CznBurak coming to Dubai: Instagram chef Burak Ozdemir launches first restaurant outside Turkey

The chef is known for his larger-than-life dishes and camera-ready grin

Turkish chef Burak Ozdemir, known as CznBurak, will open his restaurant in Dubai on Christmas Day  

A new breed of chefs has emerged, those who offer both dinner and a show, and fill their tables with social-media-savvy customers thanks to their Instagram antics. Dubai diners are already familiar with Salt Bae, and now they have yet another celebrity chef ready to entertain them. Famed Turkish chef Burak Ozdemir, better known as CznBurak, will open his eponymous restaurant in the emirate on Friday, December 25.

With 17.8 million followers on Instagram, the ever-beaming chef is all about “big flavours and big portions”.

Specialising in dishes that seamlessly blend meat, rice, vegetables and spices all thrown into one massive cauldron, the chef does everything in a larger-than-life manner, all the while staring straight into the camera with a grin (that's become part of his social media appeal) as he mixes and matches myriad flavours.

From wielding a sword instead of a kitchen knife to balancing a tray full of food on his head, Burak is part-chef, part-entertainer.

Now he's bringing all of this pomp and show to the Dubai restaurant at Boulevard Point in Downtown Dubai, which is also his first outpost outside his native Turkey. He announced the news in his typical OTT manner, by creating a Burj Khalifa pumpkin in November.

Entertaining tableside shows aside, diners can look forward to more than 150 dishes on the CznBurak menu, which will include a mix of Turkish and Middle Eastern favourites.

Burak hails from a family of chefs; his grandfather was a kunefe master, while his father operated Zeytindali Restaurant in Sisli, Istanbul. Burak began working for his father when he was 13, and currently operates six of his own restaurants in Turkey.

In keeping with family tradition, he does a mean kunefe, too, that's gargantuan to boot.

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