Refika Birgül: the cook who took Turkish home cooking to YouTube
Refika Birgül is an Istanbul cook, food writer and television presenter, and the face of Refika’s Kitchen, the English-language YouTube channel she started in 2020 to share Turkish cooking techniques with the rest of the world. Her Turkish-language channel, Refika’nın Yemek Okulu (Refika’s Cooking School), has been running since February 2017 and has more than 2.6 million subscribers, according to her website.
She is not a restaurant chef, and that is the point. Birgül’s work is about home cooking: seasonal produce, local ingredients and centuries-old techniques, adapted for modern kitchens. She reaches people through books, television, newspaper columns and her online channels, all of them aimed at the home cook rather than the professional.
Early life and career
Education
Birgül was born in Istanbul on 19 May 1980 (Wikipedia). She went to Robert College, the American school in Istanbul, then took a psychology degree at Koç University and later studied leadership at London Business School.
From arts and health management to food
Food was not her first career. Her website says she worked at the !F Istanbul Independent Film Festival and at İKSV, the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, and then spent about six years as a senior executive and general manager at Özel Doğan Hospital. After that she followed a personal pull towards cooking and founded Refika’nın Mutfağı (Refika’s Kitchen). Since 2010 she has worked as a columnist, television host and cookbook author (Refika’nın Mutfağı).
Restaurants
Birgül does not run a restaurant. Her base is her own food business, Refika’nın Mutfağı, which lists an address in Kuzguncuk, a neighbourhood on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus (Refika’nın Mutfağı).
Refika’nın Mutfağı, Kuzguncuk, Istanbul
The Refika’nın Mutfağı website is a recipe site and shop, and the home of her cooking school, Refika’nın Yemek Okulu, and a programme called Yemek Okulu Pro.
Refika’dan and Börek Prodüksiyon
In 2013 she co-founded Refika’dan (“from Refika”), which sells kitchen products and supports local craftspeople. She also co-founded Börek Prodüksiyon, a production company that makes her own projects and food content for brands. The name is a nod to börek, the filled pastry made with thin sheets of dough that is a mainstay of Turkish home baking.
Cooking style and signature dishes
Birgül’s focus is Turkish home cooking rather than restaurant technique. Her first book, published in 2010, was bilingual and titled Refika’nın Mutfağı / Cooking New Istanbul Style (Wikipedia), which sums up the approach: traditional Turkish food, cooked the way people in Istanbul cook it now. Her website frames the wider aim in similar terms: taking seasonal produce, local ingredients and old techniques and making them work for a broad audience in a modern kitchen.
Her most recent book is Miras: Türk Mutfağı Teknikleri 1 (Heritage: Turkish Cuisine Techniques, volume 1), published in 2025. Her website describes it as a technique-focused reference on Turkish cuisine based on about nine years of research; it had reached a third edition by 2026.
Books, TV and online
- Books – six cookbooks since 2010, according to her website, starting with Refika’nın Mutfağı / Cooking New Istanbul Style (2010) and including Miras: Türk Mutfağı Teknikleri 1 (2025).
- Television – three TV programmes, according to her website, the latest being the 2026 Ramadan series Refika’yla Özlediğimiz Ramazanlar on NOW TV; Wikipedia also lists her cookery show Mucize Lezzetler (Miracle Tastes).
- Newspaper – a weekly column in Hürriyet’s Saturday edition for seven years.
- YouTube – Refika’nın Yemek Okulu in Turkish (since 2017) and Refika’s Kitchen in English (since 2020).
Where to eat food like this in London
The closest you will get to Birgül’s kind of cooking in London is a good lokanta or home-cooking restaurant (a lokanta serves ready-cooked everyday dishes) or one of the city’s Turkish bakeries and börek shops. Or cook it yourself: our five easy Turkish recipes are a good start, followed by our menemen (eggs scrambled with tomatoes and peppers), red lentil soup and sigara böreği (crisp cheese-filled pastry rolls). If you would rather someone else made the menemen, our guide to Turkish breakfast in London has you covered.
- Stratford Best Meze Grill – Turkish home cooking in Stratford
- Esnaf Lokantası – Turkish home cooking in Enfield
- Çorba Dünyası – Turkish home cooking in Edmonton
- Hanımeli – Turkish gözleme & mantı in Dalston & Stoke Newington
- Haringey Çorbacısı – Turkish home cooking in Harringay & Green Lanes
- Beyti Ocakbaşı – Turkish home cooking in Newington Green
See all 15 Home Cooking (Lokanta) places in London
Quick facts
- Born: 19 May 1980, Istanbul
- Based in: Kuzguncuk, Istanbul
- Educated: Robert College; Koç University (psychology); London Business School
- Known for: Refika’s Kitchen and Refika’nın Yemek Okulu on YouTube
- Businesses: Refika’nın Mutfağı, Refika’dan, Börek Prodüksiyon
- Latest book: Miras: Türk Mutfağı Teknikleri 1 (2025)
Further reading
- About Refika Birgül – Refika’nın Mutfağı
- Refika Birgül – Wikipedia
- Refika’nın Mutfağı – official website
- Refika’s Kitchen – YouTube channel
Pictured: menemen. Photo: E4024, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
