Turkish Airlines has added a new offering to its in-flight service: ‘The Oldest Bread.’ Made from Einkorn and Emmer wheat—two of the earliest known grains in Anatolia, Türkiye, a region rich in ancient civilizations—this new menu item reflects the airline’s commitment to showcasing Turkish heritage through its cuisine, blending time-honoured traditions with modern innovation.
The bread made its official debut yesterday, 22 September 2024, with a flight from Istanbul to New York. ‘The Oldest Bread’ is a project rooted in the history of Anatolian agriculture, which began nearly 12,000 years ago in the Taş Tepeler region. Known as one of the centers of the Neolithic Revolution, this area marks the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to settled, agricultural communities, with wheat domestication playing a pivotal role in reshaping both diets and social structures.
Speaking on the new addition to the menu, Turkish Airlines Chairman of the Board and Executive Committee, Prof. Ahmet Bolat, said: “With this bread, traditional to Turkish cuisine and significant to global culinary history, we aim to blend past and present together on our inflight guest experiences. We hope that our new menu item will be appreciated by our guests.”
To mark the occasion, Turkish Airlines premiered a short film filmed in the Göbeklitepe, Karahantepe, and Euphrates River regions, with support from Türkiye’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
