I was born in a village. My parents separated. I was living with my grandfather. When I was supposed to go to primary school at the age of seven, my father disinherited me. My older brother poisoned me. My grandfather got old and I became an unwanted child. I learned how to write by writing on walls and rocks with a black stick.

I herded goats. My mother got angry about this occupation. She sent me to Ankara to earn money for a gun so I could shoot my father. I was a street kid there. I wrote to Demirel twice to educate me but couldn’t get a positive reply. I slept in a public toilet in Sıhhiye, fuelled up lighters in Ulus square. I had borrowed 20TL to travel to Ankara from my village. I paid 40TL in return for that 20TL. Then I got a job in a bar and rented a coal bunker to sleep at nights. I bought books and decided to learn English. I founded the Hüseyin Özer Eğitim Vakfı (Hüseyin Özer Education Trust) with my first wage. Then I went to İstanbul. I found myself an English tutor. I fulfilled my obligation for military services then came to London by bus; because I had no money for a plane ticket. I went to an English course in London and worked in a doner kebab shop then I bought that doner kebab shop and turned it into a restaurant. I hired a nutritionist so I could cook healthy food. I had created queues at the door of the restaurant that had bad business for 30 years and was bankrupted many times over. I refined the Turkish food, and made its windows bulletproof so that the ambassador can eat there. During the economic depression, I created cafes to cook healthy and economic food and the customers were determining the prices. So this is how the chain was born. After some time I sold the cafes. Our restaurants are situated in the most important districts of London. One is Özer, and others are Sofra. I have contributed to the Turkish-English Chamber of Commerce for many years sponsoring Civil Society Organization in London.

Our restaurants have been the first and only Turkish restaurants recommended by Michelin Guide. Our restaurants have been distributing Turkish Tourism brochures. We promote good Turkish food and hospitality. The worldwide selling English cookbook named ‘‘Sofra’’ is still in print.

My thoughts and feelings about London have been attracting visitors since 2003 in a vocal presentation section of the Museum of London. The documentary prepared by Discovery Channel about my life has featured in about 60 countries and 5 channels; daily messages have also been left from viewers all over the world on our website.