This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).
No Turkish kebab has reached the soaring heights of culinary fame that the doner has. So popular has it become in its second home of Germany that it recently surpassed currywurst as the nation’s favourite fast food in a YouGov poll. And some even argue the doner kebab is, in fact, a German invention.
The word ‘doner’ comes from the Turkish word ‘dönmek’, meaning ‘turning’. To create the kebab, numerous stacks of seasoned meat are threaded through a vertical spit and cooked via an upright grill. Once the outer layers start to crisp, they’re thinly sliced and served.
Traditionally lamb was king, but beef and chicken have also become popular. Although there are countless variations, typically the meat is smothered in both a garlic and a chilli sauce and accompanied by salad — the whole lot contained inside a pita or lavash (a Turkish flatbread).
Earlier this year, Turkey applied to the EU to register ‘doner’ as a ‘guaranteed traditional speciality’, meaning only kebabs made using specific methods and ingredients could be described as such. The move has sparked a fierce debate, with Germany allegedly lodging a formal objection, and its Minister for Food and Agriculture, who has Turkish heritage, tweeting that ‘the doner belongs to Germany’.
To create the kebab, numerous stacks of seasoned meat are threaded through a vertical spit and cooked via an upright grill.
Photograph by AleksandarGeorgiev, Getty Images
Origins
Food historian Mary Işın, who specialises in Turkish and Ottoman cuisine, notes that the term ‘döner kebap’ (as it’s called in Turkish) was not actually documented in written form until 1908. However, the doner’s evolution stretches back nearly as far as the Ottoman Empire. “The first depictions are found in two miniature paintings by an Istanbul artist dating from 1616 to 1620,” writes Işın in her book Bountiful Empire.
“It began as an outdoor dish prepared for picnics, as it still is in Turkey’s northeastern provinces. The spit was originally horizontal, but in the 19th century, kebab restaurants in Istanbul started to use vertical spits, probably as a space-saving measure.” This method also enabled the meat to self-baste. Furthermore, cooking stacks of meat, as opposed to cooking the animal whole, allowed for a more equal distribution of both fat and finer cuts.
As the doner evolved, numerous people came forward claiming to be its creator. In Turkey in the mid-19th century, Hamdi Usta, from the city of Kastamonu, and İskender Efendi, from the city of Bursa, both claimed to have invented the vertical cooking method, creating the easily carvable and succulent doner meat tower that we know today.
Interestingly, a photo from the Ottoman Empire from around 1853 to 1855 by British photographer James Robertson is said to be the first to show a doner kebab. The unidentified vendor is neither Efendi or Usta. Regardless of the uncertainty, Efendi has been immortalised by having the popular iskender doner kebab named after him. It comprises slices of doner meat over slices of pide bread covered in a tomato sauce, topped with sizzling sheep’s-milk butter.
When it comes the question of who transformed the doner kebab into a sandwich, that’s even less clear. Between 1960 and 1973, nearly one million Turkish guest workers arrived in West Germany. Among them was Kadir Nurman, who in 1972 set up a shop in Berlin selling flatbreads filled with doner meat. And it was then that the doner kebab sandwich was born. According to the late Nurman, anyway. His claim is contested by others, but this story was backed by the Association of Turkish Doner Manufacturers in Europe in 2011.
Considering that bread and kebabs have gone hand in hand across Turkey and the wider Middle East for centuries, it’s unlikely Nurman can take full credit. However, there is something he and Western Europe’s other doner pioneers can lay claim to, and that’s igniting the doner phenomenon outside of Turkey. Today, Germany is home to an estimated 40,000 kebab shops, while the UK boasts around 20,000.
Traditionally lamb is used, but beef and chicken have also become popular.
Photograph by Georgiy Datsenko, Getty Images
How it’s made
The doner can get a bad rap — it’s sometimes dismissed as a salty, fatty snack made of unspecified processed meat. However, not all doners are created equal. The landscape is split — some restaurants buy their doner meat already on the spit from wholesalers, while others make their own.
At Divan (winner of Best Kebab Restaurant in North and West London at the British Kebab Awards 2023), chef Ali Divan uses whole lamb shoulder to make his doner kebabs in-house. “We trim it, chop it and marinate it; we leave it for 24 hours in a cooler, then it’s roasted [on the spit],” he says. The marinade uses “herbs, spices and a special pepper paste from eastern Turkey in the region [we’re from]”. This type of doner, made using whole cuts, is known as ‘yaprak’ or ‘leaf’ doner.
When cooks want to get a more uniform strip of doner meat, known as ‘kiyma’ doner, they use mince. To create his kiyma lamb doner, Hakan Topkaya, manager of London’s Archway Kebab — also a British Kebab Awards winner — minces 40kg of lamb shoulder for just one spit. “We arrive at 6.30am to make it every day. It’s like building a Ferrari,” says Topkaya, adding that, by contrast, “factory-made doner kebabs often consist of low-quality ingredients like soy, biscuit powder, cheap meats, artificial colouring and various additives, making them both unhealthy and difficult to digest”.
And while the doner kebab is traditionally a meaty meal, vegan versions have emerged, with the likes of Vöner, in Berlin, and What the Pitta, in London, turning out plant-based alternatives.
Where to eat kebab in Istanbul
Located in the Grand Bazaar, you’ll spot the queue before you see this hole in the wall, but the line moves relatively quickly and it’s well worth the wait. Tender lamb and beef doner is carved onto pide bread alongside onion, parsley, tomato and sumac. Pair your wrap with a fresh glass of ayran — a traditional salted yogurt drink.
Founded in 1947, the restaurant in the Ümraniye neighbourhood is famed for its wood-fired yaprak beef and lamb doner meat. You can’t really go wrong with the menu but if you are in the mood to branch out, try the guvecte doner, a doner casserole in a tomato sauce with buttered shallots and peppers served in what’s essentially a freshly baked flatbread pie case, complete with lid — perfect for dipping.
The iskender doner can be found on kebab menus across the globe, as well as at Iskender Efendi’s family’s restaurant in Bursa, and remains one of the most popular versions in Turkey. However, you don’t need to make the 93-mile journey south to enjoy the real deal. The Istanbul branch is situated in the buzzy Kadıköy district near the metro station.
To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
