Food as memory and belonging: Food carries things. A recipe, a drink, a table set far from home. This May, we ask: what does it mean to belong, and what does it taste like?

Pop-Up Meyhane Copenhagen welcomes Elvan Uysal Bottoni, author and columnist for an intimate evening of cooking, eating, and storytelling at Kitchen Collective, Kødbyen.

Elvan has lived in Rome since 2000. Over two decades, she has written about Italian winemakers, authored beloved cookbooks, penned a series of children's books to nurture a new generation's curiosity about food, nature, and where it all comes from, and shared her love of olive oil each week in her Hürriyet column. At the centre of her work is a deep belief that rakı belongs at every table, not just the Turkish one.

During the pandemic, stranded in Italy and unable to travel to Turkey, Elvan found herself looking at rakı differently, as an object of longing, a vessel for home. Out of that tenderness, her book pairing rakı with Italian cuisine was born. That same year, and from that same feeling, Pop-Up Meyhane Copenhagen opened its first table in the city.

Six years later, we get to cook together.

On this evening, Elvan will cook with us, bringing Italian and Turkish flavours together on one table. She'll talk about her journey as a food writer, a mother, and the author of children's books that teach young readers where food truly comes from, and why it matters.

Bring any of her books along, she'll be happy to sign them for you.

This is an evening about the Mediterranean spirit, warm and generous enough to thrive even here, in the land of the Vikings.

Graphics: Mine Burckin
Madland Festival is supported by Københavns Kommune