Mehmet Yalçınkaya is a Turkish cook and chef who is widely known as a jury member of the MasterChef Türkiye competition. He followed a career path from hotel kitchens to international competitions, from there to television and his own businesses. He is mostly known by the public as "Mehmet Şef".
He was born on January 21, 1974 in Yenigüney village of Bolu. He was introduced to the kitchen at the age of twelve by apprenticing with his uncle. After learning the profession in a master-apprentice relationship, he worked in high-end hotels and restaurants in Türkiye and rose to the position of executive chef over time.
In 2004, he completed a training program on human anatomy and digestive system at Istanbul Food Academy; His interest in the scientific side of nutrition also manifested itself in his later works.
Abroad experience and competitions
He spent a significant part of his career abroad. He worked as gastronomy and kitchen coordinator in France, Italy, Germany, Qatar and Greece. He was introduced as "Trend Chef" in CULINARY magazine published in the USA in 2005. He came third in his category at the IKA Culinary Olympiad held in Germany in 2008. In 2012, he participated in the World Chefs Olympiad as the director of the Turculina team within the Turkish Chefs Federation, and the team finished second in this organization.
He is considered among the chefs who early adopted the fusion approach in Türkiye, which brings together different culinary traditions on the same plate.
Television and businesses
He has been a jury member in MasterChef Türkiye, which has been broadcast on TV8 since 2018. His disciplined and guiding attitude in the program made him one of the most recognizable faces of the competition. He was also part of the team that evaluated child contestants in MasterChef Junior, which was released on the Exxen platform in 2021.
In addition to his television work, he founded his own businesses. In 2019, he opened MYK Gastro Arena in Yeşilköy, Istanbul, which organizes professional culinary training, workshops and corporate events. Under the same roof, he also runs a restaurant called MYK, where he serves his own signature plates.
Mehmet Yalçınkaya, as a chef who grew up in a high school and received degrees in international competitions and conveyed this knowledge to a wide audience through television, is one of the well-known names of the period when the visibility of the culinary profession increased in Türkiye. It continues to contribute to the training of new chefs through its training center.