Tüten Keser: Mr. Julien, first of all, I would like to start with a question that everyone who meets the Voeux brand is curious about. How to pronounce Voeux?
Julien Martin: Yes, this question comes to me a lot. It's pronounced as voö. Most of the time, we read words consisting of many letters with very few sounds in French.
Tüten Keser: A catchy word. Well, I want to move on to the other curious question. Which wind threw you to Turkey?
Julien Martin: In 1990, I was appointed as a senior manager in the Turkey branch of a French company. The culture and people of this place impressed me a lot. I spent my childhood and youth in Paris. Istanbul and Paris share very similar dynamics as cities. I loved living in Istanbul, I started my family here.
Tüten Keser: It's a good story. The whole world is well aware of the importance the French attach to life, cuisine and eating. Why do you think the kitchen and tables are so important to the French?
Julien Martin: (Laughs) Yes, it's really important, but I don't think it's very different for Turks. life in France; It's not just about business, money, or having the best of everything. It is always more important for us to be in the moment and enjoy the moment. In fact, we can call it living the simplest daily routines in the most enjoyable way. For the French, meals and tables are also an experience shared with family or friends.
Tüten Keser: Mr. Julien, I think this experience you are describing is much more than preparing food?
Julien Martin: That's right, actually, this adventure starts when you do your daily food shopping from organic markets or local producers, continues in the kitchen and ends at the table. Eating with pleasure is as much an art for me as cooking. And of course, the most important thing is to share the taste with all your loved ones with pleasure.
Tüten Keser: Well, back to the brand, Voeux (Vö); wish and desire mean in french, why did you give this name to the brand? Why cast iron pots and pans?
Julien Martin: Yes, Voeux; It means desire and desire. In fact, we can say that the feeling behind naming the brand with this name is a little longing for my childhood. My mother and sister used to cook great meals together. It gave me incredible pleasure to watch them, to smell the flavor, and then to spend pleasant times accompanied by the cast iron cooking on the table. Of course, I have to mention that it is the cast iron pots that have been used for centuries in the French cuisine that give the food its real flavor. I very much wanted my beloved wife and daughter to experience the joy and taste of my childhood together in the kitchen. And this dream became tangible with the Voeux brand.
Tüten Keser: It really seems like this brand deserves its name. Can you talk a little bit about the creation process of the brand?
Julien Martin: I would say the process took a while, especially the research part. We put a lot of thought into why cooking with cast iron pots and pans is different from other cooking methods and how we can improve it. And of course, the external appearance of the pots and pans was also very important to us. We have a really creative and industrial designer team whose taste we trust, we worked hard until the designs of the products reflect the image of the brand we want to establish. We produced handcrafted cast iron products in Turkey by using our own knowledge in order to make more accessible prices and the result is here.
Tüten Keser: Good luck with your work. Its elegance is its first striking feature. I hope it won't be a problem for me to buy this pot after the interview. (Laughs) Well, within the Voeux brand, there are many different product groups for kitchen and tableware. Not just cast iron pots and pans?
Julien Martin: Absolutely not, although the Voeux brand is mainly cast iron pots and pans, we actually want to create a stylish kitchen and table culture. That's why we created the opportunity to work collectively with many brands whose quality and designs we trust. We have combined many different categories under the Voeux brand, from knives and cutting boards used in food preparation to very different table presentation products.
Tüten Keser: Everything looks very stylish indeed. Thank you for this pleasant conversation. It was a pleasure for us to get to know you and your brand closely. We are sure that Turkish cuisines and food lovers will be very pleased to welcome your products. If there is anything you want to add, please let me know.
Julien Martin: I thank you. It was a pleasant conversation for me. It is always a pleasure for me to talk about this brand, which means a lot to me. Ah yes, there is something I would like to add. We actually want to convey a heritage and culture to the consumer's kitchen, not just a piece. Because as long as you take good care of cast iron pots and pans, you can pass them on to the next generations with pleasure. In other words, it may be a little selfish to buy and use these pots and pans only for yourself, it is necessary to think carefully about who you will entrust them to after you.
Yours sincerely