The Ottomans ruled for five long centuries over large swarthes of the Levant, Mediterranean and Eastern Europe. They left an indelible impress on the foods of these regions. Themselves inspired by the Persians and Arabs, the Ottomans gradually developed a distrinctive cuisine. At the apogee of the extraordinary Ottoman society, food was all-important. The courts were notorious for their luxury and emperors, nobles and merchants were alike in their devotion to the pleasures of the table.

"...dishes carry the triumphs & glories, the defeats, the lores & sorrows of the past. We owe some to an event, or to one man : the Caliph who commissioned it, the poet who sang it or the Imam who fainted on receiving it." - A Mediterranean Feast