Emir Ali Enç

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT EMIR ALI ENÇ

Emir Ali Enç is the son of two career diplomat parents and had set his course to follow them with this vocation and join the Turkish Foreign Service after his university studies. Growing up the son of diplomats, Emir was fortunate to be exposed to a comprehensive education of history, culture and language. He speaks Turkish, English, French, Arabic as well as Persian, as well as mastering Latin, Middle-Persian and Ottoman Turkish.While studying for the Foreign Service Officer Test from his family house in Istanbul, Emir would offset the work with his greatest hobby and passion: cooking.The Enç family kitchen is well-equipped with copper cookware, mostly with classic pots and pans from the Ottoman Empire and Persia.From his parents, he was well-versed in the rich history of copper cookware manufacture from the region, particularly that of the Ottoman Empire and what is now Turkey, Syria, and the Balkans. It is in this very region, and that of Iran and Hindustan, that the tradition of copper cookware manufacture has its greatest achievement, a practiced knowledge dating back hand-to-hand master to apprentice for more than 4,500 years.While taking a break from studies with cooking, Emir had the idea that he needed a new copper saucepot. From what began as an informal search, soon became a detailed investigation as he realized that all the quality copper cookware products available on the market were brands only from Europe and that there were none from Turkey, the Middle East or the Balkans. He knew that the European tradition of copper cookware manufacture roughly dated back some 600 years and could understand its development to their quality brands of today. What stunned him was that there were none from the region where artisanal copper cookware manufacture had continued, unstopped, for the last 4,500 years, was where the craft had reached its highest expression and was even the source of knowledge for the European tradition.He began by touring these regions to inform and educate himself about this craft and ended spending one-and-a-half years to apprentice under a master and become a Coppersmith himself. From this he assembled a team of traditional coppersmith and silversmith artisans around him and set-up a workshop in the traditional smithing area in Istanbul and began what is now Soy