The Dinner That Trump Wanted Replicated: Fatih Tutak, the Bestepe Menu, and the Night Turkish Gastronomy Addressed 32 World Leaders

When the leaders of 32 NATO member states sat down to dinner at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, the menu had been designed by Turkey’s most celebrated chef. Trump reportedly asked for the slow-cooked beef short rib to be recreated at the White House. Macron shook the chef’s hand. Erdoğan offered his congratulations personally. Fatih Tutak had, in one evening, placed Turkish gastronomy at the centre of world affairs.

By TurkishBritish Magazine  |  Summer 2026

There is a tradition, at major diplomatic gatherings, of using food as a form of soft power. State dinners are not primarily about eating; they are about the host country presenting a version of itself through the medium of hospitality. The wines chosen, the dishes served, the tableware selected, the way the room is arranged: all of it communicates something about the country’s self-image and its ambitions.

The dinner served at Bestepe — the Presidential Complex in Ankara — on the evening before the main summit sessions was, by any reckoning, an exceptional exercise in this form of diplomacy. The chef responsible was Fatih Tutak, owner of TURK, currently one of Turkey’s two Michelin two-starred restaurants (the second two-starred restaurant receiving its award in 2026, making Turkey the proud home of two of Europe’s most decorated restaurants). The menu he designed was not Turkish in the sense of serving familiar dishes; it was Turkish in the deeper sense of drawing on every region of the country’s extraordinary geographical and culinary diversity.

The evening began in a way calculated to signal intent. As leaders arrived — walking across a blue carpet, greeted by the Ottoman Mehter band — they were received by President and First Lady Emine Erdoğan at a single door. The Mehter switched repertoire when the Greek Prime Minister arrived, moving to the Ceddi-den March. Macron arrived in sunglasses. Zelenski arrived late, met by the Vice President. Spain’s Pedro Sanchez arrived without his spouse. The Czech Republic, notably, arrived with two state delegations: President and Prime Minister, who came in separate official aircraft following a reported disagreement between them.

The Tokat Sarma Moment

Of all the dishes on the menu, the one that generated the most conversation was perhaps the simplest: the Tokat sarması — vine-leaf rolls from the Black Sea region town of Tokat. Multiple leaders reportedly commented on this dish specifically. Its presence on the menu was not accidental; Tutak’s approach to the Bestepe dinner was built around the principle of using ingredients from as many distinct Turkish regions as possible, each one carrying its own geographical story.

The logic of the menu, reading it course by course, is a journey through Turkey’s agricultural map: Trabzon butter from the Black Sea, Hizan honey from Bitlis in the east, Kayseri mantı from Central Anatolia, Tokat vine leaves from the interior, Urla artichokes from the Aegean, Gaziantep pistachios from the south-east, Maras ice cream from Kahramanmaras. Denizli yoghurt appeared in two separate courses, a deliberate repetition that created continuity. The bergamot in the dessert added a note that referenced Turkey’s connection to the eastern Mediterranean. The menu was, in the most literal sense, an edible atlas.

Trump’s Short Rib and Macron’s Handshake

The dana kaburga — the slow-cooked beef short rib served as the meat main course — became the dinner’s most-discussed single dish for one reason: reports emerged, through multiple Turkish and international media outlets, that President Trump had expressed a desire to have the dish recreated in the White House kitchen. Whether this translated into a formal request or remained at the level of enthusiastic commentary at the dinner table is unclear; what is clear is that the story circulated internationally and contributed to the coverage of Tutak’s menu that continued for days afterward.

Macron’s engagement with the evening was of a different character. The French president, who arrived in sunglasses and whose country’s relationship with Turkish gastronomy has historically been one of polite condescension, reportedly shook Tutak’s hand at the conclusion of the dinner and was photographed doing so. For a two-star Michelin chef working in a country whose cuisine has rarely received the institutional recognition of French or Japanese cooking, the moment was noted.

Erdoğan, for his part, personally congratulated Tutak following the dinner. The image circulated on social media: the two-star chef, in whites, shaking hands with the president of the Republic outside the Bestepe kitchens.

The Press Buffet: 3,000 Journalists and a Different Kind of Diplomacy

While the leaders ate Tutak’s tasting menu in the gilded rooms of Bestepe, approximately 3,000 international journalists covering the summit were offered something different but, in its way, equally deliberate: a substantial Turkish buffet in the press centre, covering the full range of Turkish regional cooking.

The selection included Sehzade Aşı soup alongside Usak Tarhana soup, etli ic pilav (spiced rice with meat), levrek (sea bass), pide, and an extraordinary dessert spread of approximately 20 to 25 varieties. Gaziantep baklava was present, as was a live Maras dondurma station — a 12-kilogram block of the stretchy goat’s milk ice cream served alongside a doner stand, the combination drawing queues throughout the press centre and becoming the most photographed single item of the entire summit according to journalists who were present.

A Mexican taco station was also included — with a Turkish twist, the filling incorporating kavurma (a style of slow-cooked Turkish meat preparation). The presence of international food alongside Turkish regional cooking reflected a deliberate choice: to present Turkey as a country that can contextualise itself globally while remaining rooted in its own culinary tradition.

The foreign journalists who commented on the food — and many did, on social media and in their reporting — consistently noted surprise at the quality and variety. “The salad freshness” was specifically cited by multiple international journalists who were interviewed by Turkish television. The buffet was, in a sense, the summit’s most successful piece of public diplomacy: 3,000 media professionals from around the world, eating Turkish food and writing positively about it, without any of them feeling they were participating in a promotional exercise.