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Selma Usta challenges famous baked beans restaurants in İstanbul
With support from her husband, Cafer Petek, Selma Usta has quickly made a name for herself in İstanbul. Her husband even closed his own advertising agency to give her a hand when she faced increased demand for her dishes. Selma Usta is so sure of that her dishes are delicious that she does not demand money from any customer who says they do not like them. She also runs a Facebook group that helps her bring in new customers. This was how we heard about the fame of her dishes and set off for the Hanımeli restaurant. While eating Selma Usta's delicious baked beans, we listened to the story of how she went from being an ordinary housewife to becoming the owner of a restaurant.
Selma Usta's story starts familiarly. After her children grew up, she began to be bored just sitting at home. It was this that pushed her to seek a source of income. And so she stepped into business, at first selling gözleme and börek. She later changed the concept of her restaurant and started to cook dishes. The family-friendly restaurant began to make profit. Her baked beans soon emerged as the favorite dish of customers, and her fame spread quickly to nearby quarters.
Like other baked beans master cooks, Selma Usta uses haricot beans from İspir and Erzincan. She stews the beans with butter in earthenware pots. The tomato sauce and butter come from her home city of Tokat, as do the vine leaves she stuffs. Using all-natural ingredients for her dishes, she manages to attract a large group of loyal customers, including bankers, public servants and the self-employed. Upon demand, she began to diversify her dishes, to include mantı, stuffed vine leaves, çentik kebab, hanımeli yuva kebak and homemade baklava. Selma Usta also cooks customized dishes. Just call her restaurant and give her your recipe; several hours later your personalized dish will be ready for you. Selma Usta does not like the word "customer"; instead, she calls everyone her "guest."
Having reached success so quickly, Selma Usta now hopes to open a branch in a more central location. "Since we use natural ingredients in our dishes, their taste stands out. Our baked beans were the first ones to make a name for themselves. Now, [the popularity of] our homemade stuffed vine leaves and mantı are on the rise. We started by cooking baked beans in a small pot, but now we cook dishes for 200 people a day. Baked beans restaurants in İstanbul are all dominated by male master cooks. As a woman, I am ready to compete with them. If they're experienced, I have the skilled hands of a woman," she says.
Mom, don’t get angry at me, but…
A practice common to many restaurants is to write down your views of the meals on a napkin and insert it between the table and its glass cover. This allows subsequent customers to try out good dishes or at least read many interesting comments. Maybe you'll even come across your own comments years later!
Selma Usta's restaurant adds a new twist to this practice. Customers can write down their comments on the wall of the restaurant. "Mom, Love, don't get angry at me, but the dishes here are superb" or "Mom, Love, I must tell the truth. You two don't know how to cook, but you've been pretending to for years" are some of the comments hinting at how skillful Selma Usta is.
Hanımeli restaurant: 0 (212) 477-1706.
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