By March 2020, Sertaç Dirik had been in Copenhagen for almost two years. He was 23 and had been cheffing his way round some of the best restaurants in the Danish capital, starting at Noma’s little sister, 108, and latterly at Matt Orlando’s acclaimed, zero-waste-themed Amass. When the pandemic arrived, Dirik took a call from his older brother, Ferhat. Their family restaurant, the Turkish grill house Mangal 2 in Dalston, east London, was in trouble. The business owed suppliers £40,000 and now Covid meant it had to close for the foreseeable future.
“I was dragged back home,” recalls Dirik, who is now 26, as he sits at a window table in Mangal 2, gazing out over Stoke Newington Road. “I had a job in Copenhagen, I had a girlfriend. But my brother said he needed help and he never asks for help. I broke up with my girlfriend, quit my job, and was home within the month.”
