Food

This Week in Isabella: Chef Mike Goes to Istanbul (Video)

Watch our traveling toque as he chats with Turkish people and samples some local cuisine.

Mike Isabella: fan of menemen. Photograph by Dakota Fine.

Another week, another opportunity to learn what Mike Isabella has been up to. This morning, Eater DC led us to this YouTube video—posted by the United States Consulate of Istanbul on September 10—in which our intrepid hero chats it up with food bloggers, chefs, and other culinary types in Turkey.

As we learned last week, the trip to Greece and Turkey was originally planned as a research venture for his forthcoming 14th Street restaurant Kapnos & G. Isabella added the ambassadorial component after being tapped—along with all these chefs—to serve as a culinary diplomat for the State Department.

In the video, we see him discussing his influences and favorite flavor profiles and trying a local egg dish called menemen for Show TV. (Spoiler alert: he likes menemen). Watch!