Acknowledgements

Travelling around unfamiliar countries - especially when one doesn’t speak the language - means that one is greatly dependent on the help and generosity of others. During our recent trip to Turkey there were three special people in whose capable hands we placed our trust: Sedat Arpelik, Tara Hopkins and Emine Serin. Without their boundless enthusiasm for our project and their unwavering support and hard work - before, during and after our journey - we would not have been able to achieve so very much and with such consummate ease.

While we were in Turkey there were many wonderful people who provided us with assistance and hospitality, who fed us their favourite dishes and shared recipes and stories with us. We would especially like to thank Engin Akin, Erkut Aldeniz, Burhan Çada, Musa and Zeynep Dadeviren, Jean Dunn, Osman Demiröz, Aydin Guney, Ali Haydar, Filiz Hösukolu, Taner Öütolu, Nurten Özkeçeci, Murat Özgüler, Bayran Sariba, Timur and Dila Schindel, brahim Soukda, Ayfer Unsal, Halil and Mehmet Usta, Dilek Yeni, Hatice Yildirim - heartfelt thanks! You all helped to make our journey memorable and showed us a Turkey we’d never even dreamt existed.

In Australia there are other people who have contributed to Turquoise in varied ways. Pat Thurgood was the first person to share her enthusiasm for Turkey with us and she made us long to get there to experience the country for ourselves! During the frantic weeks of research and preparation for the trip, Pat showered us with books and travel ideas and, perhaps most importantly, introduced us to Sed.

Sincere thanks, too, to Simone Watts, who worked so hard helping us to test the recipes and cook the dishes that were photographed for the book. And thanks, too, to Brooke Payne for helping us pull it all together on the last day.

We were very lucky to be able to use Melbourne’s Fenix restaurant as a stunning location for the food photography. Grateful thanks to Raymond Capaldi for opening the doors to us and for looking after us all so graciously and generously; thanks, too, to the Fenix staff for being so long-suffering in the face of our invasion!

We are hugely grateful to the boys at Largo Butchers, to John and George at Ocean Made, to Elias Farah at the A1 Middle Eastern Bakery, to Sabit from Istanbul Butchers and to Maria at Essential Ingredient. Thank you for your generosity in providing us with such outstanding produce.

Other Melbourne people who helped by lending us equipment and props for the food photography were Bliink Interiors, Colours of Provence, Cranfields, Dinosaur Designs, Minimax, Perfect Pieces, Steptoe’s Renovation Supplies and Lyn Gardener Empire Vintage. Thank you for your kindness. And of course a huge thanks to the wonderful Caroline Velik, who as always did a superb job sourcing props and helping to style the food shots so brilliantly.

We are absolutely delighted by the look of Turquoise, which is due in no small part to the stunning design by Trisha Garner. We were also fortunate to have two talented photographers working with us – Lisa Cohen, whose gorgeous travel photographs really capture the essence of Turkey, and William Meppem, whose beautiful food photography brings Greg’s recipes to life on the page. Thanks, too, to Klarissa Pfisterer and Hamish Freeman for their lovely maps of Turkey and Istanbul.

Once again we have been fortunate to work with the wonderful Hardie Grant team. Thanks to our publisher, Mary Small, for yet again directing the production process with quiet, calm efficiency. And a special thanks to Catherine Cradwick, senior editor, for her enthusiasm, dedication and extraordinary attention to detail. And huge thanks must also go to Tricia Cortese and to Caroline Pizzey for their patience and skilled editing of text and recipes.

And, finally, a few personal thank yous. Greg would like to thank Dean and Geremy Lucas from MoMo restaurant and Steve Frazer from Stones of the Yarra Valley for their continued support. He’d also like to thank his family in Melbourne, and Paul MacDonald, Matteo Pignatelli and Raymond Capaldi for their love and friendship over the years, and especially during the months that Turquoise was being created. Lucy would like to thank all three generations of the Rushbrooke family in England for looking after the travellers at the start of the journey. She also thanks her very own ‘Mr Average’ for being her touchstone and for sharing the journey. Friends … family … where would we be without you?