134 Hampshire St.
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-661-0505
Chef-owner Ana Sortun believes food is comfort, and Oleana is a neighborhood restaurant all about comfort.
The menu centers on Mediterranean inspired dishes, layered with flavor and unusual spice combinations. Details like spice blends and pressed coffees set the restaurant apart.
The ambiance is rich in wood, stone and iron; the interior is a contrast of earth tones with soft lighting, shades of blue and handmade tabletops of golden onyx mosaic.
In winter, the wood stove is roaring. In warm weather, Oleana’s garden blooms and buzzes with outdoor dining.
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As a teenager, Chef Ana Sortun's horizons were set far beyond her hometown of Seattle. After completing two years of intensive studies in French at L'Ecole Français, the nineteen year-old, armed with a fluency degree, crossed both continent and ocean to attend La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine culinary school in Paris. She received her Grand Diplome from La Varenne, and another diploma for wine studies from L'Academie du Vin to boot.
Après Paris, Sortun returned to Seattle and took on the role of Pastry Assistant and Rounds Cook at the Café Sport with Chef Tom Douglas. In 1990, she swapped coasts, moving to Boston taking a position as Executive Chef of Aigo Bistro in Concord, Massachusetts where she was voted "Best New Chef," by Boston Magazine.
With Aigo Bistro owner Moncef Medeb, Sortun opened 8 Holyoke restaurant in Cambridge, developing a menu that combined her classic French training with Mediterranean influences. Something new for traditional Boston, and Esquire Magazine took note, identifying her as a 'rising star' in the city's restaurant community.
It was her role as Executive Chef at Casablanca restaurant in Cambridge that put Sortun's name on Boston's culinary map. Her French-Mediterranean signature - now matured and bolstered by experience and confidence - garnered numerous accolades and press attention from the likes of The New York Times, Playboy, Food and Wine, Bon Appetit, and Gourmet.
Not surprisingly, Sortun credits her travels abroad as a major influence in her cooking. Travels which include kitchen time in France, Spain, Italy and Turkey came together in January of 2001, when she opened her own restaurant, Oleana, in Cambridge.
Known for unique Arabic-Mediterranean food, Oleana has received much local and national praise, including "Best Pastry Chef" and "Best Al Fresco Dining" by Boston Magazine as well as a nomination for "Best New Restaurant in America" by the James Beard Foundation. In the spring of 2005, Sortun was awarded the "Best Chef Northeast" by the James Beard Foundation. It looks like Sortun and Oleana have found their home - somewhere between Seattle and the Mediterranean.
In May 2006, Sortun published her first cookbook, SPICE; Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean, which was nomination for Best Cookbook by the James Beard Foundation and is a best seller according to the Boston Globe and LA Times.
Also in 2006 came the addition of Siena Farms, owned and farmed by Sortun's husband, Chris Kurth. The farm, named after the couple's daughter, provides the restaurant with most of its fresh organic produce.
In August 2008 Sortun and longtime Pastry Chef Maura Kilpatrick partnered to open Sofra Bakery & Café. Sofra, which is an Arabic word that means a picnic on a rug; a low communal table; a small square kilim rug to eat on, serves a menu of foods and baked goods, inspired mostly by the countries of Turkey, Lebanon, and Greece.
