>> tony: your father was macedonian? >> rene: yeah, from the former yugoslavia. >> anthony: right, and then you left yugoslavia at what age? >> rene: fourteen. people make fun of me when i say i've never driven a car but i've never -- i never had a coca cola until i was like 17. it just wasn't in a small little village where there's two cars. the first food memory i have is also from there. it was my father and the day before we'd been in the mountains picking chestnuts. and i remember so vividly as a little child, i woke up and i saw my father roasting chestnuts and then i started hearing all these things popping. twenty minutes later they were in a bowl, and my aunt, she poured milk she had just taken from the cow and we had that for breakfast. it was so natural that we went to the mountain for chestnuts. you grew your food yourself. these sort of experiences growing up they really shaped the type of cook i am today.