Cheemo Frozen Perogy

To food purists, the Cheemo frozen perogy is a foodstuff of an entirely different colour. According to The New Food Lover’s Companion, edited by Sharon Tyler Herbst, the correct Russian name is pirozhki, a small turnover with a pastry wrapper surrounding meat, seafood, cheese, and vegetable or fruit fillings. Pirogi are the larger versions of the dumpling, served as an entrée.

The word perogy is actually Polish in origin. To be true to Ukrainian cookery, the baked potato dumpling is called pyrohy, while boiled potato dumplings are better known as varrennyky.

Nowhere in the Slavic cooking lexicon is a pizza perogy mentioned, and this particular innovation belongs to Walter Makowecki and his Heritage Frozen Foods, the manufacturer of Cheemo. Even the brand name—the Inuit word for Hello, correctly spelled Chimo—is an intriguing marketing development that draws attention to the flash-frozen nature of this born-in-Edmonton foodstuff.

The company’s plant in north Edmonton produces 8 million perogies weekly, and sells to markets across Canada and the United States—with the occasional order going as far away as Saudi Arabia. Heritage Frozen Foods claims to be the largest producer of perogies in the world.

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