TERROIR

Tola’s kitchen is shaped by the terroir of Bursa and its surrounding regions, working closely with local producers and seasonal, additive-free ingredients. For us, an ingredient is never evaluated only by the way it arrives in the kitchen, but together with its soil, climate, altitude and producer.

Our own fields, which nourish the kitchen, are located in Bilecik at an altitude of nearly 1,000 meters. One of the most valuable parts of this heritage is the heirloom tomato seed passed down from Chef Atakan Özen’s great-grandmother, whose tomatoes continue to shape the sauces prepared in the kitchen throughout the year.

In our own fields, we cultivate tomatoes, borlotti beans, dried beans, green beans, onions, spring onions and walnuts. We also source chickpeas from Sivrihisar, blueberries and grapes from İznik, peppers from Yenişehir, red onions and herbs from Karacabey, raspberries, blackberries, Deveci pears and wild strawberries from Kestel, and artichokes from Yenişehir, Hasanağa and Aydın.

Our kitchen is further supported by livestock farming from the Yenişehir plains of Bursa and the Göbel region of Balıkesir. We exclusively use wild sea fish, while octopus and squid are sourced from Çanakkale, and shrimp from Karabiga and Urla Özbek.

At Tola, every ingredient carries the memory of the geography it comes from. Our role is to translate that memory onto the table through contemporary techniques and thoughtful interpretation.