2019-09-01_Louisiana_Cookin

87 louisianacookin.com

PIEROGI TRADITION

COOKING WITH
CHEFS TO WATCH

EARLIERTHISYEAR, 2008CheftoWatchSueZemanickopened

Zasu,anupscalerestaurantinMid-CityNewOrleans,wherethemenu

is drivenbyfreshseafoodandvegetables.Thatplaysoutindisheslike

Sue’sWildMushroomandPotatoPierogies,a dishshefirstcreatedat

Gautreau’sthatpayshomagetoherSlovakheritage.Pierogiesarestuffed

dumplingsthataretraditionalinPolandandothercentralandeastern

Europeannations.Theyareoftenstuffedwithmashedpotatoesand

cheeseorsauerkrautandthenboiledandcookedinbutter.Pierogies

makewonderfulcomfortfood,andaswemoveintofall,Suecameup

withtheseSweetPotatoPierogiesasa Southern,seasonalplayonthe

traditionalversion.WerecentlysatdownwithheratZasutolearnmore

abouttheartofmakingtheperfectpierogi.

Q Pierogies aren’t very common in south Louisiana. How did you

introduce them to diners in New Orleans?

I originally did the pierogi dish that I have on the menu here [at

Zasu] with wild mushrooms and mashed potatoes as the fi lling. And

I brought that in years ago when I was at Gautreau’s as a vegetarian

option. I was struggling to fi nd something that was vegetarian that

would also be fi lling, and that was the dish that I came up with.

Your grandmother taught you to make pierogies, correct?

Yes. I made them growing up with the family—my grandmother, my

father—and all the church ladies.

Where was your grandmother from?

My grandmother was from [the former] Czechoslovakia, and she

came over when she was 14. I don’t know how she traveled across the

Atlantic by herself when she was 14 and remembered all these recipes

and knew how to make all this stuff , because it was many, many years

later that she was teaching me how to do these things.

What lessons did you learn from her about making pierogies, and

how have you made the recipe your own over the years?

Well, I learned that she wasn’t really doing it right. We were always

struggling to get the dough to be tender so that you can cut it with a

by caitlin watzke | photography by john o’hagan

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Zasu

127 N. Carrollton Ave. • New Orleans

504.267.3233 • zasunola.com