Ilke McAiley - Food Blogger

"Merhaba! I am Ilke, a Turkish girl living in South Carolina, cooking grits and her grandma’s Turkish recipes. I moved to the USA in 2000 from Istanbul, Turkey. Since then I have gotten used to the heat, humidity, redneck jokes and “God Bless Her Heart”s. And I am loving the Southern people, “y’alls, bluegrass music, and the cuisine!

By day, I am an environmental engineer working for a consulting company in Charlotte, NC. On the weekends, I enjoy spending time in the kitchen, mostly cooking and baking for friends and get-togethers, writing essays, walking my dog, renovating our 1950s house, read a lot and learn how to use my complicated camera after owning a point-and-shoot for years!

When I tell people that I am from Turkey, I usually get two types of response: “Oh I love Turkish food!” or “What is the Turkish cuisine like?” So I started my blog, Ilke’s Kitchen in July 2010 with the hopes to capture my grandmother Emine’s family recipes and also to get people more familiar with the Turkish cuisine.

I also contribute monthly to our local NPR station, WFAE’s food blog, WFAEats. I love writing as much as cooking, so I use every opportunity to satisfy my writing itch as well as my desire to write about “all things Turkish”! Naturally, my recipes become center of my stories and with each story, I try to give others a glimpse to the Turkish traditions, culture and daily family life.

My beloved kitchen items are my calculator, engineering ruler and kitchen scale since I have to translate Turkish measurements into American cooking style all the time. My dream is that the whole world will be on the metric system one day!

Hope you will visit my kitchen time to time and enjoy the Turkish recipes!"