Türkiye: Real Ingredients, Real Luxury. Casa Lavanda and The Barn

Casa Lavanda: From a Small Family Business to a Michelin-Starred Restaurant and Michelin Key Hotel

Casa Lavanda is a hotel and restaurant that is located approximately 40 kilometers from İstanbul. It is nestled among the greenery of Şile on the Asian side, in harmony with its surroundings. This journey, which began with a house the couple Feryal and Ahmet Şen built on land they purchased to escape the city, has now evolved into a family business where Chef Emre Şen manages the restaurant side, and his sibling Ekin Şen oversees hotel operations. What truly makes this 16-room boutique hotel shine is undoubtedly Emre Şen's kitchen. The restaurant at Casa Lavanda is a testament to the culinary expertise of the chef and his team, who meticulously select ingredients from the vast array of produce cultivated in the on-site gardens and greenhouses, spanning thousands of square meters. These ingredients, including vegetables, fruits, and herbs, are complemented by premium olive oils, fresh seafood, and quality meats sourced from local providers. An extensive wine list also accompanies these flavors.

This kitchen is undoubtedly known for its variety of mushrooms, and there are two reasons for this. First, the area where the hotel is located is a paradise for mushroom hunters. The hotel's regulars, who are offered regular mushroom hunting excursions, already know this and especially use this opportunity during mushroom season to both forage and eat. The second reason is that mushrooms also hold an important place in Chef Emre Şen's personal story. Having worked at Chef Maurilo Garola's Michelin-starred La Ciau del Tornavento in Alba, famous for truffles, the chef has since frequently used truffles and other mushrooms as his signature in his dishes, in their most refined and balanced forms. So, it wouldn't be wrong to say that mushroom lovers in particular must try this place to taste freshly foraged local mushrooms and witness the special uses of precious mushrooms, especially truffles. Another reflection of the Piedmont influence in the chef's background is that agnolotti remains a fixture on his seasonally changing menu. Emre Şen, who fills this pasta with specially produced burrata and mascarpone and serves it with an exquisite sauce made from summer tomatoes grown in his own garden, is aware that both this dish and his use of truffle have become his signature.

Thanks to its combination of freshly foraged ingredients from the fields or garden with cheese, olive oil, meat, and fish from specialized producers, Casa Lavanda has become a leading example of "new luxury." In an era of genuine questioning about ethics, a commitment to sustainability and zero waste is valuable to many consumers. Places like Casa Lavanda, which embrace a "farm-to-table" approach, can manage this process more easily and efficiently—just as they transform waste into compost. However, it's not just the "back end" of the operation; the restaurant's ambiance also supports this "new luxury" understanding. The relaxed elegance of the restaurant, which is situated in a stone buildind, offers you an environment where you can listen to birdsong or rain, reflecting the same philosophy as the plates. What's promised here isn't a flashy decoration or an overly elaborate plate presentation; it's an intimate luxury where everything is refined, everything is real and high-quality, where you'll feel as if you've been invited to visit a close friend's home. Casa Lavanda shines as an ideal escape point with its One Michelin Key rooms, its One Michelin Star kitchen, and its Green Star symbolizing environmental sensitivity.

The Barn: Fusion Cuisine Born in the Heart of a Farm

When you're hosted at a vineyard house and farm spread over a large area in Silivri, one of the outlying regions on İstanbul's European side, what would your expectations be? Fruit trees, the scent of flowers, the eye-pleasing view of lush green vines, perhaps even the sounds of chickens and roosters from a distance... The Barn truly is an oasis where all of this and more come together.

The farm and vineyard house that serves as a boutique hotel, in which The Barn is located, is also a family business. This farm, which emerged from the couple Serpil and İbrahim Akbayır's quest to escape the city and is headed by Özgün Akbayır, has now become a breathing space for others who want to get away from İstanbul's crowds. On the gastronomic side, we encounter an authentic "farm-to-table" restaurant here.

The Barn's kitchen, in harmony with the farm spirit, is entrusted to Chef Buğra Özdemir, whose path first crossed with this place in 2019. Having focused on zero-waste cooking and sustainability while working at Michelin-starred restaurants in Denmark in the 2020s, Özdemir brought this experience to The Barn after returning to Türkiye. Today, this experience allows for the creation of an extraordinary fusion of local ingredients and techniques, French culinary methods as central to gastronomy and Nordic ones as a reflection of the chef's personal background.

In The Barn's kitchen, "local product" primarily refers to produce grown on their own land. The kitchen is self-sustaining 60% of the time in winter and 80% of the time in summer, and most of its ingredients are from Thrace. The kitchen only looks outside of Thrace for famous local cheeses, such as Divle obruk, or products that don't grow in Türkiye, like cocoa and coffee. In fact, even the wine menu features only local wines from Thrace. However, The Barn's distinguishing feature from many other restaurants becomes apparent when it comes to wine: the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes grown in the restaurant's vineyards are turned into wine each year through boutique production of no more than 2,000 bottles.

These wines, which are not sold anywhere else and are reserved as "house wine" for the restaurant's customers only, will be joined by other varieties of wine made entirely from native grapes within two years.

The menu and dishes are proof that Chef Buğra Özdemir's sincere approach to sustainability has turned into a true passion. He prefers an exceptionally refined, precise menu and always gives priority to the products he grows himself because he can control the entire process from seed to plate. The harmony he creates in the kitchen by combining these ingredients with different techniques is reflected in his dishes, which feature clean, clear flavors rather than crowded compositions. Fermented foods, which have recently gained worldwide recognition, frequently appear as the chef's signature dish. To make the most of the spring and summer abundance, the chef ferments surplus products obtained during these seasons and serves them throughout the year. At The Barn, now you can experience two tasting menus, "Spirit of the Farm" and "Heart of the Farm." The restaurant invites you to experience the warmth of farm life, a connection we've longed for since childhood, or perhaps never experienced.

Main image: The BARN, Exterior © Müslüm Bayburs/The BARN