Mary Mahoney’s Old French House
116 Rue Magnolia
Biloxi, MS 39533
(228) 374-0163
It just kind of blows you away. Looking back from the time I came to the United States, I worked hard and everything I went through, and then all of the sudden you get the opportunity to cook for the President of the United States. – Georgo Trojanovich
Georgo Trojanovich is, as he says, “The only real Croatian in Biloxi.” But in a city as proud as this one is of its Croatian heritage, everyone here knows what he means: with the arrival of Croatian families tailing off by the second half of the 20th century, Georgo is one of the few - yes, perhaps only - Croatian-born immigrants in town.
A distant relative of a local restaurateur, Georgo came as a teenager to escape Tito’s Communist regime, working as a dishwasher at Mary Mahoney’s restaurant. While feeling taken in by friends and the community, he struggled to learn the language, to acclimate to the food, but always knew that going home was not an option. He bought a house from money he’d saved from three years of constant work, learned to cook from a gifted mentor, rose to be the Chef of Mary Mahoney’s to find himself, 20 years later, grilling a snapper for Ronald Reagan. Not bad work, you’d think, for a boy who’d never seen a shrimp until the age of 16.
What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.
Subject: Georgo Trojanovich, Chef, Mary Mahoney’s Old French House Restaurant
Date: August 25, 2008
Location: Slavic Benevolent Association, Biloxi, MS
Interviewer & Photographer: Francis Lam
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Francis Lam: This is Francis Lam for the Southern Foodways Alliance. Today is Monday, August 25, 2008. I’m with Georgo Trojanovich at the Slavonian Lodge in Biloxi, Mississippi, and today we’re going to be talking about his experience as the Chef of Mary Mahoney’s Old French House Restaurant and also as a Croatian immigrant here in Biloxi. Would you please state your name, age and occupation?
Georgo Trojanovich: Okay; my name is Georgo Trojanovich. I’m 52 years old and I’m a Chef. I was born in the former Yugoslavia, which is Croatia now.
And why and how did you come to Biloxi?
Mary [Mahoney, who was a distant relative and the child of Croatian immigrants] came to Croatia, or then it was Yugoslavia, in 1969. She came to visit us and the situation in Yugoslavia then was pretty rough. She seen back home we did not have any opportunities. Life was hard, you know? It was hard to find a job, it was hard to go to college, it was hard to get any kind of education and basically she seen I was young, bright, and I imagine she wanted to give me a chance in life, so I can have a better future.
My daddy was already over here and she invited us to come over here just for a visit. And when I got here, when I started looking around and I figured things out, I just didn’t want to go back. So I asked Mary; I said, “Well, if you’ll allow me to stay here I would be more than happy to stay.” And that’s exactly what happened;
I lived with her for two years and I was working [at Mary Mahoney’s restaurant], saving money, and I bought my first house three years after I came here. I couldn’t even speak English—barely; I was learning. I was not a United States citizen at that time. And I bought—bought my first house.
I didn’t know any of my neighbors. I just knew I— basically, I wanted a place of my own, and I just jumped into it. I was barely, barely affording my house payments. I did not have any furniture. People that I bought the house from, they left me a refrigerator and a stove. I slept on the floor. And slowly, I kept on working and saving money and I’d buy a piece of furniture here, a piece of furniture there and then I furnished my house which probably took me out about two—three years.
And at that time, you had mentioned that you were still learning English. You spoke Croatian; obviously in Biloxi there is a large Croatian community. Did you get to know many of the Croatian families? How did you start to feel situated here?
Shortly after I came here, the [Slavonian] Lodge [The Slavic Benevolent Society] actually helped me out a lot. I met a lot of good people; we’re still all here and we’re still all friends. And our Croatian community kind of helped me out; of course they didn’t give me no money or they didn’t give me no furniture or a home or nothing like that. They all kind of took me in, which was a big plus. At least I knew somebody here and people were just so great, so helpful, you know? They were always inviting me to their house; they were inviting me for supper, and then I met a lot of younger members rather, kids of the members of the Lodge and I started going out with them. And then shortly after that I went to Notre Dame High School and that was a little bit bumpy because at that time I still couldn’t read or write or speak English. I met a lot of good people in Notre Dame, so this little Coast is one of the best places in the world. You know, people are just simply great.
When you were going to their homes for dinner and such, were they able to speak with you in Croatian?
No, no; that was very had to come by because all our Croatian community, this is all second, third, fourth generation. Some of them knew a few words. Nobody was in town that could carry a conversation in Croatian, which probably worked out for the best because I was pressured to learn English; it probably took me about a year or so. I could get by and it probably took me about two, three years before I really picked up where I could communicate.
