Vasyl Lemberskyy does not fit a mold. Funny, blunt and not shy about expressing his opinion, the executive chef at Transfer Pizzeria Cafe says he became interested in kitchen activities as a small child because he was always hungry.
Growing up in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union could do that to a kid. There wasn't an abundance of food.
How about acquiring cooking skills as a member of the Hare Krishnas in Kiev, his hometown? "That was my best learning experience," Lemberskyy said during an afternoon chat in the back dining room at Transfer.
"You cook for God, and you can't taste while cooking. The food is first offered to God, on an altar. It is sacred. You can't throw any away."
Lemberskyy became involved with the Hare Krishnas in his middle teens, reflecting an interest in being healthy. "I stopped drinking and smoking at 16 or 17," he said. "Over there (Ukraine) you start drinking and smoking at 9 or 10."
The no-taste rule of the Hare Krishnas taught the chef to prepare food using his senses of sight and smell, he says, and that is how he makes and bakes his pizzas today. He is particularly sensitive to odors.
"I go into a restaurant, it takes me two minutes and I know what is wrong. It is very unfortunate."
Lemberskyy is not a big fan of American restaurants and cooking, saying the public settles for inferior quality. That is often the result of the ingredients not being fresh, he says. He was practicing farm to table cuisine in Kiev long before it was trendy here.
"Everything is fresh in Ukraine. Everything there is like Outpost (Natural Foods)."
The road to Transfer Pizza for Lemberskyy began as a dishwasher at Kiev's first pizzeria. He had been unemployed in his late teens, and when a friend who was a server at the restaurant told him about a dishwasher position being available, he jumped at the opportunity.
The job required washing dishes by hand. There was no appliance for the task at the pizzeria. The restaurant was large, the sink was low, and the chef's dislike for dirty plates continues to this day.
He uses disposable dishes at home when he and his wife aren't entertaining.
Lemberskyy washed dishes for four years while trying to absorb knowledge from the elderly Italian pizza chef who had been imported into Kiev for his skills. The older man eventually returned to Italy, and the dishwasher became a pizza chef with a following in his hometown.
"I was famous there (Kiev)," Lemberskyy says. "People would call and ask my shift. People would come in and say, just make me something."
Lemberskyy's father-in-law had moved to Milwaukee in 1991, and that paved the way for the chef and his wife to immigrate here 10 years later. His first job was in the kitchen at Polonez Polish restaurant in St. Francis, where he wowed his co-workers with pizzas he made for them using the restaurant's conventional oven.
That led to Lemberskyy opening Primavera Pizzeria next door to Polonez. When the building was sold, he moved Downtown and operated Freshe Pizza on Jefferson Street. He also worked at Ricardo's Riverfront Pizzeria Bar and Grill before opening Transfer in 2008 with several partners.
You can judge the quality of a pizza restaurant by sampling its simple cheese variety, according to the chef. When not eating his own pizza, he likes what comes out of the ovens at Maria's on 50th and Forest Home.
A man of simple pleasures, Lemberskyy raves about the burgers at Northpoint Custard on the lakefront. He makes no mention of fine dining preferences.
Lemberskyy bakes 45 different varieties of pizza at Transfer, and his favorite is the Diavola, which features cheese, tomato sauce, salami, hot and red peppers and onions. He gets a little poetic when talking about his job.
"I've been making pizza for 20 years, and I am never bored. It's like music. You know how to put it together, and then you play jazz."
Damien has been around so long, he was at Summerfest the night George Carlin was arrested for speaking the seven dirty words you can't say on TV. He was also at the Uptown Theatre the night Bruce Springsteen's first Milwaukee concert was interrupted for three hours by a bomb scare. Damien was reviewing the concert for the Milwaukee Journal. He wrote for the Journal and Journal Sentinel for 37 years, the last 29 as theater critic.
During those years, Damien served two terms on the board of the American Theatre Critics Association, a term on the board of the association's foundation, and he studied the Latinization of American culture in a University of Southern California fellowship program. Damien also hosted his own arts radio program, "Milwaukee Presents with Damien Jaques," on WHAD for eight years.
Travel, books and, not surprisingly, theater top the list of Damien's interests. A news junkie, he is particularly plugged into politics and international affairs, but he also closely follows the Brewers, Packers and Marquette baskeball. Damien lives downtown, within easy walking distance of most of the theaters he attends.
