Overview
In its mission to teach and promote Turkish cuisine both at home and internationally, Istanbul Culinary Institute feels very strongly about the quality and freshness of cooking ingredients used in its premises. At a time when the use of chemical additives and hormones in the foods we purchase has reached alarming levels, IstCI upholds its founding principles of never compromising quality and always procuring the best and freshest ingredients from reliable sources. To install a sense of ecological responsibility among its students, to train them with a commitment to sustainable agriculture and to raise awareness of these issues through seminars, events and publications are among the cherished pedagogical principles of IstCI. In a country like Turkey, where negative effects of rapid growth, urbanization, globalization and climate change pose serious challenges, such principles acquire a particular urgency.
With the aim of growing a significant portion of its produce and fruits naturally, free of chemicals and hormones, IstCI has undertaken a comprehensive agricultural project over 15 acres of land along the Saros bay in the northern Aegean. We enjoy the fruits of some 500 fruit trees of different varieties in our orchard, many different vegetables and herbs that grow easily in thee local soil and climate.
To this end, we have invested in 15,000 acres of agricultural land in Saros in the northern Aegean. Five hundred mixed fruit trees are beginning to bear fruit while a substantial produce garden yields an abundance of vegetables and herbs that grow easily in the local soil and climate.
To educate its students about the principles of ecological responsibility and sustainable agriculture is one of the primary objectives of the Istanbul Culinary Institute, especially in a country like Turkey suffering from the environmental consequences of rapid growth and globalization. The school assumes a leadership role in disseminating these ideas through seminars, publications and organized events.