>>... -- came up with a guy who was described as Romanian. His name to our understanding was Michael Dokovic. (Inevitably, that became Jock Itch). He never said much and was mainly remembered for his heavy lunches. We were used to soup and sandwich type lunches and he was laying it on like a banquet. One I swear I remember -- and I hope this isn't my memory playing tricks on me -- was ratatoille. It was a thick stew-like dish. It was delicious but I doubt I was the only one nodding off in afternoon classes during his tenure in the kitchen.
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>Đoković is surely not Romanian - it would have to be spelled Jocovici or something - but we are rather mixed around here and there's a Romanian minority on our side of the border (duly represented in my street as well) and vice versa.
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>The general Pannonian cuisine tends to be heavy on onion and spicy stuff, with meat mostly well cooked until it's soft and the best of the juices are in the stew. Did I mention onion? :). The Hungarians (also mixed up a lot in this area) have the pörkölt, i.e. "simmered", which is mostly knuckles and tendons, cooked for hours in little or no water, just own juices, where you add red paprika, potatoes etc only during the last 30 minutes. It's delicious, but even if it wasn't, you'd wolf it: by the time it's ready, you've visited the kettle a dozen times to see how's it going, and are almost running out of saliva.

Thanks for the explanation(s). I know he was described as Romanian but that must have been by a know-nothing. It did come to me overnight that the name we knew him by was not Michael Dokovic but Miodrag Dokovic.

Still trying to remember the name of that long-ago-eaten stew. If there was any onion in it, it was subtle. The dominating flavors were meat and tomatoes.