About Chef

I grew up in a large Turkish family where the kitchen was the center of daily life. I was raised mostly in my grandmother’s kitchen, where food was never rushed and almost nothing came from a package. Turkish people eat seasonally, grow produce when possible, and preserve what they make — drying peppers, fermenting vegetables, rolling dough by hand. That way of cooking shaped me long before I understood it as cuisine.

Although I originally considered a career in hospitality management, I was always drawn back to cooking. I eventually moved to Istanbul to study at the Culinary Arts Academy, where I learned classical technique while also studying the layered history of the city. Istanbul is a crossroads — Byzantine, Ottoman, and modern — and its food reflects that complexity. Turkish cuisine is not one thing; it is a convergence of regional traditions, influenced by Central Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. That understanding still guides my cooking.

After culinary school, I came to the United States and worked across different kitchens, including time in San Francisco and Seattle. I cooked in fine-dining restaurants, worked in large-scale kitchens, and even spent time cooking for Google. Each experience taught me something different — efficiency, discipline, consistency — but I missed the intimacy of cooking food that had a direct connection to culture and people.

Eventually, I decided to invest in myself. I bought a mobile kitchen unit and moved to Oregon, settling in Cottage Grove. Phat Türk became my way of returning to the kind of cooking I grew up with — simple food made carefully, from scratch, with respect for tradition and place. I run the kitchen myself. On any given day, I am the dishwasher, the prep cook, the chef, and the cashier. That closeness to the food and to the guests is intentional.

The menu at Phat Türk is focused and rooted in Turkish home cooking and street food. Lentil soup simmered gently with aromatics, handmade mercimek köfte shaped by hand, house-made lavas bread and kebabs seasoned simply to let the meat speak for itself. I use Turkish spices alongside local Oregon produce whenever possible. Everything is made in small batches, with attention to texture, balance, and restraint.

For me, my kitchen is a portal. I want people in Oregon — many of whom have never eaten Turkish food — to experience something honest and familiar at the same time. Turkish cuisine is generous, locally sourced meats, vegetable-forward, and deeply connected to daily life. It doesn’t rely on excess; it relies on care.

Phat Türk is not about scale or speed. It is about preserving a culinary language and translating it respectfully into a new place. I believe good food doesn’t need to be complicated to be meaningful — it needs to be cooked with intention, memory, and responsibility.

                                                    Chef Seymen Cagirgan