Cihan Çetinkaya

Çetinkaya was born and raised in the quaint Turkish town of Bolu where a passion for gastronomy is a lifestyle. With studying seven years at the acclaimed Mengen Anatolian Vocational School for Culinary Arts, he started his professional career as a kitchen intern. While completing his university education, on the other hand his brisk business life started at the InterContinental Istanbul hotel, has been accompanied by The Ritz Carlton Istanbul hotel for many years since its opening.

In 2003, he won the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs Turkey Young Chefs award and qualified to represent Turkey in the world final of the international competition held in Cape Town.

Çetinkaya worked at The Ritz Carlton hotels in the USA and Ireland as well as in Turkey. After Half Moon Bay CA, he has assigned as Executive Chef at Powerscourt Dublin. Then, he started his restaurant career as a Corporate Chef at one of Istanbul’s leading restaurant groups, the “Istanbul Food and Beverage Group”. He has continued as a Director of Operations of all the locations at the restaurant group he was working for. He managed the operations of more than 20 successful restaurants and cafes.

In addition to Mikla, which was listed as one of the World’s 100 Best Restaurants since 2015, he worked at Mürver with a concept focusing on wood-fired cooking techniques, the casual restaurant chain numnum, the Italian restaurant Trattoria Enzo with the sister brand Pizzeria Enzo, the innovative, spacious and comfortable self-service restaurant Terra Kitchen. He did all the food production and menu planning process during the brand building period of Kronotrop which is one of the Turkey’s most successful third wave coffee shops.

He was featured on the gastronomy series Ruhun Doysun [Food for the Soul] and he took part in the organisation and planning of YEDI. He remains dedicated to his passion of exploring New Anatolian Cuisine while promoting a local and sustainable culinary approach.

 

*2009-2020 İstanbul Yiyecek İçecek Grubu 

*2001-2009 The Ritz Carlton 

*1996-2000 InterContinental

In the last ten years, in addition to his work in the culinary and operations directorship, Cihan Çetinkaya has been focused on his research projects and gastronomic travels. He has worked as a chef in international hotels and as a  director of operations in restaurant groups that have many brands in their organizations in Antalya, Istanbul, San Francisco and Dublin in his over 30 years career.

In addition to the culinary management in restaurant operations, he took part in the executive staff with an approach that likes to use numbers. He continues his experiences in the field of F&B as a consultant with his new brand C|2 Consulting.

organization
view
cocktail


intercontinental İstanbul

Bosphorus
city
luxury


the ritz carlton istanbul

Californian cuisine
sunset
wine


the ritz carlton half moon bay

countryside
green
pure


the ritz carlton powerscourt

local cuisine
modern
bar


mikla

local product
open fire
innovative


mürver

corporate
multi location
casual


numnum

design
comfort
italian


trattoria enzo

quick service
contemporary
chain


pizzeria enzo

menu development
natural products
budget


terra kitchen

food engineering
production
planning


merkez üretim

third wave
specialty coffee
flavor


kronotrop

Years of F&B Industry Experience

Expert experience and comprehensive service in culinary operations from setting up the hotel kitchens to setting up the high-volume production kitchens, sustainable restaurant projects, team management to menu engineering and budget planning. Over 30 years of experience in the F&B industry from Chef to Director of Operations.

Restaurant Openings

A versatile and different restaurant opening experience from Italian restaurant to third wave coffee shop, from upscale restaurant to fresh-casual concepts. Planning, brand building and opening of chain restaurants.

9 Hotels | 3 Opening

Management of pre-opening and opening processes for F&B operations with different capacities and approaches in multi-brand, multi-location corporate structures.

Hotel and Restaurant Brands

Experience of local and international branded hotel and restaurant operations.

International Gastronomy Travels

Cooking classes of Anatolian Cuisine recipes in abroad, different cities from Tokyo to San Sebastian in all continents from America to Asia and experience of the different cultures, cooking demos, trainings…

People Operations

From the management of teams over 300 people to the events of +2000 covers. Hospitality and operations experience from upscale restaurants with 60 people capacity to the casual restaurants exceeding over 1000 covers per day. 20.000+

Recipe Experience

Upscale and casual up-to-date recipes from hotel kitchens to the restaurant and cafe kitchens from many ethnic regions in different continents of the world…