In conversation with Irina Janakievska, author of The Balkan Kitchen

Here at Undiscovered Balkans, we consider ourselves connoisseurs when it comes to Balkan food (see previous blog post), but Macedonian-British author and recipe developer Irina Janakievska’s knowledge is unmatched. Since 2011, she’s been on a culinary journey to discover the history, intricacies and origins of traditional foods found in the region for her debut cookbook, The Balkan Kitchen.

Born in what’s now North Macedonia (former Yugoslavia), Irina moved to Kuwait with her mother in the late 1980s to escape the violent breakup of Yugoslavia. In 2001, Irina moved to Britain to study at the London School of Economics, graduating with a Masters and securing a job as a solicitor. She left the corporate world in 2020 to pursue her passion for Balkan cuisine and train at the Leiths School of Food and Wine.

Irina has since contributed her knowledge of Balkan food and culture to the likes of The Guardian, Foodnetwork US and Whetstone Magazine, among others and in 2023, The Balkan Kitchen was shortlisted for the Jane Grigson Trust Award.

It landed on shelves in October 2024, so we caught up with Irina to find out more about the history behind the recipes and what dishes you should try when visiting the region.

How would you sum up Balkan food in three words?

Rich, vibrant, diverse.

What inspired you to write The Balkan Kitchen? We can tell it was a labour of love with so many personal stories, anecdotes and photographs to accompany the recipes.

After my grandmother tragically passed away in 2011, I was in her apartment in front of the bookshelf that held our family’s most treasured books and  happened to pick up a copy of her 1956 edition of Veliki Narodni Kuvar (Great National Cookbook) by Spasenija Pata Markovic, with its fading olive-green cover, torn but lovingly repaired.

It opened on a page with a recipe for Grijaž torta s čokoladom (a walnut praline cake with chocolate), next to which she had written ‘Princess’ and ‘For Irina’ with a date two weeks after the day I was born (this recipe is adapted and included in the book as Alexander’s cake, as I make it for my son’s birthday). Finding this note sparked the idea for The Balkan Kitchen. It struck me then that I would never again be able to learn from those no longer with us and understand the intricacies of everything they did in the kitchen.

‘It became a journey to understand and document the history behind the food.’

I knew that I had to write not just about my family’s story but about the people of the Balkans, what Balkan cuisine means to us and how it carries the weight of the often difficult and painful but at the same time beautifully culturally rich and unique history of the Balkans.

Along the way, this project took on a greater significance for me. It became a journey to understand and document the history behind the food. It also became a “mission” to help others like myself, members of the global Balkan diaspora, to recreate the flavours of their memories, wherever they find themselves in the world. Also, to help those who have fallen in love with the Balkans recreate their delicious experiences around the region.

My hope for the book is that it makes those newly discovering the Balkans and our cuisine fall as hopelessly in love with the Balkans, its people and its cuisine as I am and gives them a practical way to bring Balkan flavour into their kitchens around the world.

More on Balkan food:

• 10 traditional Balkan foods you have to try when you visit
• How to drink Bosnian coffee the right way
• An introduction to Croatian wine

Have you discovered new things in the process of researching and writing it?

So many! Definitely too many to list! My favourite was learning more about the connection between the Balkans and South America, specifically, the arrival of what are considered staples in the Balkan kitchen,  tomatoes, peppers and beans. These were gifts of the Columbian Exchange, arriving in Europe in the early 16th century, and began to be cultivated in the Balkans by the late 16th and early 17th century, integrating into the local cuisine rapidly.

Your grandmother was a feeder, it’s how she expressed her love. Is this a wider cultural thing in the Balkans?

Food is an integral part of Balkan culture. Cooking beautiful food, feeding people, eating together is our ultimate manifestation of love. There are culinary rituals and dishes surrounding every occasion in life – from birth, to death, and everything in between.

How did you go about finding all of the recipes for the book?

I would say about a third of the recipes in the book are my family recipes (adapted/modernised by me) – not just from my maternal grandmother, but also her mother, my mother, and other members of my family.  The rest are for dishes that I either felt needed to be included in a cookbook covering Balkan cuisine or simply ones I loved most from the research.

In terms of how the book was researched, it was a combination of everything: historical research in archives, my inherited family recipes, old cookbooks published across the former Yugoslav region from the 19th century onwards, extensive travel across the whole region, speaking to local people, local cooking classes, and exploring local restaurants.

If somebody is travelling to the Balkans for the first time, what dishes must they absolutely try?

My advice to anyone travelling the Balkans is always this: find the local pazar or pijac (food market) in the city you are visiting and go explore it. Enjoy the seasonal abundance on offer – the freshest fruits and vegetables, wild herbs, honeys, homemade preserves, and other artisanal local cheeses and cured or smoked meats.

You will never go wrong buying a selection of breads and pastries (kifli, burek, pita, štrudla, milibrod) from a local neighbourhood bakery.

‘My advice to anyone travelling the Balkans is always this: find the local pazar or pijac (food market) in the city you are visiting and go explore it.’

If you are in Montenegro or Croatia by the Adriatic, find a little konoba or restaurant by the sea frequented by locals and ask for the catch of the day – either grilled or fried. Have mussels or other local fish and seafood buzara style, with a local wine. Try a riblja čorba (fish soup) – either by the sea, or inland with freshwater fish.

If you are in Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania or Bosnia, try the grilled meats. In Bosnia, particularly in Sarajevo, find a little ašcinica (restaurant) and have whatever is on offer that day – I love Sarajevski sahan (a selection of stuffed vegetables), or of course Sarajevo-style burek, especially if baked under a sac (metal dome for live fire cooking).

In Kosovo and Albania, try flija or fli – a pastry made with a kind of pancake batter and yoghurt or kajmak baked layer by layer under a sac.

Make friends with the locals and ask them what they would suggest you try. We love our food and will happily advise you on the best local places to try all the diverse and delicious dishes the Balkans has to offer, and more often than not will invite you into our homes to eat with us.

Finally, if you could only eat one Balkan dish for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Sour cabbage sarma is my ultimate comfort food. It is made by rolling fermented cabbage leaves with a flavourful mixture – typically with minced meat, rice, various spices, aromatics and herbs, and then slowly simmered with smoked meat (like smoked pork ribs, or smoked sausages). A vegan version of it is just as delicious!

You can find The Balkan Kitchen online at Amazon or in select book stores  including Waterstones and WHSmith if you’re in the UK.