Mehmet Gürs (born 13 December 1969) is a Finnish celebrity chef, television personality and restaurateur. He is considered to be Istanbul's most recognizable chef.
Biography
Gürs was born in Finland to a Turkish father and a Finnish-Swedish mother and grew up in Stockholm and Istanbul. He spent eight years training and working as a chef in the United States; from 1990 to 1993 he studied Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management at Johnson & Wales University. In the mid 1990s, he returned to Turkey to start his first restaurant called Downtown; six years later he opened Lokanta and then Mikla in 2005.
Gürs's Istanbul Food & Beverage Group now consists of Mikla, the numnum café & restaurant, Trattoria Enzo, Kronotrop, Terra Kitchen chain and the group's research lab, the workshop.
Awards
2001: Best Restaurant/ Downtown - TimeOut Istanbul
2002: Best Bar/ NuTeras - TimeOut Istanbul
2003: Best Chef/Mehmet Gürs - TimeOut Istanbul
2004: Best Bar/ NuTeras - TimeOut Istanbul
2006: Best Restaurant/ Mikla - TimeOut Istanbul
Personal life
Gürs has one child. He speaks Swedish, Turkish, French, and English.