On 5 October 2023, the Liszt Institute Istanbul organized a literary evening with dinner at Minoa, one of the most prestigious bookstore-restaurants in the city. The event was organised to celebrate the 106th anniversary of the birth of Magda Szabó, the two-time Kossuth and Attila József Prize winner. The event was a chance to enjoy a menu based on two collections of recipes from the author's estate and dishes from her books.
Visitors could taste cauliflower soup with ginger and sea bream, pancakes with cabbage and sour cream, Hungarian chicken paprikash with dumplings and pickled cucumber and for dessert, plum dumplings with sweet sour cream.
Among the dishes, Ágnes Tóth, a staff member of the Hungarian Cultural Institute, spoke about the works that inspired the event and the food served. The event was also attended by Eylül Görmüş, a literary influencer with over 46,000 followers, who presented Magda Szabó's works translated into Turkish. During the evening, she described in detail the author's work and writing style, the influence of modern Hungarian history on literature, and also spoke about her personal experiences as a reader. Turkish cultural and literary journalists and influencers also attended the sold-out event.
Since 2007, many of Magda Szabó's works - The Door, Abigail, Pilate, Catherine Street, The Deer - have been published by Yapi Kredi, one of Turkey's most prestigious publishing houses. There is a huge interest in the author's works in Turkey. The Door, for example, is now on the bookshelves for the tenth time. To mark the Hungarian-Turkish Cultural Year in 2024, the publisher plans to republish all of Magda Szabó's works in Turkish.
Tasting Magda Szabó inspired dishes in Turkey