Turkey boasts one of the world’s most intriguing food cultures, but until recently, the diversity of Turkish food was largely unknown in the UK. We marvelled at the restorative late-night magic of a kebab and the sultry pleasure of taramasalata, but we understood little beyond that. As the bridge between the eastern and western worlds, Turkey has absorbed myriad culinary influences over the last two millennia; it’s a complex patchwork from Istanbul in the east to Diyarbakir in the west. In the same way Andrew Wong opened our eyes to the realities of regional Chinese cuisine for the first time, Selin Kiazim has trailblazed a new path for modern Turkish food, and opened our eyes to its true face.

Selin grew up in Southgate, north London, as the daughter of Turkish Cypriot parents. ‘Mediterranean and Middle Eastern families are famously food-obsessed’ she says. ‘It's definitely one of those cultures where you're eating breakfast and thinking about lunch, then eating lunch and thinking about dinner!’ She has fond memories of waking up to the smell of fried onions at home in London, but also of summer holidays spent with her grandparents in Cyprus. ‘My grandmother and grandfather would wake up at five o’clock in the morning, and go out to the field and tend to the farm and the animals,’ she says. ‘By the time we got up around ten, she’d already made bread and pastries, and tea, and jam – everything you could ask for, and it was all amazing. That’s what I grew up around.’

That upbringing built a foundation in Selin that has served her well over the course of her career, but she had no intention of being a chef growing up; Selin loved TV cooking shows and buried herself in cookbooks, but she always saw cooking as a hobby rather than a potential career. ‘I was put off by the industry,’ she admits. ‘All these long, unsociable hours, and the aggressive atmosphere. I loved cooking but I was scared of hating it.’ Instead, Selin pursued a career in architecture, but she didn’t get very far – she was barely a year into an art foundation course when she realised that she had chosen the wrong path. She finished her art foundation, but then she left, and signed up to the three year culinary arts diploma at Westminster Kingsway College instead.

The merits of culinary school versus kitchen experience are always debated amongst chefs, but for Selin, it was the perfect way to get into the industry. ‘I really loved it,’ she says enthusiastically. ‘My cooking is what it is now because of learning those classical foundations – it’s important to learn the practices of how to treat a piece of fish, a piece of meat, and all the principles.’

Selin took part in a number of competitions whilst she was at college, often winning and getting to travel the globe as part of the prize. It was more for fun than anything else she says, but her last competition at Westminster Kingsway turned out to be a hugely important one – it led fortuitously to her meeting Peter Gordon, a chef who would soon become a huge part of her life. ‘Peter was one of the judges in my last competition,’ she explains. ‘The prize for winning was a trip to New Zealand, so I went out there and got to work with him a little bit in his kitchen.’ The first domino had been nudged, and fate took over from there – Selin took a job working with Peter at The Providores and Tapa Room shortly after and never looked back.

Alongside Peter, Selin thrived and rose up the ranks at The Providores, eventually leaving to help Peter open a new restaurant, Kopapa in Covent Garden. Peter is famous as the godfather of fusion cuisine, and his open-minded approach to flavours rubbed off on his young protégé. ‘His knowledge of food and cookery from around the world is absolutely incredible,’ says Selin. ‘I just allowed myself to be a sponge and soak up as much as I could working with him.

‘I realise now having worked through various kitchens, Peter’s kitchen was so organised and well run – he’s an incredibly meticulous person but I didn’t appreciate at the time how much I was learning in that sense. He’s been a huge influence on my cooking, but also on the way I run my kitchens and my business.’