Me, chef

My love for cooking & baking (or just spending time in the kitchen) is growing bigger and bigger each day. It all started when I was 4 or 5, I didn't go to kindergarden and how I was living with my grandparents, my grandma took care of me while my parents were working. We spent a lot of time on playing and watching cartoons, but also preparing lunch and making desserts. She would always let me help her and I enjoyed it. She taught me how to make a lot of traditional Croatian meals and desserts.

Zoki, who happens to be my dad but I call him by his name, always wanted to be a chef so he constantly makes new recipes and he clearly had an impact on me because we share the same hobby.

I've been huuuuge chocolate lover my whole life and when I was younger I was more interested in baking than cooking really. First thing I ever baked was chocolate cherry cake when I was 12. My parents would never let me use oven on my own at that age so I decided to bake it when I was home alone, right after school. When they came home they were really upset but also kinda impressed because I did everything alone. Cake tasted better than it looked, but hey I was 12. Since then, I baked a lot of cakes, muffins, brownies and other desserts. I've also become better in decorating and combining flavours.

The older I get, the more I'm interested in cooking. First I started making all kinds of pasta and risottos, then I got fascinated about preparing meat on so many different ways with all kind of spices and now I'm in my soup making phase. Mostly, I make food that's typical for Balkan area, however, my hometown is near Italy so I'm really used to Italian cuisine. Other than that I love Asian food, yet I rarely prepare it at home. I'm always happy to try out new recipes and I think food is one important part of country's culture so when travelling I have to try local cuisine.

I can't even tell you how much I miss Croatian food. I've been living in UK for 2 months now and I'm slowly getting used to British food. I prepare my own meals rather than going to restaurants (plus it's expensive) so I don't eat too much of it but I tried a lot of local specialties. What I hate the most is when I want to cook something really badly but they don't even sell that groceries here so it's impossible for me to prepare it (thank god on sending packages with food and fast delivery!). Don't want you to think how I hate everything that has to do something with British food. First time I tried fish&chips I immediately fell in love with them, I just miss food from home; sarmas, maneshtras, goulash...

I know that you probably have no idea what kind of meals are those so if you wanna find out more about them keep checking my blog as there will be some recipes posts soon!