Italians tasted traditional Ottoman desserts and sweets at an event organized with the Yunus Emre Institute Rome Turkish Culture Center, Ünye Municipality and Ünye Multi-Purpose Community Center in Rome, Italy.

As a part of the event, Turkish pastry chefs walked the Italians through Turkey’s culinary culture and also showed them how to cook and bake traditional Ottoman sweets.

The guests also had the opportunity to taste the delicious desserts that have adorned Turkish dinner tables for centuries.

Turkish chef Ercan Yılmaz and his team prepared helatiye, paluze, baklava, lokma, sütlaç, helva, aşure, kadayıf, kalburabastı and, of course, Turkish delight.

Speaking at the event, Sevim Aktaş, the director of Yunus Emre Institute’s Rome branch said that the event has been very fruitful in terms of Italians getting familiar with Turkish cuisine and culture. "Our Italian friends tasted the best examples of Ottoman desserts which were eaten at the Ottoman court once," she added.