Meet Renata Zablocka, the Pierogi Queen of Brantford

Renata Zablocka was born in Poland and immigrated to Canada, along with her husband, in 1993.

Since coming to Canada, she’s enjoyed making her traditional foods for family and friends. When the COVID-19 pandemic affected her aesthetics business in 2020, she decided to take the leap and pursue her true passion, starting the Pierogi Queen business in 2021. 

“I just love cooking,” Zablocka said.

She worked as a cook in Poland, before going to school in Canada to become an aesthetician. During the pandemic, she started “talking and sharing my food with friends… they loved it.”

Her pierogi fillings include the traditional, like potato, cheese and bacon, as well as adventurous flavours, such as the truffle mushroom pierogi, blueberry sweet pierogi with vanilla cream, and fan-favourite dill pickle pierogi.

She currently has 40 different flavours of pierogi, and tries to source all local ingredients from Canadian marketplaces.

“I’m trying to do everything as fresh as possible,” Zablocka said. “That’s where it makes the difference in quality of food as well.”

Pierogi Queen products have been sold at partner locations across the County of Brant and Norfolk County, including the Chary Picker Country Market in Oakland and Cider Keg Farm Market in Vittoria.  

Her most recent venture is to become a permanent vendor at the Brantford Farmers’ Market, where they have a rotating hot menu that includes a pierogi of the week, and a fridge and freezer with cabbage rolls, sauces, soups, pierogi, sauerkraut and more. Their booth at the market opened at the start of February.

While she’s still figuring out what to focus on at the market, Zablocka said, “it seems like it’s doing really well, and I really like what I’m doing.”

Visitors to the Brantford Farmers’ Market will find Zablocka there on the weekends. Her daughters help her out each weekend; her older daughter, Justyna, is there on Fridays, and her younger daughter, Natalia, is there on Saturdays. Her husband, Bogdan, helps as well.

“It’s a nice place, you can just find a lot of different stuff, different things that you cannot find in a regular store,” she said.

In between market weekends, Zablocka keeps busy. She describes The Pierogi Queen as a part-time job for her, in addition to her work as an aesthetician. She estimates that they make around 1,000 pierogi a week, depending on what’s going on. It’s a combined effort that usually takes two people (Zablocka, along with her husband or one of her daughters) about seven to eight hours.

“It’s a lot of work, for sure,” Zablocka said.

Even with all the work involved, her passion for cooking remains.

“Sharing my food and hearing from people they like it,” Zablocka said. “I get a lot of compliments from people. They love what I’m making. So that’s what makes me happy.”