Celebration at the Sarayi

Washington Post assistant food editor Bonnie Benwick raved about Chef Channon’s lamb-stuffed grape leaves made “the old, old fashioned way … and they were some of the best I’ve had.”

You can prepare these stuffed grape leaves and other exotic, historic recipes from Istanbul’s royal palace of Topkapi with Channon Mondoux’s interactive, multimedia cookbook, “Celebration at the Sarayi: Reliving a feast in the palace of Süleyman the Magnificent.” The e-cookbook was designed and published by TEC Publishing, and developed by Unidocs as the world’s first PDF based multimedia eBook App.

“An enthralling virtual culinary tour”
– Sheila Kaufma, Turkish connoisseur and author of 26 cookbooks


“Celebration at the Sarayi” takes you back in time to the 16th century to relive a feast at the seat of power of the Ottoman Empire, an important destination of the Spice Road. But don’t just read about it. Hear the storyteller’s description of the palace milieu set against a backdrop of historic images of life at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. Watch Chef Channon demonstrate techniques for dishes she adapted for use in a modern kitchen. Then head to the kitchen and try these easy to follow recipes yourself to savor the tantalizing aroma and tastes of exotic dishes that completes this multimedia, multi-sensory journey.

“What’s amazing is that people outside Turkey know so little about this cuisine. So we’re lucky that a talented and agreeably driven woman named Channon Mondoux has a happy obsession to recreate these intriguing dishes, as accurately and appealingly as possible. Welcome to the cuisine of sherbets in the harem, elegant snacks with visitors in the selamlık and grand banquets served by waiters with ostrich plumes in their turbans.”
– Charles Perry, retired Los Angeles Times food writer and renowned culinary historian