31 bake from scratch
fi rsthand Americans’ passion for butter and sugar. “It was a very different
kind of baking than the European style taught to me by my mother.
America is very butter- and sugar-forward,” he says with a laugh. By 2008,
he had enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America, earning a culinary
degree before deciding to focus completely on pastry. It’s been a winding
path of fabulous restaurants since then, with Miro fi nally fi nding his home at
Gramercy Tavern in 2013.The pastry program at Gramercy Tavern is a fi ne-tuned machine, courtesy
of Miro. He’s an ideal example of that unusual breed of pastry chef: highly
creative yet deftly organized. He manages a pastry team of nearly 20, starting
his early mornings by color coding schedules and itemizing sprawling
grocery lists. “If you burn a steak, you can fi x that mistake in 10 minutes and
grill another backup steak. Pastry does not have that benefi t,” he says. He
remains in humble awe of his accomplishments. “It’s been nearly seven years
here, and I still feel like I’m faking it.”After all this time, Miro fi nds one of the great pleasures of continuing to
work at Gramercy Tavern is the long line of holiday traditions. “Every year,
the day after Thanksgiving, we close one night and turn the Tavern into
a holiday wonderland. For our part, the pastry team turns on Christmas
music and makes and decorates about 100 to 120 cookies.” Beyond that tasty
rite, Gramercy Tavern has a whole slew of holiday celebrations that Miro
oversees. There’s the annual employees’ pie-baking challenge, during which
members of the Gramercy team present pies to Gramercy Tavern head chef
Michael Anthony and visiting culinary judges and friends of Miro’s, like
cookbook authors Erin Jeanne McDowell and Rose Levy Beranbaum and
our editor-in-chief, Brian Hart Hoffman. Plus, this season, Gramercy Tavern
will be inviting past pastry chefs to add special desserts in honor of its 25th
anniversary.Christmas at Miro’s home is a sentimental but no less grand affair. The
yuletide season has always been a time that calls to mind his family and his
mother, whose birthday is December 27. At his Queens home with his wife,
Shilpa, he’ll make a number of baked goods that refl ect what his mother
would serve for an afternoon tea. First is a savory ode to a bûche de Noël,
featuring a spinach chiffon cake fi lled with paprika and smoked salmon
mousse and frosted with whipped feta cheese with pickled peppers. This may
seem an odd addition to the table, but savory cakes are common appetizers
served in Eastern Europe. Next is a spin on a Russian salad, with little tartlets
fi lled with a chilled mélange of peas, carrots, potatoes, pickles, mayonnaise,
and ham. Finally, there’s the Greek cake, that very fi rst cake he baked with
his mother all those years ago.The way Miro revisits his mother’s recipes every Christmas, making minor
tweaks to and putting little twists on baked goods that are intrinsic to his
identity, explains the continued success he brings to Gramercy Tavern’s
pastry menu. “What I bake tastes new yet familiar,” Miro says. Because what’s
the holiday season without a touch of sweet nostalgia?