matters here because it is both birthplace and base. Born there on 31 August 1985, Fatih Tutak works from the same city he came from, but the point is not return for its own sake. At TURK Fatih Tutak, the work is to examine inherited material closely, then put it back into circulation in a contemporary register. The title owner and chef signals total responsibility for the room and the line. In Fatih Tutak’s case, that responsibility extends beyond menu authorship to the entire language of the restaurant, where heritage is not treated as an endpoint but as a working method.

Signature

Fatih's signature dishes include From my Mom. The name alone places the dish close to family memory, but it is also specific enough to show the kind of frame he works in: intimate reference, handled through restaurant language. That balance between inheritance and reinvention runs through the rest of his cooking.

In Their Words “Without falling away from our morals, by using the products from our geography, we are creating a new alphabet for Turkish cuisine and reinterpreting the tastes we are familiar to, in a modern, elegant and simple way.” “Researching, being curious and developing new techniques constantly, is the summary of our philosophy.” Read together, the statements set out the method plainly: stay with the morals, work with products from our geography, and build a new alphabet for Turkish cuisine without losing contact with what is already familiar. The language is direct, but the position is exacting.

Recognition

Fatih's honors include Michelin Guide two stars (2023), Best Chef Winner (2020), Best Restaurant Winner (2020), Michelin Plate (2018), Best 43rd Restaurant (2018), and Best 36th Restaurant (2017). Taken in order, the awards chart the growing visibility of a chef whose work has been recognized across several years. What the list points to is consistency: a practice built on rigor, curiosity, and a steady insistence on keeping Turkish cuisine rooted while giving it a new form.