Selin Kiazim is a chef who is not short of ambition. At 20, she promised herself she would open a restaurant before she was 30; at 25, she made it her aim to revolutionise Turkish cuisine in Britain; now, at 29, she wants her restaurant, Oklava, which opens later this month, to be one of the best in London. All of the above may well come true.

For many in Britain, Turkish food is synonymous with dips, kebabs and grilled meat; Kiazim has proved it can be otherwise. Her take replaces hearty and greasy with delicate and inventive — spicy lamb breast lavash with fennel seed and sour cherry dressing; tiny, fluffy courgette and feta fritters with sour cream; chilli roast cauliflower. Seven years ago, her cooking caught the attention of Peter Gordon, the “father of fusion”, who gave her a job at Providores in Marylebone. Several of her creations made it onto the menu, an extraordinary feat for a junior chef. When Gordon opened Kopapa in Covent Garden, another fusion restaurant, he took Kiazim with him. She left in March 2013. “I loved working at Kopapa and was doing well,” she says, “but I had to keep pushing on.”

Kiazim decided she would make Turkish cooking her thing. “My parents are Turkish-Cypriot. This was the food I grew up with. We used to make amazing spiced lamb and bulgur-wheat kofta with confit garlic yoghurt at home. The wheat would be the casing and we’d deep-fry it and serve it with a knockout salad. I loved all this food and I thought, ‘No one else knows about it, but they really should.'”

Having devised a menu in 2013 showcasing a modern melding of Turkish and Mediterranean cuisines, Kiazim did a six-month residency at Trip Kitchen in east London. Customers and critics were blown away: “Dishes that have the potential to change lives,” Giles Coren wrote. “I began to fantasise quietly about hiring Kiazim as my personal chef,” wrote critic Grace Dent of a later residency of Kiazim’s. This was all the encouragement Kiazim — and her private investors — needed to set up on her own. Oklava is a small, triangular restaurant off Old Street, with roughly 40 covers. The food, naturally, will be modern Turkish. “People can take modern the wrong way,” she says. “I’m not doing whacky molecular things, I’m just modernising Britain’s Turkish food. Food in Turkey is diverse and rich. I keep learning more and more about it, and that’s my inspiration.” We can’t wait. In the meantime, try her mushroom omelette recipe, right.

– Francesca Angelini

Oklava is opening soon at 74 Luke Street, London EC2 – www.oklava.co.uk