Kasikçi (Spoonmaker) Zeki Çelikçi

Carving wooden spoons by hand is an old and revered craft in Turkey. In Sirince you can see one of the last old masters at work.

Mr Zeki Çelikçi sits cross-legged in a small stand near the entrance to the village, quietly carving sppon after spoon from the fresh, soft juniper (cedar) wood he gets from Bodrum.

His hands are sure, his skill refined from decades of this work. His tools are all custom-made, by him.

Holding up a long, crude wooden handle with a short blade at the end, he says "See this? It was a razor. I cut it the length and shape I wanted. Test the edge."

I ran my finger gently across the blade. Sharp as a razor.

He showed me a scar on his left hand.

"Once my fingers slipped and I put a blade right through my hand. I was covered in blood. I went to the doctor and he asked "Who did this to you?"

"'I did it to myself,' I said."

At the Ottoman table, the principal dining utensil was the spoon. Forks were not used, and knives were not usually necessary as food was prepared to be easily picked up and eaten with the fingers. Spoons were necessary for soups, stews and other sulu yemekleri (foods-with-liquid).

For the wealthy, spoons were made from precious materials such as tortoise shell, ivory, ebony and mother-of-pearl, but most of the sultan's subjects dined with wooden spoons carved by hand.

The wood might be olive, or ash, or juniper (cedar). Zeki uses olive sometimes, but he prefers cedar because it has a good grain, interesting color, and is tough under use. "Rub it with olive oil, put it in the sun for awhile, and it'll last forever," he says.

His hand-crafted spoons sell for a few YTL each. If you buy several, don't be afraid to haggle a bit.

Sirince

Ephesus Hotels

Ephesus Restaurants

Ephesus Ruins

Selçuk Town

Kusadasi

Aegean Region

Where to Go

Zeki the Spoon Man, Sirince, Turkey

Above, Kasikçi Zeki ("Zeki the Spoon Man") trims a piece of fresh juniper brought from Bodrum. "Those big spoons in front are crap," he says. "I put them out there so people will notice me."
Below, he carves a spoon with strong, sure hands.