Lake County residents chow down in celebration of Fat Tuesday; ‘Food is love’

Fans sweet on paczki, often pronounced “pounch-key,” had plenty of options in Lake County in time for Fat Tuesday.

Paczki, Polish doughnuts popular before Lent, came in a burgeoning roster of flavors. For Deerfields Bakery in Buffalo Grove and Deerfield, paczki-making began well before Fat Tuesday with 22 flavors.

On Monday afternoon, assembly in the Buffalo Grove location’s kitchen was all hands on deck.

“Food is love,” said Jennifer Lukas of Mundelein who is choosing paczki. “We like the traditional,” Lukas said. “We like the raspberry and the custard.” Taken on Feb. 20, 2023 in Buffalo Grove at Deerfields Bakery. (Karie Angell Luc / Pioneer Press)

The bakery’s co-owners are Alex Kovacs of Buffalo Grove, Ford Culbertson of Glenview and Adriene Philipps of Inverness. The three purchased the bakery in November 2018.

“We love being part of such a well-known tradition,” Kovacs said. “Food makes people happy, and we are happy to provide it.”

Lent starts on Wednesday. The Polish paczki tradition is said to have begun hundreds of years ago when people used surplus ingredients of butter, sugar and jam to calorie up before the Lenten fast into Easter.

It’s shortly after midnight. From right to left, Peter Duda of North Barrington and Agnes Pikul of the Belmont Cragin neighborhood of Chicago assemble paczki on Feb. 21, 2023 in Fox Lake at Village Bakery. (Karie Angell Luc / Pioneer Press)

“It’s called Fat Tuesday, and the reason it’s called Fat Tuesday is because it’s the day before Ash Wednesday which takes us into 40 days of fasting and penance, so we direct our attention more to God,” Culbertson said.

“A lot of people love sweets, so that’s one of the things they give up,” said Culbertson. “We give up things we like, so we splurge.”

On Monday, Jennifer Lukas of Mundelein chose Deerfields Bakery paczki in preferred “traditional” flavors, including raspberry and custard.

“It’s just so fun to participate,” Lukas said of the paczki tradition. “Food is love.”

Deerfields Bakery made about 30,000 paczki over several days. For 2023, Boston cream and cherry cheese were paczki flavors new to Deerfields Bakery, which has been in business for a good half-century.

“People love their doughnuts, that’s for sure,” said Tiffany Odden of Crystal Lake, bakery store manager.

The Mardi Gras plastic baby to find among King Cake made by Deerfields Bakery. Taken on Feb. 20, 2023 in Buffalo Grove at Deerfields Bakery. (Karie Angell Luc / Pioneer Press)

King cake, a Mardi Gras favorite, was made at Deerfields Bakery with customary green, purple and yellow sugar and yes, with the renowned miniature baby — a plastic figure offered separately for food safety consumption. But paczki outnumbered king cakes.

“It’s so exciting to see people lining up outside the door,” said Philipps, who said customers, “have pure joy on their faces to get our paczki. It makes us know that we are doing something right.”

In Libertyville, grocer Sunset Foods offered paczki in raspberry, lemon-blackberry and salted caramel flavors, “made fresh and delivered daily from our local bakery partner Do-Rite Donuts,” said Sarah Hanlon, Sunset Foods’ director of marketing.

In Fox Lake, overnight into Tuesday morning, Peter Duda, bakery owner Felicia Duda of North Barrington and staff assembled paczki in 13 flavors at Village Bakery on Grand Avenue.

Strawberry and whipped cream paczki are being assembled by Peter Duda of North Barrington and Agnes Pikul of the Belmont Cragin neighborhood on Feb. 21, 2023 in Fox Lake at Village Bakery. (Karie Angell Luc / Pioneer Press)

Village Bakery made a combined 20,000 paczki for Tuesday, and for Feb. 16, a Fat Thursday tradition here and in Poland.

The Duda couple, from southern Poland, had a bakery in Barrington for a decade before changing the location to Fox Lake.

What is new this year, Peter Duda said, was the higher price of eggs. Egg yolks are purchased from a supplier in buckets. Costlier eggs upped the price of paczki, so Village Bakery fried fewer doughnuts this time.

“The price went up, I mean, like at least 60% from last year,” Peter Duda said. “We try to keep the price (of paczki) as low as possible, however the ingredient prices are crazy.

“For our paczki,” Duda added, “it’s a lot of dairy products. We do milk and egg yolks. Those are the most expensive ingredients basically. This is a traditional Polish recipe.”

Signature Deerfields Bakery paczki. Taken on Feb. 20, 2023 in Buffalo Grove at Deerfields Bakery. (Karie Angell Luc / Pioneer Press)

Taste of Paris Bakery, Cafe and Catering in Mundelein opened at 6 a.m. on Fat Tuesday. Sunrise was at 6:39 a.m. and people were waiting outside for Taste of Paris to open.

Chef Claude Bouteille of Mundelein also worked overnight into Fat Tuesday, resulting in approximately 1,200 combined paczki and beignets. Paczki flavors came in vanilla custard, chocolate custard, apricot and raspberry.

Paczki are among desserts that encourage people, “to get together,” Bouteille said. “It’s a tradition.”

“People love their donuts, that’s for sure,” said, second from left, in heart T-shirt, Tiffany Odden of Crystal Lake, store manager, who is working with colleagues to fill and ice paczki. Taken on Feb. 20, 2023 in Buffalo Grove at Deerfields Bakery. (Karie Angell Luc / Pioneer Press)