Gürkan Topçu, aka Gürkan Şef, came to Istanbul after his education in Denizli and studied Food and Beverage Management at the Culinary Academy. With the advice of his teacher, he also finished his cookery education.
He continued his education abroad at England Meat School on butchery. Thus, he became Turkey's first diploma butcher. During his student years, he realized the place he dreamed of as a project assignment under his own name in Istanbul.
In 2014, he started to make the program "Barbecue Time with Gürkan Şef", which is the first and only program in Turkey and in the world. The program continued for about 200 episodes. He prepared and presented the competition called 'Fire Games with Gürkan Şef' on Blu tv, Turkey's best digital platform. Finally, he made the program "Barbecue Conversations with Gürkan Şef" for Bloomberg Tv, one of the most respected economy channels in the world.