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<\/p>\n<\/span>Galih Richardson<\/span>2 of 4<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span>Galih Richardson<\/span>3 of 4<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span>Galih Richardson<\/span>4 of 4<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span>Galih Richardson<\/span><\/p>\n Hypebeast: When did you first find a passion for cooking and food? <\/strong><\/p>\n Serta\u00e7 Dirik:<\/strong> I grew up working weekends at my family restaurant from around 14. It wouldn\u2019t be accurate to say I developed a passion from a young age because I was mostly working out of punishment. I\u2019d act up and be sentenced to three months of weekend work, and then that transitioned into working for pocket money. Eventually, I dropped out of my design course at university because my brain couldn\u2019t handle a 9-5 job, five days a week, scarred from my late starts and evening shifts. <\/p>\n After two years of working full-time, I felt like a competent grill chef. l wanted to take it to the next level, so I moved to Copenhagen to learn the brutal truths of a \u201chard\u201d kitchen, and I very quickly realized that I didn\u2019t know anything about it. I slogged for two more years playing catch-up with my peers, who were infinitely better than me. Faster, cleaner, more organized. I lost 13 kilos and gained the knowledge I needed to come back to the family restaurant, which by this point was in pretty bad shape \u2014 there was no time to rest. <\/p>\n My brother Ferhat and I put on our rubber gloves and began to scrub and gut the place \u2014 a biblical feat for two guys, but in those moments, we spoke about life, our plans for the restaurant, and all the changes we\u2019d make. It\u2019s actually a miracle I ended up cooking professionally, considering how difficult the last few years have been. For the record, I absolutely love my job.<\/p>\n Tell me about your journey entering the food industry and how this led you to Mangal II.<\/strong><\/p>\n Mangal II was opened by our Dad in 1994, a second to his already successful Mangal Ocakba\u015f\u0131 around the corner on Arcola Street. He was a true craftsman, considered a grill master \u201custa;\u201d he had brought that style of cooking into the UK in the late \u201880s. He is responsible for training hundreds of young Turks who went on to open their own Mangals all over the country. It was truly a marvel to watch him work, moving those skewers on the grill and transferring the coals horizontally, banging off excess fats where necessary \u2014 every evening, he would perform a 5-hour drum solo, and customers got to sit around the grill where he would pass them plates of delicious pieces of lamb. <\/p>\n Our Dad retired young, burnt out from his years on the grill, and Ferhat took the reigns as manager. It was no easy feat, but he held the fort and kept the restaurant running solo. Our Dad popped in now and again, but not at the capacity the restaurant needed him to be. Together, Ferhat and I were able to support each other and fill in the gaps. I realized I wasn\u2019t going to do our Dad\u2019s menu justice and slowly began cutting the dishes down from 74 to 32, put my own specials on, gaged the reactions, and slowly replaced old dishes with new ones. Now, it\u2019s a very different restaurant, but the same soul and energy of the building remain, and we managed to bring it back to life.<\/p>\n How does your work at Mangal II reflect who you are as a chef?<\/strong><\/p>\n I think it was a project that had to be approached with caution, the restaurant is two years older than I am, so tampering with something sacred and beloved was very difficult. I can only best describe it as an out-of-body experience; the project wasn\u2019t about me or what I wanted, and I had to step outside my wants and desires and figure out what the restaurant needed. Yes, it gave me a platform to show who I was because the changes we made drew a lot of attention, but my decisions behind each dish were \u201cWhat\u2019s good for Mangal?\u201d over \u201cWhat\u2019s good for me?\u201d.<\/p>\n How do you see the intersection between fashion and food growing in the future? <\/strong><\/p>\n Mangal II has always had a foot in the world of the arts beyond food being considered a creative craft. A large portion of our guests have been creatives in the arts and fashion. I always felt our restaurant \u2014 being in the location it is, its price point, and the offering it has \u2014 allowed it to be a space where both hungry artists and gourmand eaters could enjoy a meal. There are obvious trends of seeing food popularized in the media with various TV shows and films, but I believe brands reaching out to make meaningful connections with businesses like ours is very cool \u2014 attaching things to something tangible and real should always be celebrated.<\/p>\n ![](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/hypebeast.com\/image\/2023\/10\/sertac-dirik-lee-workwear-is-our-soul-collaboration-feature-interview-2.png\")
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<\/p>\n“I realized I wasn\u2019t going to do our Dad\u2019s menu justice and slowly began cutting the dishes down from 74 to 32.”<\/q><\/p>\n