Doner kebab (, ; or , ), also spelled döner kebab, is a type of kebab, made of meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie. Seasoned meat stacked in the shape of an inverted cone is turned slowly on the rotisserie, next to a vertical cooking element. The operator uses a knife to slice thin shavings from the outer layer of the meat as it cooks. The vertical rotisserie was invented in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire, and dishes such as the Arab shawarma, Greek gyros, Canadian donair, and Mexican al pastor are derived from this. The modern sandwich variant of döner kebab originated and was popularized in 1970s West Berlin by Turkish immigrants. This was recognized by the Berlin-based Association of Turkish Doner Manufacturers in Europe, in 2011. Nowadays there are more döner kebab stores in Berlin than in Istanbul. The sliced meat of a doner kebab may be served on a plate with various accompaniments, stuffed into a pita or other type of bread as a sandwich, or wrapped in a thin flatbread such as lavash or yufka, known as a dürüm (literally meaning roll or wrap in Turkish). Kadir Nurman in the early 1970s introduced the sandwich or wrap form, which has become popular around the world as a fast food dish sold by kebab shops, and is often called simply a "kebab". The sandwich generally contains salad or vegetables, which may include tomato, lettuce, cabbage, onion with sumac, fresh or pickled cucumber, or chili, and various types of sauces. History In the Ottoman Empire, at least as far back as the 17th century, stacks of seasoned sliced meat were cooked on a horizontal rotisserie, similar to the cağ kebab. The vertical rotisserie was introduced no later than the mid-19th century. The town of Bursa, in modern-day Turkey, is often considered the birthplace of the vertically roasted döner kebab. According to Yavuz İskenderoğlu, his grandfather İskender Efendi as a child in 1850s Bursa had the idea of roasting the lamb at his father's restaurant vertically rather than horizontally; it was a success, and some years later became known as döner kebap. However, he may have been preceded by Hamdi Usta from Kastamonu around 1830. A version popular in the Arab world became known as shawarma. By at least the 1930s it had been brought overseas, and was sold in restaurants in Mexico by Lebanese immigrants. Doner kebab likely arrived