As Erdoganmania loses pace, Al-Monitor asked over the course of four weeks in July and August more than 200 people from Ankara and Istanbul what would be the most memorable legacy of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Most answers were about politics, yet a significant number of those informally surveyed suggested the spread of “Black Sea culture and cuisine” as the most pleasant legacy of Erdogan.

Although born and raised in Istanbul, Erdogan’s ancestral roots are in Rize, a northeastern province on the Black Sea coast. The region with steep mountains receives high levels of rain and has limited fertile land that can be cultivated.

This has led to emigration. Yet until the last decade, there were only a few restaurants specializing in Black Sea dishes in Istanbul despite the heavy population of Black Sea emigrants. Almost all of these Black Sea restaurants were offering Akcaabat Kofte (meatballs from the town of Akcaabat) or Karadeniz pide (a calzone-like dish with cheese, meat or a combination of both). Although pide and kebabs are still popular, international kitchens (Chinese, Japanese, Indian restaurants can be easily found) and domestic regional cuisines — sometimes known as the kitchens of the Ottoman Empire — are mushrooming all around Istanbul. The trend started in the late 1990s with Greek Aegean cuisine; then we observed southeastern (Kurdish) meals and desserts taking over the city. Now, the latest craze is more of “home-cooked” meals served in fine-dining restaurants with regional themes. Hence, Black Sea music, sitcoms featuring families with Laz accents running home to cook, catering businesses and eateries are fashionable.

Why did it take so long for Black Sea migrants to open up restaurants with their home-cooked meals? Serhan Can, a baker from the Camlihemsin region of Rize, told Al-Monitor, “In this area, there are two prominent ethnic groups: the Hemsin and Laz peoples. There are others as well, Turks, Georgians, Circassians, but the Hemsin and Laz peoples are the most prominent. The Hemsin people are known for their skills with pastry. They have been trained in Russia and stand out in this business. So almost all the first pastry shops opened in any major city in Turkey are from Hemsin. However, they did not announce themselves as Hemsinli. Today, we see bakeries from Rize, Trabzon and others in Istanbul. But Black Sea pastries were in the mainstream and in the upscale Turkish dining scene already for decades.”