Macedonian crepes with garlic

When my friend Dejan Mileski said he was from Macedonia, I realized I knew nothing about the cuisine. Macedonia gained its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, but the Balkan cuisine has heavy Turkish influences. A visit to his home for a Macedonian meal a few months ago meant getting a slice of Pitulici So Luk, sort of a pie made with layered crepes soaked in garlic and olive oil. I polished off my slice in a snap.


Dejan Mileski

The first in his immediate family to come to the United States, Dejan said, "I wanted to accomplish something on my own here."

Dejan, 30, had always cooked. "I've basically been feeding my brother since I was nine years old," Dejan said.

In Macedonia, he attended a high school that offered a culinary degree. Dejan came to the United States in 2000. After settling in northern New Jersey, he opened a restaurant in 2005 and sold it five years later, leaving the long hours behind. He began working in a corporate cafeteria and opted to go to The French Culinary Institute where he was one of my classmates. He hopes to use the FCI degree to move up.

Dejan is one of those people who will drop everything to help you. He was my teammate during the last two months of school working at L'Ecole, The French Culinary Institute's restaurant. I know he'll go far.


To get the recipe, click here to see it on Serious Eats.
 

Graduation from culinary school!

Photo: Young K. Lee

It's been less than a week since I graduated from The French Culinary Institute on March 31st, and I still look at my photos over and over again. Graduation was bittersweet. My classmates and I became pretty close, getting together to study in Level 1 and hanging out after class ended late at night. We e-mailed class notes and text-messaged each other about cooking techniques. We gave one another pointers about how to make sure those lamb chops were medium rare for service at L'Ecole, and we talked about how to make agnolotti into perfect pasta pillows filled with herbed goat cheese.

To read the rest of the post on The Hot Plate, The French Culinary Institute's blog, click here.

P.S. I've been super busy. Last week, I ended my internship at SeriousEats.com, passed my final and graduated. This week, I started working as an intern in the Saveur test kitchen. I'm testing recipes for the magazine and I'm learning a lot!