A special kind of cook off

The Bağcılar Municipality in Istanbul will host an international cooking competition at the special municipal center "Engelliler Sarayı" (Palace for the Disabled) for people with disabilities on Saturday. Sixty participants from 13 countries including Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tunisia, Macedonia, Egypt, Qatar, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Turkey have been invited to the competition. The competition jury will evaluate the cooking skills of disabled competitors. Winners will be presented with a "Golden Cooking Pot World Award."

The event is being organized in collaboration with Turkey's Family and Social Policies Ministry, Turkey's Culture and Tourism Ministry and the Bağcılar Municipality. The jury will be chaired by a gastronomy lecturer and Turkey's National Cooking Team Coach Esat Özata, Euro-Toques (European Community for Chefs) President Daniel Rameu, AŞPAPED (Chefs and Pastry Chefs Federation) President Ümit Yüksel, Chief Chef of Istanbul Conrad Hotel Alex Atlamazoğlu, Karaköy Gülloğlu Baklava Pastry CEO Nadir Güllü, cooking book author Meltem Açıkel and Hacı Abdullah Restaurant Manager Abdullah Korun. The competition will be presented by İnci Ertuğrul and Esat Özata. Bağcılar Mayor Lokman Çağrıcı said that it is not possible to sustain peace in a region where people with disabilities are not happy. The special center offers professional courses such as cooking training sessions for people with disabilities. "Trainees are very successful and have a profession once they complete their education here. The center provides them with the opportunity to meet employers," he said. People with visual, audial, mental, speech and orthopedic impairment can attend relevant courses at the center, which will contribute positively to their social life. "They can earn a living although they have a disability," Çağrıcı concluded.