And when you were at the table with them did you recognize the dishes they were serving, the meals you were having? Did you recognize any of these as being Croatian dishes?
No, no. Food, it took me a while to get used to all the food because food was different, including the bread and even the drinks. Back home, we always drank wine and fruit juices. Here, it was a different world and new beginning; it’s not—I had to just learn the language. You had to learn a culture or you had to like—I didn’t have no choice but like the food.
Probably the most strangest thing at first when I got here I would say: shrimp. I had never seen a shrimp before I came to Biloxi. The other thing was bread; back in Croatia we all eat hard breads. Here you have that sliced, soft bread where it sticks to your mouth, so of course all the food was different because back home we just cooked and prepared just different, so basically this was all a totally new world to me. Like I said, we did not have any shrimp there; we had several different species of fish including squid, octopus is big over there, and it took me a while to get used to that. For example, when you eat fish over there, they grill whole fish, including the scales and head and everything. Here we’re more modern; we just eat fish filets which they don’t have no bone or skin or anything else. So that kind of took a while to get used to that.
So the food was different, but the people who were taking you in— did they practice traditions or were there holidays or feast days that you would recognize from Croatia?
Yes, like Easter and Christmas, mainly Christmas, that was a lot of similar things, especially whenever it came to the pastries. Yes, I recognized several things that they had here in Biloxi that we had back home over there. One of the famous pastries is pusharatas.
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That’s basically like donut. The only difference is they put like pecans, apples, oranges, then they put liquor in them and mix it up altogether and then you fry it and then it’s glazed with powdered sugar and PET [evaporated] milk and they are excellent.
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How did it make you feel? Did it make you feel more at home here?
Yeah, oh yeah, that kind of made you feel a little bit better. You know, to be truthful with you when I came to America, I never looked back. So I knew I had to go forward. It was nice every once in a while to recognize some of your food that, for example, my mama or my grandma made when I was home, so that was sweet.
Well, I did miss my home; I just knew I couldn’t go back, because it wasn’t anything there for me. That was Yugoslavia which was controlled by Tito and communism and time was very, very hard. So when I had the opportunity to get out of there it was—in many ways it was sad leaving home, and then at the same time I was happy that I was able to leave and especially come to the United States. I had to stay here so I just worked hard and made best of it and I made it.
You also mentioned that your father was here as well. Did you work with one another; did you help support one another?
Yes; well my daddy was only here for a short time. He was like, I believe,—like my age now, like 50 years old, so the older you are, you have the hardest time to get used to American way. So he never really did like it over here; he stayed here for a short time and he went back home and that was another thing I had to do. I had to help my family financially; I even do that today. My mama is still living and she doesn’t have any income, so I have to send her a few dollars every so often so she can survive.
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Do you remember when you decided you wanted to be a Chef?
Yes; actually I do. The Chef that was there at that particular time, he said, “How would you like to cook?” I was doing all odds and ends around the restaurant. I was anything from busboy to waiter; I did everything there is to do at the restaurant business. So he said, “How would you like cooking?” And I tried it and I ended up liking it and I think, to be truthful with you, I knew I had to do something to make a little bit more money. So that’s what motivated me to start cooking, more than I actually liked cooking. And when I got into it, I enjoyed it and I still enjoy cooking. And I believe, still even today, I believe it’s more money than actual cooking.
What I mean by that is: today, if you’re a good Chef in the right spot you can make good money. So like I said I do enjoy cooking; I am very—I feel like I’m very creative. Obviously I’m good at my job; I’ve been there for a long time. And I believe money motivates you more I believe than anything else. It’s all about money.
And the Chef you worked with—Chef Scott was his name?
Right; yes, Scott Marshall, Chef Scott Marshall one of the best probably Chefs that—that I know of even today. He was awesome. This guy was just serious as serious gets. Every plate had to be perfect; he basically had his heart into it. It’s not that he just managed the kitchen; he actually did a lot of the cooking himself, and that’s kind of the way I am today, because if you don’t do it yourself, it’s kind of hard to depend on somebody else to do the same thing. In other words, the same consistency that you can do. So he was the best.
How many employees do you have in your kitchen?
Well right now about 30 employees—30 employees in the kitchen; that includes cooks, dishwashers. At a time, roughly about 15 at a time.
We can seat 550 people at one time. It’s a big, big operation, like on a slow day we’ll probably do 400 people. On a real busy day we can do up to about 1,200—sometimes about 1,300 a day.
And with that many covers and that much staff, it’s impressive that you still insist on doing a lot of the cooking yourself. What are the things that you take responsibility for in terms of actual cooking?
