Chef Hüseyin Bölük

He was born in the September of 1977 in Güney, a district of Denizli, in the inner Aegean region of Turkey. He completed his primary and secondary education in Kolay, a village of Bafra in Samsun, in the Black Sea region of Turkey. He started working in the tourism industry in 1995 as a waiter in a three-star hotel in Ankara. Having worked as a waiter in different hotels and restaurants in Ankara and Marmaris for four years, he transitioned to cookery, which he was always interested in, after he completed his military service. He started his culinary career as a commis in İstanbul Radisson SAS Hotel in 2000, and as a result of his six years of service here, he was promoted to chef de partie. Afterwards, Chef Bölük continued his career in Bodrum Kempinski Hotel, where he worked for five years, one and a half years being the executive chef of the hotel.
He worked in the central office of Dedeman Hotels & Resorts International as the corporate chef for two years. Bölük, who established and chaired A la Turka Gastronomy Association within this period of time, was appointed to the captaincy of Turkish National Culinary Team in the meantime. During his two years of captaincy, he represented his country successfully in international competitions organized in many different countries including Culinary Olympics organized in Germany by winning 1 gold, 8 silver and 6 bronze medals in total.
He worked in Hapimag Resort Seagarden Hotel Bodrum, a Swiss chain, as the executive chef for four years. Within this period of time, as a reaction against the all-inclusive system and unconscious consumption, he started a recreative and gastronomic movement called “The Living Cuisine”, which he defined with the words “Every dish has a story, and guests should be made a part of it”, and he took out its patent and trademarked it. Having websites created by the same name both in Turkish and English, Chef Bölük is trying to globally promote “The Living Cuisine” movement, which he started with the aim of making guests a part of the cuisine. For this, he uses all the social media platforms, YouTube being in the first place. One day with the Chef, Chefs’ Challenge, Guests’ Challenge, Live Broadcast, Master Class, Chef’s Table, Paint and Taste, A Fun Gastronomy Day, Cold Appetizer Festival, Breakfast in the Garden, Fashion in Kitchen are among the major activities of “The Living Cuisine”.
After his four years of experience in Hapimag, Chef Bölük worked in Hilton Türkbükü Bodrum Hotel as the executive chef for a year. Bölük, then, continued his career as the executive chef in Rixos Khadisha Shymkent Hotel in Kazakhstan from December 2017 to May 2019. Following this experience, Chef Bölük returned to his country for the Food and Beverage Director position in AJWA Cappadocia, which he defines as a MASTERPIECE. Chef Bölük is thrilled to work for AJWA both because of its project and the philosophy of its investor. Since May 2019, merging the company’s restaurant brand “Zeferan” with his own brand “The Living Cuisine”, Chef Bölük has been continuing his work in order to make Azerbaijani and Turkish Gastronomy culture heard around the world and bring out their forgotten flavors and cultural values with the help of a strong Food and Beverage team that believes in this cause just like himself.
These days, Chef Bölük is bubbling with the sweet excitement of having an opportunity to be able to pass on a legacy for the future, which is in parallel with the philosophy of his investor and that of the company. He has set out on this journey not only to bring out the common values of the Turkic world, which has been consciously othered for centuries, but also to bring together the countries that have the same roots. He feels honored to present The Book of Sherbets to his beloved readers as the first step of the series that he intends to write with the title The Living Cuisine in the Turkic World.
Chef Bölük, who writes columns in online newspapers such as Turizmde Bu Sabah, Turizm Ajansı, Bodrum Kent Rehberi is also a distinguished poet whose works are published on antoloji.com, which is a culture and art website. Bölük, who has a very good command of English, is married and has three children.