Serhat Doğramacı

SERHAT

Idea

DOĞRAMACI

A chef cooking Anatolian material in the language of today.

Technique

Serhat

A kitchen in no hurry.

A plate is not there to feed. It is there to carry a whole table to one place, together.

Born in Istanbul, 1997. Trained as a cook, then worked in kitchens in the United States and Germany; won MasterChef Türkiye in 2020. Today he leads the kitchen at Mezra in Bodrum's Yalıkavak and is the founder of White Burger and White Pizza.

2020: MasterChef Türkiye — winnerTV8
2025: Green Star — Mezra YalıkavakMICHELIN Guide
2025: Young Chef AwardMICHELIN Guide
2025: 1 Toque, Street Food — White BurgerGault&Millau Türkiye
2026: One Michelin Star — Mezra YalıkavakMICHELIN Guide

A red marble table in sunlight: a folded napkin, cutlery, a glass of water and a plate with a red floral pattern; a cane chair and mosaic floor behind

A strawberry starter on a white plate, from above, Mezra

Approach

Cooking begins long before the ingredient reaches the plate.

Seeing a fig on its tree in Aydın and cutting it in the kitchen are not the same act. The first is looking; the second is deciding. In the time between, the material changes and so do you. A good plate comes from there: the right ingredient, the right moment, the right decision.

Small pea-and-chicken filled cone amuse-bouches, Mezra

Principle 1: Listen to the material

Before deciding what it should become, look at what it is. A fig tells you when to cut it; you only learn to listen.

Principle 2: Question what you know

A familiar method becomes a limit the day it stops being questioned. The most dangerous recipe is the one that always works.

Principle 3: Follow the mistake

A failed attempt can point somewhere a perfect repetition never will. Taste it before you throw it away.

Principle 4: Count time as an ingredient

Duration is not a footnote under the recipe; it is the material itself. A keşkek is made of the hours it spends in the cauldron.

Principle 5: Don't treat the plate as the end

The plate is not where the process ends but where the conversation starts. What arrives at the table is not an answer but a question.

Mezra's interior: marble counter, leather chairs, sunset light

Fish and fennel on a white plate beside a carafe, Mezra

Culinary direction, Bodrum

Mezra Yalıkavak

A kitchen that works like a small village on seven decares of land, with its own garden, barn and seed bank. Nothing from outside Türkiye's geography enters; a fixed, seasonal tasting menu is served to the whole table at once.

One Michelin StarMICHELIN Guide, 2026
Green StarMICHELIN Guide, 2025

Two tasting menus: 8 to 10 and 12 to 14 courses.

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Brand and concept, Türkiye · Erbil

White Burger

A smash burger concept that started as a single shop in Kadıköy's Moda; today twenty-four branches across Türkiye and in Erbil. The same discipline at another scale.

1 Toque, Street FoodGault&Millau Türkiye, 2025

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Brand and concept, Istanbul

White Pizza

A pizza concept built on New York and Detroit style dough, sold by the slice and whole. Signature: white sauce, mozzarella, white cheese, cherry tomatoes, ranch and pesto.

White-clothed tables set under the trees in Mezra's garden

Current chapter

2026

The real work is not winning the star, but keeping the care that brought it.

The 2026 Michelin Guide awarded Mezra Yalıkavak a star. The Green Star and the Young Chef Award had come the year before. Three awards, the same seven decares.

See Mezra

A cube-shaped dessert with a mint leaf and a red sorbet, Mezra

7 decares of land, one kitchen

Mezra will not be replicated. A kitchen bound to its location, its own field and the producers around it cannot be moved; moved, it becomes something else. This year's question is how to direct the attention a star brings toward the material rather than the plate.

In the press

Written about him.

All coverage (10)

Serhat Doğramacı in the kitchen with his leather knife roll

Contact

How can we help?

If you have a project in mind, let's talk.

For projects, collaborations and press, write on Instagram. Store orders go through WhatsApp; Mezra reservations through the restaurant's own site.

Write on Instagram

Serhat Doğramacı — Chef