Meet the Chef: Marie Thorpe of Pierogie Kitchen

Marie Thorpe of  has a sunny disposition that equals the brightness of her welcoming storefront on Roxborough Avenue in Roxborough.

This local girl has been in the restaurant industry for the majority of her life and grew up cooking with her grandmother. Read below to find out more.

Name: Marie Thorpe

Age: 33

Hometown: Roxborough, although she now lives in Manayunk.

Favorite Thing about Roxborough/Manayunk: "The area is extremely diverse. It's city life but then there's Fairmount Park right there for hikes and picnics. There's also a farm school [Saul High] even though we're in the city. I love that we're close to Philly and the shore. There's tons of families here with roots going really far back but yet everyone is very welcoming to new folks. My great grandfather married at 15 and he and his new wife were put directly on a boat to America, even though they spoke no English. They had 11 kids and my grandfather was the youngest. I grew up in the same house where he grew up and my cousin lives there now. This area is a tightly knit community."

Do you do any work with the community?: "I work with local churches and we do our own clean-ups in the parks and such. There is a park up the street that has clean-ups on Saturday but since we work on Saturdays we organized our own clean-ups that work with our schedules. We do mostly fundraising for Fox Chase Cancer Center and also participate in "Beef and Beer" events where we donate our food and the proceeds from the food and music event go directly to cancer research, returning soldiers and more."

Years in the Industry: 18

First Kitchen Job: "Working at the water ice stand on Ridge long before Rita's even existed. I've always loved the hospitality industry and when I started working at the Melting Pot as a server I got to learn how kitchens run. Pierogie Kitchen was originally an ice cream parlor that my aunt owned. I bought it from her and started doing sandwiches but over Lent I started making pierogies and we did so well with them that we abandoned sandwiches altogether and really focused on pierogies and we've been doing that since."

Earliest Cooking Memory: "I was with my grandmother and standing on a chair (because I was so tiny) when I was about 3 or 4, singing Simon and Garfunkel songs in the kitchen together. She was from Roxborough as well (my whole family is here and has been for a very long time). She was Irish but she married my grandfather who was Ukranian. She always loved to cook and learned how to cook Ukranian dishes from her sister-in-law. The pierogies, stuffed cabbage, etc., are all the recipes that my great-aunt taught my grandmother, who in turn, taught me.

Advice for Home Cooks: "Try anything and everything, see what's new. Fusing flavors is a big thing for me–putting together new flavor combinations that others might not think of but that end up being really good together. I'm working on a Pierogie Kitchen cookbook that we hope to have published by 2013."

Favorite Thing at Pierogie Kitchen: "The French onion soup, which has Farmer's cheese pierogies, [and] is so rich and filling. The mushroom pierogies are also great. Right now I love the zesty shrimp pierogies. Our doughs and fillings are made fresh daily as freshness is the most important thing to me."

Healthiest Thing at Pierogie Kitchen: "Mushroom pierogies or zesty shrimp are probably the healthiest. The plain potato pierogies, the stuffed cabbage and especially the vegetarian stuffed cabbage (out of this world!) are also healthy. Our blueberry pierogies have no added sugar and are extremely kid-friendly."

Have you cooked for any celebrities?: "Local radio people and the host of Food Network's "Secret Life of" Jim O'Connor."

Favorite Food Shows: "I really enjoy Paula Deen, she's so funny and such a smart businesswoman. I enjoy Rachael Ray's recipes and innovations but I prefer her books to watching her on TV. I love Giada but don't really get much time to watch TV."

Favorite Thing to Cook: "I like to cook fish and seafood because they're so difficult. Right now I've been doing a bunch of roasts, boneless as well as bone-in. I like to do different things with pierogies too."

Favorite Local Restaurant: "Other than here, I love Couch Tomato and the Ugly Moose (both in Manayunk). They both have such fresh food and the Ugly Moose offers up some different things that you don't find everywhere."

Favorite Restaurant in the World: "There was a restaurant in Honduras where the food was out of this world. They had their own version of a pierogie that was filled with meat, rice, beans and corn. It was baked, not fried and then covered with cheese. I even took pictures of it."

Guilty Pleasure (food or drink): "Pistachio ice cream with nutty topping."

Last Meal on Earth: "Probably some sort of shrimp burger. We took that idea and turned it into the shrimp zest pierogie. With the burger I would have steamed vegetables (I love them all) and definitely a red wine. I'm a red wine lover, not so much white..."

Biggest Kitchen Disaster: "I was a server at the Melting Pot and I dropped a bottle of Bacardi 151 (over proof rum that is 151 proof) from a very high place and the clear alcohol spilled everywhere. Without having a chance to clean it up and not even thinking about it I lit a candle and kind of tossed the match aside and there was this huge flash fire that blew up then went out in seconds. There was absolutely no damage and I've never seen anything like it."