Much has changed since the early 1960s when Oryst Pidzamecky first launched Oryan Catering with his teenaged cousins to raise travel money.
“I was 16 and my cousins Tim and Mike Nykilchuk were 14,” said Pidzamecky. “We did stag and does, baby showers and just small stuff but we made enough to go to Florida twice and the Bahamas once. We flew. We didn’t drive. We went high class.”
They arrived at the business name by combining the first three letters of Pidzamecky’s first name and the first letter of his cousins’ last name.
“It was a fun thing to do and because my mother was involved in catering at the community centre we got a lot of tips from her to make it easy,” said Pidzamecky. “Once we started university we all went our own ways.”
Pidzamecky went to Western University then teachers’ college before taking a position teaching Grade 5 in his hometown of Sudbury.
“Grade 5 is a good age,” he said. “They are young enough to be respectful to their seniors and intelligent enough to be challenged and to ask challenging questions.”
The work was rewarding but the pay wasn’t great.
“I drove Greyhound Buses in the summer when I was a student,” he said. “When I compared it with the $6,800 I made in my first year teaching and the $4,800 I made for five weeks of summer driving, it wasn’t great. My late brother used to comment that, ‘I’m a sheet metal worker and I make $28,000 a year. What do you make after your university degree and a year in teachers college?”
Pidzamecky was feeling restless to make a move and that eventually brought him to Guelph.
“I taught school for five years and I found the paperwork horrendous so I decided it was time to move on and I went to work for the Cooperators, the insurance company,” he said.
Three years later on Nov 18, 1978 he and wife Maria were married. They are now the proud parents of four adult children.
Pidzamecky stayed with The Cooperators for 26 years until the company announced they were restructuring and moving their offices to Hamilton.
“They offered me an early retirement package,” he said. “I took it and decided to go back to my initial love which was puttering around in the kitchen.”
In 2001 he opened a family restaurant, OP’s Eatery on Elmira Road, where he served home-style meals.
“I tried the restaurant for three years and satisfied myself that I didn’t want to do that,” he said. “I got the T-shirt and packed it in.”
In 2004 he re-launched Oryan Catering.
“I resurrected it,” he said. “I bought the name. I paid to register it and everything. Why create another name?
He has broadened the services and taken Oryan Catering into the 21st century.
“We do breakfasts, corporate lunches, weddings and other events,” he said. “I have a blog that goes out as well.”
Their website lists their menu and services and has an online booking form for generating quotes. They have a large commercial kitchen and a small dining room onsite that is licensed for gatherings of up to 45 people.
Pidzamecky has plans to really retire when the time is right but is enjoying his latest adventure.
“When you’re 56 years old and retired, you have to do something otherwise you’ll die of a heart attack at 57,” he said. “It wasn’t an idea to get rich or anything like that. It was just something to do to stay in contact with others and meet different people and see what life is all about.”