Alaçatı restaurants serve dishes prepared by young chefs graduated from Izmir University of Economics (IUE) Department of Culinary Arts and Management. IUE chefs display their talents in world cuisines for customers in Alaçatı, the most popular tourist attraction. The young chefs, who just graduated from Department of Culinary Arts and Management in 2012 – 2013 academic year, in a way were grabbed up by restaurants where they would be serving ostentatious flavours and prove themselves in cuisine. The young chefs started working at Alaçatı restaurants the day after their graduation ceremony.
Cansu Mutlu, IUE chef who works at the famous Alaçatı restaurant, Barbun, reminded that she performed her internship at the same restaurant two years ago and said, “I am not a desk job person. I love cooking. I immediately applied when IUE Department of Culinary Arts and Management was established. I can clearly see the quality of the education we received at IUE now at my work life.”
Mutlu indicated that they started working in the kitchen early in the morning to get ready for the evening, and later dealt with decorating the tables and also shared brief info about the dishes with customers. She said that she loved her job and was planning to open up her own restaurant in 4-5 years. Mutlu stated that the food sector preferred educated individuals who could make a difference with their work.
Other graduates Mehmet Can Altunay and Onur Can Bulat, and an intern student Tuna Özçınar working at Lavanta Restaurant also in Alaçatı stated that they served samples of world cuisine. Alanca Restaurant opened its doors to Numan Karabıyık and Bulut Şenol, also graduates of Department of Culinary Arts and Management. New chefs Efe Ersoy and Orhun Uslu stated that they also started working at Alaçatı, however they were offered to work as flying service chefs at Turkish Do&Co 'da Flying Service Chef and transferred to Istanbul.
