In Singapore, Serbian chef \u0110or\u0111o \u0106etkovi\u0107 runs a Greek kitchen with an understanding of Mediterranean food that began well beyond Greece. Raised in Loznica, Serbia, and shaped by more than two decades working in European and Asian restaurants, \u0106etkovi\u0107 sees a close relationship between the cooking of his childhood and the Greek dishes he now prepares.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing to Greek cooking was not a sudden conversion,\u201d he tells Greek City Times. \u201cIt was noticing that olive oil, lemon, the grill, and the shared table were already a language I understood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since May 2026, \u0106etkovi\u0107 has been Executive Chef at Pano Kato Grill, Pizza & Deli, a Greek and Mediterranean restaurant at Singapore\u2019s Tanglin Mall, where he leads a team of nine. The restaurant, which opened in 2019, belongs to the House of AnLi hospitality and interiors business and has established itself around traditional Mediterranean cooking.<\/p>\n
For \u0106etkovi\u0107, the appointment brought together two culinary traditions he considers closely related, despite their different histories and identities.<\/p>\n
Born in Tuzla, Bosnia, and raised in the Serbian town of Loznica, with family roots in nearby Zvornik, \u0106etkovi\u0107 entered professional kitchens in 2003. He describes himself as largely self-taught, having taken on the responsibilities of a sous chef shortly after finishing school. His first formal mentor was Austrian chef Kristian Kohnerr, under whom he trained in Graz between 2004 and 2005.<\/p>\n
His subsequent career took him through Serbia, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Portugal before he settled in Singapore. It was an education acquired through work rather than a conventional culinary school, with each kitchen exposing him to different ingredients, techniques and expectations.<\/p>\n
He remembers the first dish he prepared for a guest: lova\u010dke \u0161nicle, the Serbian hunter\u2019s schnitzel, made with young beef. It remains a telling starting point for a chef whose understanding of food is closely connected to the meals and customs of home.<\/p>\n
In Singapore, where he has worked in approximately eight restaurants over five years, including Zorba\u2019s, Hanibal at Robertson Quay and establishments within The Black Hole Group, he developed a closer working relationship with Greek and Mediterranean food.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreek cooking came to me through the work itself,\u201d he explains, \u201cthrough kitchens in Singapore where Mediterranean and Greek food were already on the menu, and through recognising how close that food sits to the Serbian table I grew up with.\u201d<\/p>\n
The similarities are particularly apparent in dishes that rely on relatively uncomplicated methods: wrapping, grilling, slow cooking and the preparation of food intended for several people rather than one.<\/p>\n
\u0106etkovi\u0107 points to Greek dolmades and Serbian sarma, two traditions of stuffed leaves that share a basic method while differing in their choice of leaves, fillings and seasoning. He also draws a comparison between Greek souvlaki and Serbian ra\u017enji\u0107i, both of which depend on the direct heat of the grill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe names and spices differ; the gesture, meat over heat, meant for company, does not,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
His observation extends beyond the Balkans. Encountering satay in Singapore, he recognised something familiar in the skewered meat cooked over an open flame. The seasonings and accompaniments were different, but the method reminded him of ra\u017enji\u0107i.<\/p>\n
Such comparisons are not an argument that these cuisines are interchangeable. Rather, they suggest that certain ways of preparing and sharing food recur across cultures, even where the ingredients and traditions have developed independently.<\/p>\n
At Pano Kato, \u0106etkovi\u0107 approaches Greek cooking from that position of familiarity, drawing on his own culinary background without losing sight of the food he has been employed to prepare.<\/p>\n
His attachment to Serbian cooking remains equally strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI keep the roots: Loznica and Zvornik, the sense that food is hospitality, that bread and salt matter, that a dish should feed people who sit together,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The reference to bread and salt is significant. In Serbian hospitality, the traditional offering of bread and salt carries an association with welcome and respect. For \u0106etkovi\u0107, those customs have remained part of his understanding of what it means to feed someone, even as his working life has moved considerably further from home.<\/p>\n
\u201cSerbia is not a costume I put on for guests. It is the ground under the Greek kitchen I run.\u201d<\/p>\n
That relationship between food, history and identity is also central to \u0106etkovi\u0107\u2019s The Grand Heritage Cookbook<\/a>, a 299-page English-language work bringing together 145 recipes across five distinct culinary chapters.<\/p>\n Forty recipes are devoted to Serbian heritage and another forty to Hellenic heritage. A further 25 explore Lenten cooking inspired by the Serbian Orthodox monastery of Hilandar on Mount Athos, while fifteen reconstruct dishes associated with the historical period of Stefan Nemanja. The final 25 recipes reflect \u0106etkovi\u0107\u2019s own approach to contemporary fine dining.<\/p>\n The inclusion of Hilandar is particularly interesting. Established in the late twelfth century by Stefan Nemanja and his son Saint Sava, the monastery occupies a unique place in the religious and cultural history shared by Serbia and Greece. Situated on Mount Athos, the Orthodox monastic community recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site, it represents a connection between the two countries that extends well beyond contemporary cuisine.<\/p>\n For \u0106etkovi\u0107, bringing these traditions together in one cookbook allows him to explore the historical connections between food, faith and everyday life. The chapters move between familiar domestic dishes, monastic traditions and more contemporary interpretations, reflecting the different influences that have shaped his career.<\/p>\n His interest in preserving culinary identity extends beyond the restaurant. As Ambassador for Asia of the Culinary Federation of Serbia, \u0106etkovi\u0107 works to promote Serbian gastronomy and establish connections within the international culinary community. His website also documents his participation in the Worldchefs Congress & Expo in Singapore in 2024.<\/p>\n There is another personal dimension to his life in Singapore. He is married to Singaporean Masziana \u0106etkovi\u0107, and the country has become both his professional base and his home. His experience now spans several national culinary traditions, though he remains particularly interested in the food of the Balkans and Mediterranean.<\/p>\n On his website, he describes tradition as something that can be respected, questioned and expressed through contemporary techniques. It is a philosophy that recognises the importance of inherited knowledge without treating recipes as untouchable.<\/p>\n Professional cooking, after all, demands more than an appreciation of cultural heritage. Running a kitchen involves training staff, managing costs and maintaining standards through successive services. Alongside his restaurant work, \u0106etkovi\u0107 consults on kitchen operations, menu development and restaurant openings, drawing on experience accumulated since 2003.<\/p>\n Yet his account of Greek cooking repeatedly returns to something less technical: the experience of eating together.<\/p>\n At the Serbian table he remembers from childhood, as at the Greek table he now helps recreate in Singapore, food is rarely understood solely as an individual plate. Its significance is also found in the people gathered around it, the customs that accompany a meal and the dishes passed between generations.<\/p>\n \u201cOlive oil, lemon, and the shared table are where the two kitchens meet on the plate,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n For a chef whose career has taken him from the Balkans to Western Europe and Southeast Asia, the distance between Serbia and Greece appears considerably smaller when measured through food. What he has carried with him is not simply a collection of recipes, but an understanding of hospitality that remains recognisable in a kitchen thousands of kilometres from where he grew up.<\/p>\n For more about \u0110or\u0111o \u0106etkovi\u0107 and his cookbook, visit djordjocetkovic.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read also Paul Frazis, Australia\u2019s Commercial Broker of the Year: \u2018Lending Is About People\u2019<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-10-16-at-3.08.54-pm-1024x682.webp)
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