Ah yes; there’s several I like—for example, seafood gumbo. I’ve been cooking it now for I guess somewhere close to about 30 years now, and I’m the only one that cooks it. The only way you can keep consistency is if you do it yourself. There’s a lot of people that come to Biloxi, that they have been there 15 years ago, and then come down there tomorrow and they’ll have the same consistency. And I believe that goes a long ways.
So the recipes you’re preparing now are they the same as when the restaurant opened?
Pretty good percentage of them it is. Of course we’ve been in the business for 40-something years, so after a while you have to change things around so you don’t have the same old boring place or the same old boring entrees. So we do change our entrees and we offer a lot of fresh seafood. We’ve got several key entrees that’s been with us for 40-something years now.
You’ve got a seafood gumbo. You have Italian dressing, the salad dressing that we make, crabmeat dressing, which out of that crabmeat dressing, we serve crabcakes, we stuff lobsters, we stuff shrimp with that and many other things, and then we have this dish that’s called Sisters of the Sea. One shell is a crabmeat in a cream sauce and the other shell is a shrimp. That’s the old original dish. And also we have an escargot that’s very different from anybody else that’s been around for years. We have our first stuffed catfish in Mississippi that has ever been served. We stuff it with shrimp and crabmeat au gratin. Whenever Mississippi started raising pond-raised catfish, we were the first restaurant in Mississippi to experiment with that catfish and we still have it on the menu.
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You mentioned creativity a lot and you’re proud of your creativity. Can you talk about some of the dishes that you’ve created for the restaurant?
I created several of them. One dish that we have, what we call a Lobster Georgo and basically what it is—it’s a half a Florida Lobster that I was just playing around one day and I made it up. Anyway, it’s half a Florida Lobster and you chop up the lobster tail into little chunks, and then you add shrimp, cheddar cheese, mushrooms, brandy in a cream sauce, and then you kind of make like a dressing. And then you stuff a whole lobster and you top it with parmesan cheese and you bake it. And it looks good and it tastes good and it’s been a number one seller for years and years. Another thing I’ve prepared was a stuffed red Gulf snapper, local fish. And we stuff that with crabmeat and that’s one of the big sellers. Veal Antonio that was another thing; it’s just a slice of veal and you—of course you’ve got to pound the veal out and then you salt and pepper it. And then I made this mixture of four different cheeses and you mix mayonnaise with them and you add a little garlic and green onions. And then after you pan fry the veal, you melt the cheese on the veal and then you top it with crabmeat. An unbelievable dish; very, very popular.
You mentioned when you were talking about the Lobster Georgo you were just playing around one day. Do you remember what inspired you specifically to combine these different things?
[Laughs] I had some lobsters that I ordered from Florida. This was about 25-something years ago. They shipped us the wrong lobster. It was a very, very small lobster; kind of like a baby lobster, like a half a pound. Well, I ordered several hundred pounds. I said, “Oh my God; what am I going to do now?” because I mean, you can serve two or three or four and it just doesn’t look right. And so just to cover myself, I have to do something so I can use these lobsters out. That’s when I played with it and like I said I made that—basically it’s a cream sauce. And that’s very rich and very filling, so instead of serving a two-pound lobster, I served up a half a pound lobster with a nice rich sauce and I included shrimp and mushrooms and brandy and cheeses and it was just out of this world.
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Have you tried to introduce any Croatian dishes to the restaurant?
Well yeah, I tried a couple of times but just— I just wasn’t successful at it. Americans just like their own American foods, you know? Now whenever they go abroad I’m sure they’ll enjoy trying different types of cuisine. I just wasn’t successful in Croatian food; I tried it a couple of times and I kind of gave up on it.
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So how would you describe the cuisine of Mary Mahoney’s? How would you describe the food that you serve?
I would say it’s first of all—I’m proud of it; I think it’s one of the best foods in Biloxi. It’s not that I just work there; I really mean that. We put a lot of pride and a lot of hard work into it. I think our seafood dishes are probably one of the best in the town, you know?
I would probably answer seafood—a seafood restaurant because probably about 90-percent of our sales are seafood. Some people make a joke that we have a French restaurant, the half of owners are Irish, half of owners are Croatian [Laughs] so anyway we have a combination. I would say it’s seafood cuisine definitely.
And if you really look at the whole—the whole situation probably 80-percent of our business is all the repeat business, which is very important because if you have a repeat business, if somebody comes back and comes back and comes back that means they like something. So I believe that’s when you can consider yourself very successful. And if somebody comes and eats four or five times a month, the same person, you’re doing good.
And speaking of quality, you mentioned the seafood is local. Do you get to buy, are you able to buy all or most of your seafood from local fishermen?
