Sharing Polish meals, traditions
- Sr Perspective
- Jul 2
- 7 min read
Little Falls man enjoys volunteering his time/talents to celebrate culture
By Jennie Zeitler
Food and cooking have long been a part of John Kedrowski’s life. The Little Falls man is now using his experiences in the kitchen to not only fill bellies, but also to introduce more people to his Polish heritage and its culture.
John started life in the Twin Cities, graduating from high school in Fridley. He had the pleasure of spending summers just north of Little Falls at the farm of his aunt and uncle, Anna and John Szczodroski.
“We picked an average of 500 quarts of raspberries every year,” he remembered. “They raised chickens for people who ordered them – and they averaged seven or eight pounds each! They always had six ducks.”
The garden on the farm was almost two acres. There was a year’s worth of potatoes planted, which they started digging up on the Fourth of July.
“I started learning to cook there,” John said. “I canned with them too. I still can 75-90 percent of all the canned goods we use.”
He also learned about cooking and baking from his Grandma Link.
“She came to stay for a week, about three times a year,” he said. “She made all the bread and cinnamon rolls.”
After high school, John took a one-year commercial cooking course at Anoka Technical College, and then a one-year baking course.
“I still prefer to cook from scratch rather than opening a box,” he said.
His next move was to enlist in the Navy. He wanted work experience in the cooking field and that seemed like a good way to get it. During training, his crew fed 300-400 people per meal.
“After training, there was a position available as an admiral’s driver and cook,” he said. “I just jokingly applied, convinced I would never get it. The next thing I know, I was Admiral Johnson’s driver and cook.”
His job was in San Diego. The admiral’s wife made breakfast and John took care of lunch and supper. About four to five times a month, John cooked for a large group.
“There was a state dining room at the admiral’s office, with a kitchen,” he said. “I got about four other people in to help serve.”
The only catastrophe during those three years occurred when a finished turkey that was sitting on the counter was pulled down and devoured by the family’s German shepherd.
“I always had a backup,” said John. “Ham was served.”
He was able to incorporate Polish food into the admiral’s menu, occasionally serving pierogi, sauerkraut, cabbage rolls, and Polish sausage.
After his assignment with Admiral Johnson, John received another cook and driver assignment with Admiral Foley, this time on the opposite coast, in Virginia. That’s not something that the Navy usually did, but John was pleasantly surprised.
At the end of that assignment, John chose not to reenlist. Instead, he returned home to Minnesota. He wanted to spend more time with his son, Jonathan.
He wanted to take a break from cooking as well, and took a job with a hair care company. When he was laid off one morning, he found himself gainfully employed that very afternoon with McGlynn’s in Eden Prairie. He started work that night. He was still with the company when Pillsbury bought it out. He stayed five more years after General Mills bought Pillsbury out.
“When the plant was closing, they sent me to Canada, near Toronto, for what was supposed to be a few weeks,” said John. “The company flew me there and back every week for six months.”
By that time, he had enough of the weekly commute, so he became a cake decorator at a bakery in St. Anthony. After the bakery closed, John got a job with Costco.
But one day he slipped on a freezer floor and hit his head. He suffered excruciating back pain. That was the end of that job, but it turned into “a blessing in disguise.”
“My mom fell and had the choice of going into a nursing home or needing a full-time caregiver,” he said. “I took care of her for 16 years.”
His parents had retired to Little Falls and had bought the farm where John had spent summers.
In the years since he returned to Little Falls, life has been filled with a plethora of volunteer and service activities.
John sold his first cake in 1979, a wedding cake that served 100. His fee was $12.
“The same cake today goes for about $400,” he said.
He still makes and decorates cakes for family members as gifts for weddings and baptisms, and sometimes for other events.
John used to be a member of Sacred Heart Polish Catholic Church in Minneapolis. He was the funeral cook there when he lived in the area. He was also the organist for many years. From Little Falls, he used to help cook at their annual festival.
“We prepared 1,000 cabbage rolls for the festival,” he said. “I made all the coffee cakes and took them down. We used poppy seed from Poland.”
