A summit of the Atlantic Alliance is ordinarily measured in percentages of GDP devoted to defence. In Ankara, it was also measured in jars of honey and loaves baked in a stone oven.
No final communiqué ever mentions a menu. Yet it was through the menu that Turkey chose to speak to thirty-two heads of state and government gathered for the NATO summit, on 7 and 8 July 2026.
Even before the speeches of a minister or a secretary general, it was a board of flatbread and a comb of honey, served to open the welcome dinner, that set the tone of the evening.
A Welcome Choreographed Down to the Gesture
On the evening of 7 July, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and First Lady Emine Erdoğan personally received each head of delegation on the steps of the main building of the Beştepe presidential complex, on the outskirts of Ankara, greeting each guest and their spouse individually before the protocol photographs. During this arrival, a military orchestra in Ottoman dress gave the welcome its rhythm: the band of the Turkish armed forces performed traditional marches, while the American president Donald Trump visibly showed his pleasure at the Mehter’s performance.
The dinner was then held in a space of the complex known as the Winter Garden. Officials from Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand joined the Alliance’s delegations that evening, alongside the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. This diversity of guests is no minor point of protocol: it signals a dinner conceived to reach beyond the NATO circle alone and to project an image of openness toward the Indo-Pacific partners.
The Menu as a Map of the Country
It is the composition of the meal that draws the most attention. The chef Fatih Tutak, in charge of the menu, explained that he had wanted to represent, through the dishes, Turkey’s regional diversity and the work of local producers. The menu was prepared over several weeks according to principles of seasonality, local sourcing, and sustainability, with many ingredients supplied by producers from across the country.
The Menu of the Ankara Dinner, 7 July 2026
- To open : stone-oven pide, Trabzon butter, comb of Hizan honey
- Vegetables : sebze bayıldı, smoked Denizli yoghurt
- Fish : sea bass, tarama
- Sides : Urla artichokes with mastic, Tokat vine leaves, firik bulgur with morels
- Main course : slow-cooked beef ribs (Trabzon butter, aubergine) or mantı (smoked Ayaş tomato paste)
- Dessert : milk baklava, pistachio mousse, bergamot, Maraş ice cream
The meal opened with a pide baked in a stone oven, served with Trabzon butter and a comb of Hizan honey, before continuing with vegetables in the sebze bayıldı style lifted by a smoked Denizli yoghurt. There followed a sea bass with tarama, Urla artichokes scented with mastic and Tokat vine leaves, then a firik bulgur with morels. The main course offered long-simmered beef ribs, Trabzon butter and aubergine, or, as an alternative, mantı sharpened by a smoked Ayaş tomato paste. The dessert brought together a milk baklava, a pistachio mousse, bergamot, and a Maraş ice cream.
The menu foregrounded regional specialities and ingredients holding protected geographical indications, from Trabzon butter and Hizan honey to Denizli yoghurt and the smoked tomato paste of Ayaş. This choice is anything but trivial for a country seeking to showcase its agricultural heritage as much as its cuisine.
A Gastrodiplomacy That Aims Beyond the Table
The choice to build an entire menu around protected geographical indications goes beyond the mere wish to receive guests well. It is a way of turning a diplomatic dinner into an economic showcase, in which each product points back to a region, a producer, a particular terroir. Hizan honey and Trabzon butter become, for the space of an evening, silent ambassadors of rural Turkey before the delegations of the Atlantic Alliance.
This choice also belongs to a well-known tradition of contemporary gastrodiplomacy, in which the meal becomes an instrument of soft power on the same footing as an official speech. What Turkey served in Ankara was less a meal of international prestige, oriented toward a cuisine regarded as universally refined, than an unabashed meal of the terroir, one that bets on regional authenticity rather than on diplomatic classicism.
What Remains Uncertain
It should be stated with the same rigour applied to any other matter this publication treats: the available sources document with precision the composition of the menu and the unfolding of the welcome, but do not allow us to assert which delegation was particularly taken with this or that dish, nor to ascribe a precise diplomatic intention to each culinary choice. What can be asserted is the structure of the menu and its avowed regional grounding. What cannot be asserted is the psychological or strategic reading each guest may have made of it.
A Meal That Closes a Summit Before It Opens
There lies the paradox. The Beştepe dinner took place even before the official opening of the summit’s proceedings, as a prelude rather than a conclusion. In contemporary diplomacy, the table sometimes precedes the negotiation, and prepares the ground for a discussion that has not yet begun. Ankara chose to open its summit with honey and bread rather than with a declaration, which, in itself, already constitutes a message.
Quoted in the communiqué, chef Fatih Tutak declared:
“To represent Turkish cuisine at so prestigious a table was an immense honour for us. Through this menu, we wished to tell, in a contemporary culinary language, the story of the products of the different regions of Türkiye, the work of our producers, and the memory of our gastronomic heritage. To be associated with a gathering of such importance, hosted by Türkiye, holds great value in our eyes.”
Sources
- NATO.int, Overview: 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara / official summit programme, July 2026.
- Daily Sabah, “Anatolian flavors highlighted at gala dinner for NATO leaders,” July 2026.
- TRT World, “Erdogan hosts NATO leaders at Ankara summit reception, dinner,” July 2026.
- PBS News, “What to know about NATO’s summit in Turkey,” July 2026.
- Athens Times, “NATO Dinner in Ankara: Trump’s Special Order,” July 2026.
