A chef who once cooked a Balkan-style hamburger for famous French actor Alain Delon is now cooking in a restaurant in the northern Bosnian town of Gradiska.

After having finished school in Banja Luka, Vladan Surlan headed in the beginning of 2000 for Paris to become a chef there. A downtown bistro “Between Two Theaters” was his big opportunity.

“The regulars were the creme de la creme of artists in Paris, and among them was Alain Delon. They would come there for rehearsals for theatre pieces and they would eat breakfast and lunch in that restaurant,” Surlan said.

“These are eccentric people, they have various atypical demands. One day he asked for something ‘orthodox’ – that would mean something Balkan. The head chef just looked at me and said – this one’s for you,” he said.

So Surlan cooked a pljeskavica – a spiced hamburger which is traditionally made from a mixture of ground meats, which the restaurant would include in its menu as a dish called ‘Gradiska.’