Germany and Turkey debate over origin of the Doner kebab

FRANCE 24 English

Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00It's famous the world over, but where does it really come from?

00:04Berlin, where doner is served as a sandwich with salad, tomatoes and cabbage?

00:08Or from Turkey, where it is cooked with specific quantities of onions, thyme and peppers?

00:14In this Istanbul cafe, the customers are pretty sure.

00:18I prefer the Turkish one for sure. It's not in debate for me.

00:25I find the Turkish has more flavour.

00:28The meat is better.

00:31Here, the beef, mutton or chicken is sliced very thin, no more than 5 mm.

00:37It takes 24 hours to prepare.

00:41The quality of the meat is paramount, as is the absence of sinews, the marinade, the salt.

00:47These are the elements that determine the taste of this traditional dish.

00:51But the quality of the meat is the most important thing.

00:55It is a traditional recipe that Ankara is seeking to have protected by the European Commission,

01:00with the status of traditional speciality guaranteed.

01:04It is also a way of reclaiming the name doner, which many in Europe now associate with Germany.

01:13It's sad for us that doner is seen as a European dish, because there is no basis for that and no reality to it.

01:19Nobody is saying that sushi is not Japanese.

01:23Nobody claims that spaghetti isn't Italian.

01:25So why should we defend the fact that doner, one of the most popular dishes in the world,

01:29has such deep roots in our country?

01:35But the Turkish initiative is causing a stir in Berlin.

01:39Invented in 1972 by an immigrant worker, the German doner can be eaten with all sorts of meats,

01:45or even as a vegetarian version, or topped with a variety of sauces.

01:50Doner is the country's number one fast food and Germany's favorite dish.

01:54For me it's a spicy garlic sauce. With veal or chicken, both are good.

01:59The doner is so good, especially here. The meat is top quality.

02:03A symbol of post-war German-Turkish culture, the country has 18,000 kebab makers.

02:09For Nuri Sertdemir, losing the doner label is a non-starter.

02:14It's simply unimaginable. The doner is meat grilled on a spit.

02:18And that's it. They can change the name if they like,

02:21but the doner is part of Berlin's identity no matter what.

02:25Especially as the German doner is a huge economic success.

02:29The doner market is worth 2.5 billion euros a year,

02:33employs 100,000 and is a recipe that is exported all over the world.

02:38The doner war is also about big money, according to this sociologist who has written a book about it.

02:44The Turkish Doner Federation comes from the nationalist camp

02:49and is trying to appropriate, or rather recover, a market that Turkey has lost

02:54since it was German kebabs made by former immigrant workers

02:59that gave the doner its worldwide success.

03:07It is a culinary tug-of-war that should be resolved in the coming months.

03:11In the absence of an agreement between the two capitals,

03:14the European Commission will decide whether Doner is German or Turkish.

Category

Transcript

Recommended