I had no idea that the kebab, as we know it, is an Australian invention, or rather, an invention of the Turks who moved to Australia. But the Graun set me straight.
Apparently, it arrived here in the early 1980s, which was a surprise. I thought those twirling inverted pyramids of brown mystery meat had always been here. But no.
The doner kebab was brought to Australia by Turkish migrants, who began opening shops as early as the 1980s. And while there is little conclusive data, the community does claim to own a majority of kebab shops around the country.
Sahin says that the Sydney-style kebab is heavily influenced by other migrant communities in Australia, whether through the use of Lebanese bread and tabouli, or through condiments like barbecue sauce.
“Our kebab here is a concoction of all these cultures coming together in Australia. And the kebab is 100% a multicultural cuisine, it takes from everyone around it.
“This style of kebab is iconic, it’s unique in the world, and is a trusted food in Australia. You can’t get something like that in Turkey, or from other diasporas.”
The story was pinned to some odd controversy over an upstart ‘Berlin kebab’, which sounds appalling.
There is even a singular origin story to the ‘Sydney-style kebab’, the arrival in 1974 of Muammer Tüysüz, with $20 in his pocket
Tüysüz had worked in catering for the Turkish prime minister, and around 1974 attended a wedding in Australia that served doner kebabs. This got him thinking, and two years later, he imported his own machines and began operating a mobile kebab shop out the back of his station wagon.
His daughter, Melek Tüysüz, says this made him the first person to sell kebabs in Australia.
“He operated out of old Chinatown in Haymarket, in Sydney. It grew so popular, he then turned it into a truck that operated out of Flemington Markets weekly.”
Soon after, Tüysüz began operating at events like the Easter Show, where the sandwich exploded in popularity, and his business expanded rapidly.
I had no idea.