Ferda Erdinc

Owner of Restaurant Zencefil

Born in 1958 and raised in Eastern Anatolia before moving to İstanbul for schooling, Ferda studied Sociology at the Bosphorus University and then continued her graduate study at McGill University where the multicultural ethnic character of Montreal introduced her to the world of spices and herbs as well as many tastes of the world. After some teaching experience at BU back at home and some managerial work in international TV, she opened a little shop of herbs and spices called Zencefil (which translates to ginger). This turned into a pioneer restaurant and the first vegetarian restaurant of the city in 1993. During the 27 years of operating Zencefil, she got involved in editorial work launching books on food & memory, published papers and wrote on the sociology of food, spices and herbs in various journals and magazines and participated in many international food events. As an inevitable result of the pandemic last year, she closed down Zencefil last summer and is currently intending to get back to her writing projects.