Discovering A Love of Food with Serin Celik - No. 24
And more on cooking to share your home, away from home.
Welcome to Just Peachy! If you haven’t already, please subscribe to receive a monthly smile—in the form of my newsletter hitting your inbox on the first Tuesday of each month. Included in each letter are sweet, juicy…sometimes sticky? (I’m out of adjectives to describe a peach) stories from women and non-binary people in food. These are chefs, restauranteurs, farmers, and creatives—all with unique, nerdy-passionate opinions to share.
Happy New Year, Friends! Before sharing my interview with Serin, I wanted to address the blog’s name change, reaal quickly.
If you’re already subscribed, you’ve seen the evolution of this blog and will understand immediately that my original intent (and name) no longer matches the content.
If you’re new to Just Peachy, you should know that I began this blog just a couple of weeks before my first job as a line cook. When I began writing, I was bartending and cooking at home—I knew I wanted to share my interest in food and nutrition, but wasn’t sure how. Vegarie was created as a place to share my vegetarian recipes, talk about how to select quality produce, make jokes, that sort of thing. After I began cooking professionally, I realized there were a lot of issues within the kitchen that customers aren’t privy to; such as the lack of women—although it’s improving!—or pay gaps between front and back of house, or lack of affordable healthcare, and so on. I was reassured by positive feedback from others in the industry when I shared these pieces and began hearing about the creative ways other women were connecting to food, too. My curiosity and love for these conversations got the best of me, and I decided not only did I want to meet these badass women, but that celebrating their accomplishments could actively help change what this industry looks like.
So! Now, under the name Just Peachy, I hope to continue sharing stories from passionate women and non-binary people in food; their struggles, their favorite things about the industry, and more importantly, the things they love to do outside of food that inspire them on the job. I hope the stories make you laugh, smile, cry, drool…all at the same time. Mostly, I hope you learn something you didn’t already know, whether it be about the passions of others, the intimacy of working with your hands, or the ways you can relate to someone in food, even if you don’t work within it yourself. Follow along with me in this new year to see how it continues to evolve, I’m so excited to have you!
Who is Serin Celik
Serin Celik is a New York City-based chef, originally from Istanbul Turkey. I met her through Cervo’s, where she also got her start just one year before me. The first thing you should know about Serin is that she’s one of those people who inconceivably knows everyone. Not only does Serin know every person I come across in our community, but they all speak of her in high regard. Serin is a wonderful human and an even better cook. All of which made me happy to hear that she is the new sous chef at Hart's, Cervos' sister restaurant.
*side note— this interview occurred in September. At this time, Serin was working full-time with the pop-up LEV, and Serin had not begun at Hart’s, which is why we didn’t touch on it during this chat.
When did you first discover your love of food?
Growing up in Turkey, Serin’s parents filled the house with guests to cook for. Her mom is an excellent cook and taught her from a young age to cook or bake to keep her mind busy. “Our play time was playing with doughs,” which inevitably inspired her first job as a baker in Istanbul during her sophomore year of high school. For Serin, getting the whole picture and working as a server at a cafe in the following years holistically sold her on the industry.
“I remember one day when it was busy in the coffee shop, I was running around, and an old woman grabbed my arm and asked, ‘Honey, how old are you?’ and I said, 'I’m 17!' and she just gasped. She gushed, ‘You’re amaaazing.’ I don’t know, that’s just when I remember being hooked. I love this industry.”
Still, a main point of Serin's love of cooking is connecting with guests. Serin remembers this as her favorite part of working for Gem, a pre-fixe restaurant in the city. Here, due to the structure and pacing of the menu, she was often able to deliver plates and interact with tables. “There’s a saying about seafood in Turkish that goes, ‘I’ll eat anything from the sea, even if it’s my dad,’” she grinned, as she recounted telling a table that one day, when the customers were enjoying their fish. “They just cackled. It was one of my favorite moments at Gem.”
What do you do outside of cooking that inspires you?
Serin originally came to New York to attend the New School for Culture and Media Studies, loving design and thought of working creatively within these subjects. After arriving, she discovered that they also had a lot of courses in food studies and found a passion for writing. She still loves to write and draw when she has the chance.
What was it like working for LEV’s pop-up?
LEV is a pop-up mainly based in NYC, serving Israeli cuisine from the shared background of both chefs. Growing up in Jerusalem, they carry the culinary traditions of both Jewish immigrants and Palestinians. Outside of the tasty food and representation of culture, LEV is unique for the deep sense of memory and emotion that their practices create. Serin said at first, they bonded over Turkey; her home sharing familiar practices and flavors to theirs. She also began to love the loose structure of working for a pop-up, telling me, “You don’t have a schedule. You wait for a text that week asking if you're free. And your best chance is to make yourself available. It's still one of the best experiences I've had working in food.”
Some events with LEV were in homes, which Serin says felt like cozy housewarming events. They also did small weddings, and in the summer, they took over an apartment in Brooklyn and held block parties on a semi-regular basis. There was always a line around the block. Serin loved that the casual nature of the events allowed her to interact with more than just the food. With LEV, she could chat with the guests, a privilege that most line cooks or bakers never get the chance to experience, usually too busy to leave the kitchen or turn around to see who is enjoying their food.
Also, “it’s just the type of food I love,” she explains, “fresh and delicious bites. Simple.” At their last pop-up (again, this was at the end of summer), they had a watermelon station with unequal cubes of melon that were salted and topped with fresh herbs. There was a station with a fennel, ricotta, and anchovy dish, a mango slushie station--which drained the juice from fresh mango in a tightly bound cheesecloth, dripping into a bowl below. They would serve it over ice and top it with whipped cream. There were radishes, served whole next to tahini pools and zaatar, cabbage rolls topped with feta.
When you’re missing home, what do you cook?
“Rice. Turkish rice, where you rinse and toast it without oil until it gets crispy. Once it’s crispy, you add oil and salt, and then boiling water on top.” Serin also loves mezzes, which she explains as olive oil-based dishes made for sharing. These may be familiar to anyone who loves Mediterranean food as they are featured in Israeli, Turkish, and Moroccan menus, to name a few. Her favorites include eggplant, okra, chickpeas, or tomato, and even one with cranberry beans cooked with cinnamon and onion.
What would you love to do next?
Serin dreams of hosting a supper club. She wants to share her mezzes and make memories, creating a space where people can relax and bond over food.