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Heritage served with creativity
McCook, Neb. - Bill Lesko is a man with a palate designed for greatness. He zigs and zags through culinary styles with ease, finding new ways to refresh classics and inventing new dishes to please the palate. He is the culinary scientist behind the dishes at Citta’ Deli, which he began 11 years ago with his wife, Jade.
Whether it’s Italian cuisine, American comfort food or Irish staples, he loves to bring bold flavors to area taste buds.
A full Irish menu of corned beef and cabbage, bangers and mash, Irish stew, shepherd’s pie, Reuben stromboli, carving board Reubens and more will grace the plates at Citta’ Deli on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for their St. Patrick’s Day bash. Bill has dedicated 547 pounds of corned beef and 200 bangers to the annual occasion, which will also feature a live band.
Since the Leskos opened their doors, Bill’s innovative takes on menu items have kept customers coming back for more.
“He just takes time, and everything is cut perfectly. It’s beautiful, and he loves it,” Jade spoke of her husband. “[He] really takes pride in everything that he does.”
Bill comes from a strong Italian heritage, growing up with the love language of food. Every Sunday, the entire family would get together to cook and have a big meal together.
“I used to cook with my grandmother. From an age of … I can remember probably when I was five years old, standing on a stool next to the big pot of marinara on Sunday,” Bill reminisced.“I used to go out to my grandparent’s, my mom’s parents were north of us about an hour and a half. I spent almost every Saturday and Sunday out with them.”
Every Sunday, his grandmother made sauce. His grandfather grew a big garden, which included tomatoes for the sauce. His mother would make bread, and that’s how they would sample the sauce.
“We would test the sauce all day. So, I got this habit of taking bread and dipping it in the sauce and just eating on Sundays all day,” he said. “I never had to sit down and have a meal until dinnertime that night, because we ate all day with what was cooking. You know, we just got munching, picking this and that, trying it.”
And now he’s crafting and tasting to create a menu for the masses. Bill brings a lot of those same home recipes to the kitchen, such as the lasagna and the shell fillings, which is the way he grew up making them. However, many recipes are a matter of dialing in to what the customers want.
“You need to be in tune with what the trends are. Now, the great thing about McCook is that I don’t have to be as up on the trend ahead of the next guy, like I would in a big city,” he said. “I’m willing to listen, and I’ll try things. I’m not afraid to try two or three times. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. But that kind of geared us towards our menu that we have here.”
One of those recent creations was an Alfredo pasta bowl that was offered a few times and turned out to be a smash hit.
Listening to the customers doesn’t just apply to the dishes Bill creates, either. The duo recently, through a lengthy process, acquired the rights to make and sell the original Rocket Pizza. Roger Buschkoetter, whose parents were the first to purchase the original recipe, taught the couple how to make the Indianola favorite. Because the written measurements were not in units used today, it took some research to calculate today’s equivalent.
Being able to provide that service has been one of the many ways they feel they can connect with the community on a more personal level. Bill mentioned that interacting and serving the community is one of the best parts of his job. The other is being able to work with his wife.
Citta’ Deli started with a hectic schedule and a dream, and is now a local mainstay that is constantly evolving with the community. Their workdays in Denver were long, and the commutes were stressful and traffic-laden, meaning they hardly saw each other. They knew it was time for a change.
“We were driving in traffic to get to my office, and he was riding with me,” Jade explained. “We were like, what would be our dream? What would we do if we could do anything that we wanted? We just started talking about [opening] a little cafe deli, and where we’d always be down there, and we’d always be working together.”
While Bill has lived in metro areas all over the country, Jade is originally from McCook. After having their son, Elliot, they were ready to move away from the chaos of big city life and be closer to family. Jobs that would suit Bill were few and far between with his accounting degree, but his life experience and involvement in various aspects of the food industry inspired them to execute on that dream.
Some have asked the couple if working together has caused tension. But, as Jade explains it, it’s not about working with each other; it’s about working alongside each other. They know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and they know “the dance” when it comes to making it work.
“I like being in the kitchen with him. I like working with him,” she said. “I can remember those days of him being gone from six in the morning till seven at night. And I hated it. This is the polar opposite, and we’re making it work.”
Bill added that they know when the other is having an off day, and they know just how to get each other through it.
Jade, who is also his sous chef, believes that a lot of making it work has to do with figuring out ways to serve each other, and that they can accomplish a lot more when they are carrying the loads together.
“It’s not always beautiful, sure,” she said. “But I don’t know that we would make it if we didn’t work together.”