Three Cocktails

Let me tell you a secret: I’ve mixed more drinks in Turkey than I’ve cooked hot dinners. I was trained as a bartender before I became a chef and, like most of my generation of Turkish hospitality students, I was inspired by the movie Cocktail (starring Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown). I found mixing drinks with ‘flair’ was a great way to get tips and to pick up chicks. Then I got serious and added cooking to my repertoire. When I opened my restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Balmain, o