Visitors traveled from all corners of the U.S. to the festival and for many the biggest attraction was the food prepared by an army of home cooks as well as some of the best Turkish companies. Often festival-goers just said “Hmm” – the universal sound for “This is good” as they ate their fresh-made gozlemes (stuffed flat bread), Maras ice-cream and plates of slow-cooked vegetables and baklavas. Some had a little more to say: 

Three youthful retirees from Irvine:

Joyce Duff: “It’s amazing how they set this up to look so real” 
Linn Morgan: “I found the staging and the history fascinating” 
Karen West: “And we discovered Kunefe – the shredded pastry dessert” 

The two home cooks, one of whom traveled from Turkey, who were rolling out “Gozleme” dough to order. They rolled 100 sheets on Day Two. 

“This is a clean country and the people are really warm. Even though I don’t know the language a smile says a lot.” Nuray Uslu from Kutahya 
“When you like what you do, you don’t really feel tired.”  Zidika On, Istanbul

The two employees of Gulluoglu, the main baklava supplier at the festival. The brand now has a store in Southern California.

“People become really happy when they eat the foods that they’ve missed.” Yaz Bahar
“The foreign customers are really curious and we tell them all about these desserts.” Araksi Arzuman

Joe Rupp, a resident of Southern California, who is attending the festival for the first time.

“I enjoyed it thoroughly. It’s very well done and we’ll come back next year. And the food is so flavorful.”  

Gulhan Bayraktar, the “kunefe” dessert-maker who is one of the stars of this festival and Asli Karatas, her friend and helper. In one day they made 40 skillets of the dessert made from shredded pastry, cheese, butter and syrup.

“Americans find it strange at first but then they love it. One customer had never eaten it before and came back three times.”