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In her memoir, Eating My Words, food writer Mimi Sheraton included Ana Sortun as one of the country’s "best creative fusion practitioners," describing the chef’s food as "inspired and inspiring." With a degree from La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine in Paris, the Seattle-born Sortun opened Moncef Medeb’s Aigo Bistro in Concord, Massachusetts, in the early 1990s. Stints at 8 Holyoke and Casablanca in Harvard Square, Cambridge soon followed. When Sortun opened Oleana in 2001, she quickly drew raves for her creative combination of farm-fresh ingredients and eastern Mediterranean spice blends. Sortun’s food, explained Catherine Reynolds in the New York Times, "is at once rustic-traditional and deeply inventive." After a visit to Boston, Tom Sietsema of the Washington Post wrote of Oleana, "Should you have time for only one place to eat, make it this space." The judges of the Beard Foundation awards certainly agreed, as they awarded Sortun The Best Chef: Northeast honor in 2005.
Chef Sortun’s cookbook, SPICE: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean, published in May 2006 by Regan Books, is already a best seller according to the Boston Globe and the LA Times. "This is not fusion food, nor has Sortun forced any technique or tradition. Instead she has allowed the flavors of the regional food, and her tangible love of it, to determine her cooking -- and her cookbook," says Amy Scattergood of the LA Times. Spice received a nomination for Best International Cookbook by the James Beard Foundartion.
Siena Farms, established in 2006, is a 50 acre family farm in Sudbury, Massachusetts owned and farmed by Chef Sortun’s husband, Chris Kurth. The farm is named after their baby daughter Siena. The farm provides the restaurant all of its fresh organic produce during the growing seasonn.
August 2008, Cambridge welcomed Sofra Bakery & Café. Sofra is an Arabic word that means a picnic on a rug; a low communal table; a small square kilim rug to eat on; a large coffee table; a special table preparation.Sofra’s menu is the strong vision of both Chef Ana Sortun and Pastry Chef Maura Kilpatrick to create a unique style of foods and baked goods, inspired mostly by the countries of Turkey, Lebanon, and Greece.
Chef Sortun’s cookbook, SPICE: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean, published in May 2006 by Regan Books, is already a best seller according to the Boston Globe and the LA Times. "This is not fusion food, nor has Sortun forced any technique or tradition. Instead she has allowed the flavors of the regional food, and her tangible love of it, to determine her cooking -- and her cookbook," says Amy Scattergood of the LA Times. Spice received a nomination for Best International Cookbook by the James Beard Foundartion.
Siena Farms, established in 2006, is a 50 acre family farm in Sudbury, Massachusetts owned and farmed by Chef Sortun’s husband, Chris Kurth. The farm is named after their baby daughter Siena. The farm provides the restaurant all of its fresh organic produce during the growing seasonn.
August 2008, Cambridge welcomed Sofra Bakery & Café. Sofra is an Arabic word that means a picnic on a rug; a low communal table; a small square kilim rug to eat on; a large coffee table; a special table preparation.Sofra’s menu is the strong vision of both Chef Ana Sortun and Pastry Chef Maura Kilpatrick to create a unique style of foods and baked goods, inspired mostly by the countries of Turkey, Lebanon, and Greece.
Restaurant(s)
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Rich in wood, stone, and iron; the interior is a contrast of earth tones with soft ligh...0
