After graduating in tourism management in 1999, Ebru Baybara Demir toreturned to her hometown of Mardin in southeastern Turkey near the Syrian border with the aim of attracting holidaymakers to the historic hilltop city. Back then, Mardin received fewer than 10,000 visitors a year and the tourism sector offered near-zero employment opportunities for women.
Spurred-on by visitors' general disappointment with Mardin’s hospitality offer, Ebru opened her home to paying guests, engaging other women in her family to prepare traditional meals.
The initiative grew, and soon Ebru and 21 other women had renovated a traditional Assyrian mansion – opening a fully-equipped restaurant called Cercis Murat Konağı in 2001. The restaurant venture was an instant success and has inspired others to open similar businesses - empowering a generation of local women to earn an income independently, a significant cultural shift in southeastern Turkey.
Following the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria in early 2023, Ebru established Gönül Mutfağı, an ambitious version of a soup kitchen, which has served millions of meals with the help of over 2,000 volunteers. She describes this initiative as “a symbol of the transformative healing and inspiring power of gastronomy.”
“When people ask what I do, I say I’m a chef,” says Ebru, “But my job is so much more than just cooking.” In the early stages of the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis, for example, she secured UN funding to start an agricultural development cooperative - training locals and refugees in culinary and farming techniques.
Ebru’s projects continue to accumulate: due to the decrease in seasonal workers in the region after the earthquake, for example, she launched a project which saw thousands of volunteers collecting citrus fruits left on the branches of orchards, composting them before distributing this valuable fertiliser to the region’s farmers free-of-charge. Other ventures include a FAO-backed beekeeping/honey production initiative and a FAO-backed programme growing ‘sörgul,’ an ancient drought-resistant indigenous wheat first cultivated in Mesopotamia for transformation into flour.
In 2023, Ebru won the Basque Culinary World Prize, often referred to as the "Nobel Prize in Gastronomy," for her transformative initiatives beyond the professional kitchen. The prize recognizes chefs who contribute to innovation, education, environmental sustainability, and social and economic development. With the prize money, Demir has ensured the future of Gönül Mutfağı and opened a zero-waste restaurant that will also serve as a gastronomy school.
Ebru Baybara-Demir is a visionary using food to drive social change and empower communities. Her philosophy that "food is a tool for change" is evident in her numerous projects that not only address immediate needs, but also create sustainable opportunities for the future.
