MasterChef Turkey co-host and Sydney restaurateur sentenced to five years jail
Somer Sivrioglu has been sentenced to more than five years in a Turkish prison for “causing death and injury by negligence”.
The MasterChef Turkey host who co-owns Anason at Barangaroo and the hatted Maydonoz in the Sydney CBD was arrested after a wall collapsed in front of his Istanbul restaurant Efendy.
Sivrioglu and two others were sentenced to five years, six months, and 20 days at a hearing at the Istanbul 32nd High Criminal Court.
“The indictment explained that, despite being in a position to foresee the death or injury of individuals due to the collapse of the garden wall, the defendants continued to use the wall without carrying out licensing, maintenance, renovation, repair, or reinforcement procedures,” Turkish news website Haberler reported.
It is believed a former diplomat from Jordan was killed when the wall collapsed in May 2022.
Sivrioglu told the Herald from Turkey that he was a new tenant at the time, was not the owner of the building and had no way of knowing the condition of the wall.
“It isn’t the wall of the restaurant, it’s the retaining wall of the property,” he says. “It [collapsed] during service, we didn’t realise [at the time].”
Sivrioglu will appeal the decision.
Born and raised in Istanbul, Sivrioglu pursued an MBA at the University of Technology Sydney after relocating to Australia. Renowned for his culinary prowess, he established the award-winning Efendy restaurant in Balmain in 2007. The restaurant, which closed in 2021 due to the sale of the building, garnered significant acclaim. Subsequently, Sivrioglu, along with his business partners and senior team, launched the successful Anason, Baharat, and Maydanoz restaurants.
Last month, his team announced plans to open a 280-seat seafood restaurant at the redeveloped Sydney Fish Market next year. Sivrioglu confirmed that this project remains unaffected by recent events, stating, "Nothing has changed, it's going ahead."
Jonathan Jackson, 10th December 2024
