stlbites.com – st. louis food blog of bill burge

Babies, and Art, and Food, Oh My!

Jul 22, 2010 St. Louis, chefs, events, farming, missouri, restaurants, sustainable agriculture

Whew! After nine months (the final few weeks of which were filled with anxiety revolving around questions like, “What the hell am I going to do with a baby?), I now have a daughter, Quinn Reese Burge.  Definitely meaning to brag, Ellie did it 100% natural for both her health physically and mentally and the babies.  It was amazing, but more than that, they are amazing.

Bragging about my wife and daughter out of the way, in the few moments of spare time I’ve had this week, I’ve been tracking down chefs to belatedly nail down this year’s Slow Food St. Louis Art of Food menu.  It’s not quite assembled 100% (come on guys!), but I just wanted to let you know one thing:

If you’re in town this Saturday, and you haven’t got anything planned, and you care a lick about local food, you need to get your butt down there. It’s Slow Food St. Louis’s biggest fundraiser of the year and it’s the reason we’ve been able to give over $12,000 to ten small farms over the last two years to increase the biodiversity of what’s available to us locally.

And if that’s not reason enough for you to go, know this: whatever excuse you have can’t possibly top the fact that I’ll be there and I’ll have a 7 day old daughter, and Josh Galliano will be there and he will have a 13 day old daughter.  (we are of course hoping this means stellar birthday parties!)

Here’s the menu thus far if you’re wavering, and I hope to see you there…

Annie Gunn’s – Lou Rook III

Roasted Viking Village Sea Scallop with Annie Gunn’s Bacon and Ratatouille.

Companion – Josh Allen

1. Panzanella “Bread Salad”  – Companion Roasted Garlic Fougasse w/ local heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers (working to identify farmer this week)

2. Grilled Bread Station with assorted pestos & tapenades

Five – Anthony Devoti

Benne’s Farm Pork confit, sesame cracker, tomato jam and pickled Claverach Farm baby carrots.

Harvest – Stephen Gontram

Harvest Bread Pudding

Kakao Chocolate – Brian Pelletier

1:Bacon Caramels Made with bacon from Hinkebein Hills Farms and local honey.

2: Chocolate Dipped Double-Layer Pates de Fruits

Local Harvest Café – Clara Moore

Horseradish Pickled Heirloom Tomato Relish on a Prairie Breeze Cheese Biscuit

Monarch – Josh Galliano

Prairie Grass Farms Goat Terrine, eggplant tapenade, Greek yogurt, fennel mostarda

Niche – Gerard Craft

white gazpacho, smoked grape sorbet

Sidney Street Café

Rabbit bratwurst with Companion brioche and house made sauerkraut

Winslow’s Home

Winslow’s Farm Cucumbers and Heirloom Tomatoes with pulled Prairie Grass Farm Lamb

and dishes still to come from…

Bailey’s Chocolate Bar, Farmhaus, Franco

Tags: Annie Gunn's, Anthony-Devoti, Art of Food, Bailey's Chocolate Bar, Brian Pelletier, Cary McDowell, Clara Moore, Claverach, Companion Bakery, David Bailey, Farmhaus, Five, Franco, Gerard Craft, Harvest, Hinkebein Hills Farm, Josh Galliano, Kakao Chocolate, Kevin Nashan, Local Harvest Cafe, Lou Rook III, Mad Art Gallery, Matt Abeshouse, Monarch, Niche, Rooster, Sidney Street Cafe, Slow Food St. Louis, Stephen Gontram, sustainable agriculture, The Bridge, Winslow's Home

Slow Food Art of Food Menu

Jul 24, 2008 St. Louis, chefs, missouri

This is why you want to buy tickets for Art of Food

222 Artisan Bakery / Goshen Coffee – Debbie Sultan / Matt Herren

• 222 Artisan breads in roll form: bacon, brioche, and sun dried tomato olive and feta
• Goshen-roasted Costa Rican pour-over drip coffee

Bailey’s Chocolate Bar / Rooster – Robin Murphy

• Fruitland roast beef sandwich with red onion marmalade and herbed Heartland Creamery goat cheese on a housemade roll
• Bailey’s buttercream chocolate bar cake

An American Place – Joshua Galliano

• Prairie Grass Farms lamb and foie gras ballotine, apple mustard, chickpea salad, saba

Annie Gunn’s – Lou Rook III

• Duroc pork belly confit on Companion brioche roll with Atomic horseradish mustard and house made local peach chutney

