Chef Sertaç Dirik leaves Mangal 2

In an Instagram post, Dirik said that he would retain his interests and directorship but “operationally have little input” and that it was “time for another to nurture the beast that is the Mangal”.

Sertaç and his brother and front of house counterpart Ferhat relaunched Mangal 2 in 2020 having worked at the highly-rated Dalston Turkish ocakbasi restaurant at various points throughout their lives. 

Sertaç had been taught how to cook on the restaurant's charcoal grill in his late teens and - just ahead of the relaunch - spent a year cooking his way around Copenhagen. 

In its new guise, Mangal 2 serves an ingredient-led and far more gastronomically ambitious menu that seeks to elevate Turkish cuisine while simultaneously honouring the Stoke Newington Road restaurant’s heritage.

This new approach has gone down well, with the pair receiving a glowing review from The Observer critic Jay Rayner in 2021 with Mangal 2 also currently listed on Restaurant’s list of the top 100 restaurants in the UK. ​​

“It’s with a heavy heart that I announce my leave from Mangal 2. I always knew it would be challenging but nothing could prepare me for the rollercoaster that has been this journey. This isn’t just a work place to me, it has been my home, my school, my place of both comfort and darkness,” he says.

“None of this would have been possible without my brother, Ferhat. Working with him has been an invaluable experience - we have been through every extreme emotion imaginable, all the while applied an incredible pressure on one another to make Mangal 2 the best it can be, even at times to the detriment of our relationship but as Ferhat says ‘pressure makes diamonds’ and he is absolutely correct.”