Lost, found and full of flavour: Moose Kebab and Shawarma a new family tradition

She recalled a story her mother told her of the family being forced by the Nazi regime to march along the Ukrainian roads, unwillingly heading back to Germany in the early years of World War II. They were the hazy memories of a five or six year old child, returning on foot to the country in which she was born.

“They lost all their belongings on the way ‘cause everybody kept stealing their stuff so they ended up with just what they could carry,” Bourelle said of the wartime memories.

“They ended up in a little town called Augustdorf.”

Once settling in the community, her aunt had to work in a soldiers’ camp as a cook but she soon disappeared and it would be a long time before the family knew what had become of her.

The Hauck Family from back: Regina, Anna, Joseph, front: Regina, Ludwig, Emma (Submitted Photo/Charlotte Bourelle)

“They searched and searched for her for years but then they had to leave Germany – they wanted to get on with their life, so they came over to Canada.”

But before they left, they reached out to the Red Cross to leave information about Aunt Anna in the hopes they’d see her again one day.

As a result of that heartache, Charlotte grew up knowing little about her family due to her mother’s reluctance to speak about it.

Over the years, her aunt remained an enigma. Her family, now settled in Canada, accepted the probable loss – but Charlotte needed definitive proof.

“I said to my mom, ‘I’m going to try and find Aunt Anna,’” she said.

She began her search in the 1990s. Seven years of writing letters, hiring a private investigator, starting a file with the Red Cross and placing phone calls finally yielded a breakthrough.

“One day, I got the call – I was at work, and I got a call from these people, I couldn’t understand them,” she said.

“It was my cousin Nikolay – her son – Anna’s son!”

The moment for her family, roughly half a century in the making, was something out of a dream and they ultimately brought Aunt Anna over to Canada for a visit.

“She had settled in the village where they had originally come from,” Charlotte said.

Anna Hauck. (Submitted Photo/Charlotte Bourelle)

Moose Kebab and Shawarma

Stepping forward in time, to February 24, 2022, parts Eastern Europe were again turned into a war zone as the Russian military invaded Ukraine. This time, it would impact the family in a much different way.

Some 80 years after World War II had torn a family apart, another war was about to bring the family back together and ironically bring the long-time dream of owning a restaurant to fruition.

Shasha Cherniavska and her two teen daughters – family to Charlotte through Anna’s grandson and Cherniavska’s husband Igor Chernyavsky – were the first to come over two years ago, seeking refuge from the war.

“It’s not our choice. Everyday rockets, everyday alarm, our kids cannot sleep,” she said, adding they didn’t know when they turned in for the night whether they would wake the next morning.

“It was very hard on us,” Cherniavska said – knowing their lives were about to take a drastic detour.

Meanwhile, her husband stayed behind due to work commitments – including those involving the military. One of the unlikely benefits of his military travel was the opportunity to indulge in traditional foods of other cultures and learn about different ingredients in each port he was stationed at. Over the years, despite it being a Middle Eastern dish, shawarma has become a famous Ukrainian street food and one that Chernyavsky developed a passion for.

One year ago, he arrived in Canada. The move brought a new sense of optimism and the opportunity to pursue the dream of sharing some of his favourite food with others.

As a cook with 26 years of experience in different restaurants and ship galleys, he knew he could make a successful go of it, but he needed a partner to help.

He found that person in Igor Ianiuk.

“He always bug me like ‘Oh, it would be great to open shawarma, it would be great to open shawarma and yeah, one day it happened,” said Ianiuk.

Moose Kebab Shawarma restaurant opened in North Battleford earlier this year.

“It happened because we have a very good friend Marvon (Bourelle), and he helped us,” he said of Charlotte’s husband.

A news article from 1997. (Submitted Photo/Charlotte Bourelle)

According to Marvon, he knew of a building – a former car dealership on 100th St. He helped renovate it and navigated all the meetings with various contractors.

“There was always a lot of technical stuff and…I was able to help out there,” he said.

Marvon explained that the family-run business is doing something unique.

“I’ve yet to find, maybe in some of the bigger cities but certainly not around here, there’s nobody that’s doing real authentic cooking where everything is made from fresh,” he said.

Freshness is the key ingredient for Chernyavsky, who has spent years working with different cultures, food and people. Taking from his experiences, the little shop infuses flavours and the love of family into every bite.

“It’s all handmade. It’s not chemical, it’s not mayonnaise, it’s not ketchup,” said Chernyavsky, adding every day is spent marinating meat and making sauces.

But it’s the makings of the story that led to its creation that makes every morsel at Moose Kebab and Shawarma even more meaningful.

Thinking back on the phone call she received from her cousin Nikolay, Charlotte could have never imagined the family would be together in small town Saskatchewan sharing meals with each other and the community.

“That feeling that I had after all those years of finally hearing a voice on the other end of the phone,” she said.

“I’ll never forget that day, I just could have screamed.”

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

On X: jls194864

by Julia Lovett-Squires

Lost, found and full of flavour: Moose Kebab and Shawarma a new family tradition

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