Oktay Usta

Oktay Usta, real name Oktay Aymelek, is a Turkish chef known for his Yeşil Elma program, which was broadcast on Samanyolu TV for many years. He trained in hotel kitchens, won medals in international cooking competitions, and continued publishing recipes online after his television career.

He was born on September 27, 1968 in Mengen district of Bolu. He grew up in a village in Mengen, known for its cooks, as the youngest of six children of a cook father; He studied primary and secondary school in Mengen. In 1983, when he was fifteen years old, he started working in the kitchen of a restaurant in Istanbul with the help of his uncle, who was a chef. A few years later, he joined the kitchen team of a hotel in Izmir.

Hotel kitchens and competitions

In the first period of his career, he worked in large hotels in tourism centers such as Antalya, Bodrum, Kuşadası and Uludağ and was promoted to chef. He also worked abroad to promote Turkish cuisine. In the late 1990s, he participated in international cooking competitions in London, Malta and Spain; While he won the bronze medal in London in 1998, he also won the gold medal in London in 2000. He also won silver medals during this period.

Television and beyond

He reached a wide audience with the Yeşil Elma program, which was broadcast on Samanyolu TV in 1998. In the program, which was broadcast every weekday, he prepared recipes step by step and sometimes cooked with the guests. The program remained on the screen for nearly seventeen years, making Master Oktay one of Türkiye's most well-known television chefs. Samanyolu TV was among the channels closed by the state of emergency decree in July 2016.

In parallel with his work on television, he published books on food and practical kitchen information. After leaving the screen, he started sharing his recipes on YouTube and social media accounts under the name "Chef Oktay Usta". These channels feature easy-to-apply recipes suitable for home cooking.

Oktay Usta, a chef who comes from Mengen's culinary tradition and cooked in hotel kitchens and appeared on television for a long time during the period when daytime cooking programs became widespread, is one of the well-known names in recipe publishing for home cooking in Türkiye.