Mehmet Yalçınkaya: the Bolu-born chef behind MYK, Alaz and MasterChef Türkiye
Mehmet Yalçınkaya is one of the best-known chefs in Turkey. Born in Bolu in 1974, a province Turks have long called the land of cooks, he has worked in professional kitchens for more than three decades, and since 2018 he has been one of the judges on MasterChef Türkiye, the country’s version of the cookery competition, broadcast on TV8.
His importance goes beyond television. Yalçınkaya is often described as one of the first chefs to bring fusion cooking to Turkey, pairing Turkish classics with seasonal, regional produce. His 2021 book Denizden (“From the Sea”) made a case for treating fish with more care, and his Ankara restaurant Alaz looks back to the nomadic food culture that runs from Central Asia into Anatolia.
Early life and career
Bolu and an early start
According to a Habertürk profile, Yalçınkaya started cooking at the age of 12 in his uncle’s kitchen, finished school in 1988 and began working professionally that same year. He later studied at the Istanbul Culinary Academy (İstanbul Yemek Akademisi) in 2004. The Hürriyet Daily News describes him as born into a Yörük family – the Yörüks being the Turkic nomadic herders of Anatolia – a heritage that shapes his Ankara restaurant, Alaz.
Hotels, banquets and work abroad
Before he was a familiar face on screen, Yalçınkaya worked as head chef at hotels and restaurants in Istanbul and Bodrum, including running the kitchen of the Wyndham Grand Istanbul Kalamış Marina Hotel. He also took on gastronomy and kitchen co-ordination roles abroad, with work in France, Italy, Qatar, Germany and Greece. In 2005 an American gourmet magazine featured him as a “trend chef”, and in 2007 he developed a personalised service concept for banquets in Turkey.
In 2010 he led gastronomy workshops organised for Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and he has cooked gala dinners at international events including the Berlin Film Festival and the ITB tourism fair in Berlin.
MasterChef Türkiye
When MasterChef Türkiye returned to the screen on TV8 in 2018, Yalçınkaya joined the judging panel alongside Hazer Amani and Somer Sivrioğlu. Danilo Zanna replaced Amani from 2019, and Yalçınkaya has stayed on the panel through later seasons. Read our profile of Hazer Amani for more on the 2018 line-up.
Restaurants
MYK Restoran, Istanbul
MYK Restoran sits on Atatürk Caddesi in Yeşilköy, on Istanbul’s European side. According to Mes Prestiges, the menu mixes fusion dishes with traditional Turkish and international cooking and changes with the seasons, using regional produce. Starters have included lakerda (salt-cured bonito) with red onion and beet leaf, and an apple cacık (a yoghurt dip) made with green apple and hot pepper.
MYK Gastro Arena, Istanbul
Yalçınkaya is the founder of MYK Gastro Arena, a professional cookery school and gastronomy centre in Istanbul. In a talk to gastronomy students at Istanbul Gelişim University in 2023 he said Turkish cuisine needs far more recognition abroad, and urged the industry to open Turkish restaurants in cities around the world, raise quality, use social media well and take part in international fairs and festivals.
Alaz, Ankara
Alaz opened in Ankara in 2025. Its name refers to a fire that burns from within, and the Hürriyet Daily News described a kitchen built around open fire, used for cooking, smoking and drying. The menu traces nomadic food memory from Central Asia to Anatolia: an Anatolian-style pastrami of beef brisket cured with 14 spices and cooked over a wood fire for eight days; cızlama, a layered take on bazlama flatbread with leek, onion and Bolu black squash; and morels stuffed with bulgur and served with buffalo yoghurt.
Cooking style and signature dishes
Three threads run through Yalçınkaya’s cooking. The first is fusion: he was one of the early Turkish chefs to combine local dishes with techniques and ideas from abroad, and his Istanbul menu still plays with classics such as cacık. The second is the sea. Denizden is organised into traditional, modern, surf-and-turf, creative and fermented sections, and its stated aim is to restore the reputation of fish on the Turkish table.
The third is fire and heritage. At Alaz the food draws on the nomadic Yörük culture he grew up with, using long curing, smoking and wood-fire cooking in a way that will feel familiar to anyone who loves a charcoal Adana kebab or ızgara köfte (grilled meatballs).
Awards and recognition
- 2005: featured as a “trend chef” by an American gourmet magazine.
- 2008: bronze in the A category at the IKA Culinary Olympics in Germany.
- 2012: as director of the Turculina team, finished second at the Culinary Olympics.
- 2018: Best Chef at the Türkiye Lezzet Ödülleri (Türkiye Taste Awards), decided by public vote (Habertürk).
Books, TV and online
His first book, Denizden, was published by Alfa Yayınları and launched in July 2021 with a chef’s table dinner on Cunda Island, off the coast of Ayvalık. As the Posta newspaper reported, it contains 84 recipes and a short film made with Cunda’s fishermen, and carries a warning from the chef that hamsi (anchovies) could disappear from Turkish tables within 50 years if fishing is not managed more carefully. If you want to try the dish he worries about, start with our hamsi tava recipe.
On television he is best known as a MasterChef Türkiye judge on TV8, a role he has held since the 2018 season.
Where to eat food like this in London
For the fish-first cooking of Denizden, browse our Turkish seafood restaurants and our guide to Turkish seafood restaurants in London. For fire and grilled meats closer to the spirit of Alaz, try the ocakbaşı grill listings, or the meze and fine dining pages for more modern Turkish plates. To cook at home, our levrek buğulama (steamed sea bass) is a good place to begin.
- The Midyeci – Turkish meyhane in Dalston & Stoke Newington
- Sarıyer Balık – Turkish meyhane in Newington Green
- Filika Restaurant Wanstead – Turkish meze & fine dining in Wanstead
- Midye & Kokoreç Garden – Turkish seafood in Edmonton
See all 4 Seafood (Balık) places in London
Quick facts
- Born: 1974, Bolu, Turkey
- Known for: judging MasterChef Türkiye (TV8) since 2018; early fusion cooking in Turkey
- Restaurants: MYK Restoran (Yeşilköy, Istanbul) and Alaz (Ankara, opened 2025)
- Founder of: MYK Gastro Arena, a cookery school and gastronomy centre in Istanbul
- Book: Denizden (Alfa Yayınları, 2021)
Further reading
- Habertürk: Mehmet Yalçınkaya kimdir? (in Turkish)
- Hürriyet Daily News: review of Alaz, Ankara (May 2025)
- Posta: Mehmet Yalçınkaya’s book Denizden (in Turkish)
- Istanbul Gelişim University: Chef Mehmet Yalçınkaya met with gastronomy students
- Wikipedia: MasterChef Turkey
Pictured: hamsi tava. Photo: E4024, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