John always keeps busy, adding new activities. “[Our Lady of] Lourdes needed a funeral cook and I decided I could do that,” he said.
He enjoys teaching Polish traditions anywhere he can. “One Polish tradition is that you don’t leave someone’s house unless you’ve had something to eat or drink,” he said.
In 2021, he became president of the Polish Echoes, a group formed through Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Little Falls. It was started by Josephine “Phinee” Zak in 2005.
“Our plans were always to get the second generation involved” in Polish traditions and activities, said Kathy Millett, John’s good friend and fellow Polish descendant.
After Phinee stepped back, prior to her death in 2020, Charlie Stanek served as president.
“He led us in Polish prayers,” said Kathy.
In 2021, John became president of the Polish Echoes. Having a new president meant different energy, with a lot of new members and new activities.
There are several big events throughout the year. The first is the pork chop dinner fundraiser. There is a big picnic in July, followed by the celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Częstochowa on August 26. Rosary and Mass, with hymns sung in Polish, are followed by a sumptuous dinner.
In the fall is the Bouja feed. John’s skills as a cook come into play then. He is in his element in a kitchen.
When making Bouja (a thick stew) for the annual fundraiser, John pulls out of the freezer container after container of broth, au jus, drippings and extra gravy left over from cooking during the previous year.
The Christmas party in December features a visit by St. Nicholas (looking remarkably like John Kedrowski).
“He knows how to make things fun,” said Michael Retka.
The Echoes’ fundraising benefits two high school students of Polish heritage in Morrison County. Applicants write an essay about maintaining Polish traditions within their families. The group also makes contributions to Mary of Lourdes School.
John and Kathy encourage people to know that a person does not have to be Polish to join the Polish Echoes.
“We just want people to enjoy the food and the time together,” said Kathy. “We like to see everyone sit and visit.”
The Polish Echoes are not the only beneficiary of John’s cooking. When St. Edward’s in Elmdale hosted a spaghetti dinner recently, John took three gallons of spaghetti sauce to it.
In about 2018 or 2019, Phinee Zak “cornered” John and Mike in the back kitchen at Lourdes and gently twisted their arms to do the cooking for Lourdes’ annual bazaar.
In 2019, when the bazaar was rained out, Mike helped John in the kitchen. The menu included chicken and ham.
“Literally, every single thing was done from scratch,” Mike said. “The most processed thing would have been the crinkle-cut carrots for glazed carrots, before they went in the pan. People said, ‘That was the best dinner ever; don’t ever change it.’”
One of the things Mike picked up from cooking with John, is that some of the best meals are made when nothing goes to waste. For instance, while preparing the Polish Echoes’ pork chop dinner this year, John trimmed off all the fat and it made the base of the gravy.
“People thought that was the best gravy,” said Mike. “I’ve seen him do things that weren’t done in my family; there’s more than one way to cook something. I was taught a Depression-era way of using Campbell’s tomato soup to make cabbage roll sauce, but he used real tomato sauce that he had doctored up with onions and peppers and it was to die for.”
John’s sauerkraut is pretty well-known in the area. He’s added things to it that make it mouth-watering. It’s definitely not the average sauerkraut dish.
Apart from cooking, John is also a superb shopper. Kathy calls him a “unique shopper.”
“When I go shopping, I am looking for reasonable items that I can use for parties. I look all year long,” he said.
He is a coordinator for Christmas parties for the local Knights of Columbus council, for the Polish Echoes, and for the Knights of Columbus 4th degree.
“I also go to different local businesses and they are usually more than willing to help out,” he said.
“He not only shops, he is very lucky when it comes to winning door prizes at casinos,” Mike said. “So we always have very nice door prizes at the parties he puts together.”
John is also a winemaker. He produces chardonnay, Valroza (a red), and a German Gewürztraminer. He donated 24 bottles for the St. Valentine’s dinner at St. Stanislaus in Sobieski in February.
He bakes for bake sales, and brings along at least six bottles of wine to almost every sale.
Life is about helping others and John does whatever he can. He can be heard asking, “What do you need?” whenever there is an event being planned.
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