I would say majority of it; I do get a lot of seafood that I fly in from Florida. We do not use any seafood out of the United States. For example, catfish, it’s all pond-raised Mississippi catfish. All our shrimp are all local shrimp and what I mean by local, they could be from Texas, Louisiana or Mississippi, and it’s all shrimp with no chemicals on. It’s all good—good quality, good, good quality shrimp. We do not use any foreign seafood products or meats.
I’m going to tell you; Gulf of Mexico, that’s got to be one of the best seafood—the Gulf of Mexico I should say produces one of the best seafoods in the world. That’s very, very important to me. These days of course you can get seafood from all over the world and don’t get me wrong; it’s all good. Our Gulf of Mexico it’s just something about it; it’s rich, it’s healthy and it’s just simply good, good quality seafood.
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Do you know a lot of people in the seafood industry here?
Oh yeah, yeah I know everybody. I got more connections than anybody out there. [Laughs] Well over the years, I’ve been at my job for like 36 years and you get connected. And when I order shrimp from one of my seafood people, I know exactly what I’m getting. Today you can buy foreign seafood lots, lots cheaper than you can buy domestic. It’s just the quality is not there. When you eat shrimp at Mary Mahoney’s it’ll melt in your mouth. Some places you go eat it you got to chew it, so that’s the difference.
And how have you seen that industry change over the years dealing with it from a Chef’s point of view?
Big changes, big changes. 20 years ago it was very plentiful. And of course these days everybody is on a health kick; everybody wants to eat seafood and bigger demand you have, higher prices and less products you have. It seems like it gets tougher and tougher each year. You know, before, 20—30 years ago you have a lot of Biloxians—that’s what they made a living on—it was the seafood. Then they got older and of course they educated their kids, so their kids don’t harvest seafood anymore.
And yes, the situation is a lot, lot tougher and of course seafood today it’s not as plentiful as it was 20—30 years ago. It’s just not out there; it’s being over-fished. So that’s the reason why you see so much foreign seafood coming into this country because we just simply don’t have enough. And like I said, so far I’ve been lucky. I can get almost anything I want because I have between Texas and Florida there’s lots of still, seafood factories that process seafood.
I believe the seafood industry is going to survive. I think, speaking of our local industry, it’s just less and less seafood out there because it’s been just over-fished. I’m hoping it won't go away anytime soon. And then today which it might be a good thing, with these high gas prices, less people are fishing because there’s less profit in it. That might be a good thing because if we would quit fishing for a few years then nature would refurnish all the seafood and everything might come back. Then on the other hand, the Gulf of Mexico is large, so there’s a lot of love-making going on in [the Gulf of] Mexico, so I believe seafood-wise, I think we’ll be okay.
-----One point you cooked for President Reagan. Can you talk about how that came about?
Mississippi, Louisiana Congressional Delegation, they called our restaurant and they wanted to know if we wanted to participate. And of course that was a big excitement, and Mary was still alive at—I believe that was 1984, the first year we went. We actually went five years in a row and that was an unbelievable experience. Can you imagine cooking for Ronald Reagan? That was a just awesome, awesome, awesome experience, something you’ll never forget. I still have the pictures and videotapes and all that.
Were you nervous?
Oh extremely nervous. That was as nerve-wracking as nerve-wracking gets and you had to go through all that security. They came to the restaurant; they inspected—we—we brought our own seafood out there. They wanted a sample of the Gulf Coast so what in the world are you going to cook for President Reagan? We ended up doing fried crab claws, fried soft-shelled crab, and a grilled fish. And it turned out—couldn’t have turned out any better. So to come from Mary Mahoney’s or rather Biloxi to go in the White House kitchen and work with the White House Chef and with his staff, oh that was just nerve-wracking as nerve-wracking gets. [Laughs]
We brought our Gulf snapper which is probably one of the sweetest fishes that is. We had it caught locally here, and the security of course came, and they checked everything out and you pack it and they take it. They fly it out there, of course, for the safety and all that. So anyway the whole process was very, very interesting, and me being from Yugoslavia, from a communist country, that was a little nerve-wracking for them, you know? So they basically they came, and the FBI came and interviewed me and of course after I became a United States citizen they got enough fingerprints on me. Of course I was clean; I have never been in trouble in my life, and anyway then I had to go through that security process and then a food process.
You kind of go back and you think, “I’m the luckiest person alive,” because not too many people get a chance to cook for the President. Reagan came in the kitchen while we were cooking. And he was a very, very friendly, normal guy; you wouldn’t— it just kind of blows you away, the President of the United States. And looking back from the time I came to the United States, and I worked hard and everything I went through, and then all of the sudden you get the opportunity to cook for the President of the United States. That was awesome.
To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.