Betül Tunç’s massive online popularity — she’s the culinary whiz behind the Instagram account @turkuazkitchen — was due to baby blues.
A few years back, Tunç, a recent immigrant from Erzurum, Turkey, found herself living in the US with her husband, newborn son and a shaky grasp of English.
“I was so alone, I was so bored,” she tells The Post in a recent exclusive interview. “So I was depressed and I was so lonely. Whenever I feel lost, I find myself again in my kitchen. I was cooking, baking every single day and I was trying new recipes.”
Tunç’s husband suggested she start posting videos as a way to connect with people and cultivate online friendships and a culinary superstar was born. But it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic hit that the account exploded.
People fell in love with Tunç’s use of soothing classical music and gimmick of only using old fashioned implements like a hand-held egg beater and mortar and pestle.
Becoming a social-media therapist has thrilled Tunç. “You can’t imagine how this thing makes me so happy,” she shared. “It makes me so more motivated and keeps me (going) to make more videos.”
And now Tunç’s account has been transformed into hardcover with the publication of her first cookbook, “Turkuaz Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Dough Recipes for Sweet and Savory Bakes: A Baking Book,” brimming with recipes inspired by her homeland.
“It was my childhood dream,” she explained. “I always just imagined to have a cookbook because you have to see my notebooks in my childhood journal . . . I have all of my recipes that I’m just trying to make.” She even practiced perfecting her autograph, something that will come in handy as Tunç crisscrosses the country on her first book tour. “I’m just, like, having my childhood dream,” she gushed. “It is incredible. It is so beautiful.” — Nicki Gostin
