About Us

Tahtalıoğlu began in 1958 as a small baklava bakery opened by Hüseyin Tahtalıoğlu on Suburcu Street in Şahinbey, Gaziantep. Hüseyin Usta had learned the trade at the age of twelve as an apprentice to the city's old baklava masters. The first shop had a single stone oven, two rolling pins and sacks of pistachios that arrived once a week.

Three generations

In the 1980s his sons Ali and Hasan Tahtalıoğlu took over; they built a second oven and began sending baklava to Istanbul by bus cargo for the first time. Today the third generation, Mehmet Tahtalıoğlu and Gülşen Tahtalıoğlu Avcı, runs the business. In 2015 we moved to the workshop in Karataş; the shop on Suburcu Street remains open as a morning katmer and hot baklava salon.

Rules that never change

• Only green Antep pistachio kernels from the August harvest, every batch tested for aflatoxin
• Only clarified sheep's butter from Şanlıurfa; no margarine or vegetable oil
• 40 layers of pastry rolled by hand every day
• No colourings, preservatives or ready-made cream

Antep baklava and the geographical indication

Antep baklava was the first Turkish product registered as a geographical indication (PGI) in the European Union, in 2013. We make our baklava in Gaziantep using the traditional method defined by this registration.

Certificates and registration

Our workshop is a food business registered with the Gaziantep Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry (business registration no. TR-27-K-019642). We operate an ISO 22000 food safety management system.

Today

With 40 masters and 6 stone ovens we produce about 1.5 tonnes of baklava a day, reaching every part of Türkiye through our shops in Gaziantep, Istanbul and Ankara and by cargo, and Europe with dry baklava.