Araka – Mark Curran

• Prairie Grass Farms housemade sausages
• Local heirloom tomato salad

Erato on Main – Kevin Willmann

• House smoked Guthrie Farms chicken with local vegetable chow chow

Local Harvest Grocery – Clara Moore

• Housemade hummus served on local cucumber circles and local tomatoes tossed with fresh pesto and served on Companion crostinis

Moxy Bistro – Eric Brenner

• Duck breast with grilled peaches

Niche – Gerard Craft

• Slow-roasted Greenwood Farms pork butt sandwiches with brussel sprout slaw on Companion bread

Schlafly Bottleworks – Matt Bessler

• Schlafy “Gardenworks” beet and Arugula salad
• Troutdale Farms smoked Trout Mousse with English cucumber cups
• Bacon-wrapped Hinkebein Hills Farm smoked pork tenderloin with Schlafy pale ale raspberry BBQ sauce

Sidney Street Café – Kevin Nashan

• Hinkebein Hills Farm smoked pork butt with cornmeal “toast”, Eilerman Brothers peach bbq glaze, Claverach Farm greens and pickled peaches
• On the Wind Farms watermelon gazpacho with jumbo lump crab

Veruca – Mathew Rice

• Local peach and lavender trifles

Tags: 222 Artisan Bakery, An American Place, Annie Gunn's, Araka, Art of Food, Bailey's Chocolate Bar, David Bailey, Debbie Sultan, Erato on Main, Eric Brenner, Gerard Craft, Goshen Coffee, Joshua Galliano, Kevin Nashan, Kevin Willmann, Lou Rook, Mathew Rice, Matt Bessler, Matt Herren, Moxy Bistro, Niche, Rooster, Schlafly Bottleworks, Sidney Street Cafe, Veruca

If you were cool…

Jul 21, 2008 St. Louis, events, slow food

you would be at Mad Art Gallery this Saturday for Slow Food St. Louis’s annual fund raiser, The Art of Food.

Full event details are at artoffood.org though what you’ll really want to know is who the chefs are:

Debbie Sultan & Matt Herren – 222 Artisan Bakery and Goshen Coffee
Joshua Galliano – An American Place
Lou Rook – Annie Gunn’s
Mark Curran – Araka
David Bailey – Bailey’s Chocolate Bar and Rooster
Kevin Willmann – Erato on Main
Eric Brenner – Moxy Bistro
Gerard Craft – Niche
Matt Bessler – Schlafly Bottleworks
Kevin Nashan – Sidney Street Cafe
Mathew Rice – Veruca

and possibly more to come…

Tags: 222 Artisan Bakery, An American Place, Annie Gunn's, Araka, Art of Food, Bailey's Chocolate Bar, David Bailey, Debbie Sultan, Erato on Main, Eric Brenner, Gerard Craft, Goshen Coffee, Joshua Galliano, Kevin Nashan, Kevin Willmann, Lou Rook, Mathew Rice, Matt Bessler, Matt Herren, Moxy Bistro, Niche, Rooster, Schlafly Bottleworks, Sidney Street Cafe, Veruca

Local Chefs Make the 2008 James Beard Awards Long List

Feb 18, 2008 chefs, restaurants

Joshua Galliano and I had hoped previously we might get some locals nominated for this years James Beard Awards, so it was exicting news when Stephanie (bakemeacake over on the forum) pointed us to yumsugar’s post regarding this years long list of James Beard Award nominees.

Up for Best Chef Midwest are:

Michael Roberts / Jean Donnelly, Atlas, St. Louis, MO

Lou Rook III, Annie Gunn’s, Chesterfield, MO

The award is for “Chefs who have set new or consistent standards of excellen in their respective regions. Candidates may be from any kind of dining establishment and most have been working as a chef for at least five years with three most recent years in the region. (IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD, WI)”

And up for Rising Star Chef of the Year is

Gerard Craft, Niche, St. Louis, MO

This award is for “A chef age 30 or younger who displays an impressive talent and who is likely to make a significant impact on the industry in years to come.”

Congratulations to all four, and here’s to hoping they make it to the short list.

Here is the complete long list of names for the 2008 Beard Awards if you’re curious. It contains some pretty fierce competition for our locals, and especially Gerard with people like Sean Brock (McCrady’s, Charleston, SC) and Wesley Genovart (Degustation, NYC) being on the Rising Chef list.

Tags: Annie Gunn's, Atlas, Gerard Craft, Jean Donnelly, Joshua Galliano, Lou Rook III, Michael Roberts, Niche