A constantly fully booked restaurant with almost 90 seats, a good 14 hours of work a day between the stove and the office, a big heart, good humor and even more good taste: that's Elif Oskan, the Turkish-born chef who, at just 30 years old, successfully runs her own restaurant and welcomes every new opportunity to grow and learn. In her beautifully decorated restaurant Gül, dishes inspired by Turkish tradition from the rich Anatolian cuisine, which are almost unbeatable in their lightness, imagination and zest for life, are served. Meals are shared from colorful ceramics. Mussels filled with rice and crunchy pomegranate, mini bulgur dumplings with buffalo milk yogurt, mint and nut butter, lahmacun – all inspired by the land where milk and honey flow – right in District 4. The fiery central organs and absolute heart of the kitchen are the charcoal grill and the charcoal oven. On a late summer evening in the cozy, enchanting courtyard, it's easy to forget that you're in the middle of the "Chreis Cheib" between Langstrasse and Kanonengasse. Elif does not have a classic family gastronomic background; she grew up in District 2 of Zurich in a Kurdish-Turkish family where the love of food and cooking was always a topic, but her parents' enthusiasm for her idea of pursuing a "man's profession" was limited. After a classic culinary apprenticeship at the Seehotel Sonne in Küsnacht, she landed at Restaurant Mesa with Marcus G. Lindner, before working as Chef de Partie Pâtisserie at the world-famous London restaurant The Fat Duck with Heston Blumenthal, and with Dominique Persoone at The Chocolate Line in Belgium, only to delight us – back in Zurich – with a dessert catering service. After several pop-ups, each of which was the "talk of the town," and Rosi's, her first own restaurant, she opened Gül (Turkish for rose) at the beginning of 2019. "People come to our restaurant because they feel harmony; we want to create a place of balance that enables encounters at eye level and promotes community. I demand a lot, but I also give a lot. For all the details to be right," says the person born under the sign of Cancer, who officially trusts her gut feeling and values empathy more than technique. "For me, quality counts a lot more than quantity – I would always rather forgo dinner than eat badly. And I'd rather spend more on a perfect pair of trousers than make a compromise." On the sidelines of our photoshoot, an open conversation quickly develops with Michael Hahnloser about the beauty of Zurich as a location, the increasing change in consumer values and the simultaneously growing demands of a digitalized society – the two conclude: The most important thing in all services is and remains to meet people humanely, which every guest and customer deserves one hundred percent – after all, cooking, eating and shopping are all about enjoyment and pleasure. We look forward to more conversations – over delicacies from the charcoal oven, which can be eaten with your hands, in a well-fitting pair of trousers that are guaranteed to last longer than one season. Our insider tip, by the way, is Sunday brunch.
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