An early Turkish Republic cookbook

Aşçıbaşı Mahmud Nedim bin Tosun (Tosun, the master chef). Kadın yahud Mükemmel Yemek Kitabı (The Home Chef, or the Perfect Cookbook). Istanbul: [Amedî Matbaası] 1927.  

8vo. 355 pp.; browned throughout; edges deckled; black-and-white illustrated wrappers. Printed in Turkish, Ottoman script, with some French in Roman script.  

Second edition.  

A scarce second edition of this famous Ottoman cookbook, known as “the last page of the Ottoman and the first page of the new Turkish cuisine,” containing hundreds of recipes in the Ottoman language, many of which are accompanied by French titles. Published in the recently created Turkish Republic in 1927, among the varied choices are instructions for starters, soups, meat, and fish dishes (including sole, anchovies, and salmon), vegetables, and eggs, as well as desserts, from sorbets, ice cream, and marzipan to sweets incorporating coffee and fruit. Some of the options require only simple ingredients, meant to be prepared quickly, while the others are more sophisticated, and geared towards professionals. Many of the recipes are accompanied by French titles, which may be due to the fact that the Ottoman language did not have its own names for these dishes yet, many of which were Western in origin.  

Not much is known about the author, Mahmud Nedim bin Tosun, Aşçıbaşı, or “the Master Chef,” as he calls himself. It is estimated that he was born around 1870, as he was a young officer in 1898 and was of Cretan origin. His first work, simply titled Aşçıbaşı (Chef), was published in 1900, and specifically written for soldiers who didn’t know how to cook. In the introduction to this second book, he admits that as a child he helped his mother in the kitchen but adds that he also had read articles which were intended for a female audience, and that they were exceedingly helpful to his profession. The cover art, depicting an aproned woman in a kitchen stirring a pot, may have been inspired by this personal history.  

A very good copy. The first edition (1919) is exceptionally rare, and not listed anywhere in OCLC; this edition is present at Harvard and three other locations outside of the United States.