Emdad Rahman
An authentic taste of Turkey was on offer as The Ottoman Doner opened its doors to a ravenous local community.
The new venture on Cannon Street Road, London E1 specialises in healthier and meatier doner kebabs with less grease and extra salad. The eaterie is the brainchild of community coach and renowned activist Abdal Ahmed and his business partner.
As mentioned in Ottoman travel books of the 18th century, meat was cooked in a horizontal stack rather than vertical, like the cağ kebab. Grilling meat on horizontal skewers has an ancient history in the Eastern Mediterranean, but it is unknown when slices of meat, rather than chunks, were first used.
The region of Anatolia is well-known for kebab dishes, and the town of Bursa is considered the birthplace of the vertically-roasted döner kebab.
In his own family biography, İskender Efendi of 19th century Bursa writes that “he and his grandfather had the idea of roasting the lamb vertically rather than horizontally, and invented for that purpose a vertical mangal”. Since then, Hacı İskender has been considered the inventor of Turkish döner kebab, though he might have been preceded by Hamdi Usta from Kastamonu around 1830.
With time, the meat took a different marinade, got leaner, and eventually took its modern shape. It was not until a century later, that döner kebab was introduced and popularized in Istanbul, most famously by Beyti Güler. His restaurant, first opened in 1945, was soon discovered by journalists and began serving döner and other kebab dishes to kings, prime ministers, film stars and celebrities. It has been sold in sandwich form in Istanbul since at least the mid-1960s.
The first doner kebab shop in London opened in 1966, while Greek-style doner kebab, also known as gyros, was already popular in Greece and New York City in 1971.
Guests in attendance included local secondary school teacher Ishaaq Jasat who conducted the opening ceremony, Tower Hamlets Deputy Mayor Asma Begum, Councillor Shah Ameen, Abjol Miah and Stepney FC legend Shamimuz Zaman.
With an open kitchen plan, guests and patrons watched staff cook, slice and serve seasoned meat slowly turning on a hot rotisserie. Each guest received prime cut doner kebab served with chilli and garlic sauces on a bed of salad and pitta bread.
After the official opening by Jassat, Tower Hamlets Mayor John Biggs commented, “I’m pleased to be here today and learn that the restaurant offers a healthier option of Kebab. It’s important that we all keep our health and wellbeing a priority. This is an enterprising community and I congratulate everyone for the hard work put in to launch this local business.”
In celebration of the opening night Ottoman Doner gave away 100 doners but with queues stretching the length of Cannon Street Road it is estimated that almost double that amount were handed out for free to the crowds who braved the cold weather.
The restaurant menu also includes healthy options such as salad boxes, rice, chick peas, cheese, avocado mixes, falafel and chicken.
Ottoman Doner Managing Director Abdal Ahmed added, “We wanted to provide a highly quality, healthier doner and came up with this concept. It’s widely accepted that Turkish doners are the yardstick. Our meat content is high and we hope that establishments like ours can encourage local residents to reflect on the types of food they eat.”
The Ottoman Doner – 163 Cannon Street Road, London E1 2LX.