En Papiawesome
Jun 27, 2008 Illinois, chefs, restaurants
Not to be confused with the famous version, at Erato on Main last night, while Kevin Willmann was away at the STL Mag A-List awards claiming his Reason to Take a Drive victory, sous chef Jon Olson was serving up Gulf Pompano en Papillote with shaved fennel, local baby onions, Oregon white truffle & farm butter.
I’m sure the majority of you are familiar with en papillote, but for those that are not, it is a French method for cooking delicate foods inside parchment paper. These days you will see some people cheat by using foil instead, but traditionally you cut a heart shape out of parchment, place the contents on one side (generally fish; vegetables; and some sort of oil, butter or sauce to keep it moist), fold it in half, fold over the seams to seal it, and bake it in the oven. The gist is that the food actually steams which results in an extremely moist outcome.
I have had three en papillotes
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Tags: Edwardsville, en papillote, Erato on Main, Jon Olson, Kevin Willmann, pompano
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If you’ve not been paying attention, with three trips in nine days, and probably a dozen so far this year, stlbites has much love for Erato on Main and their entire staff.
But as much as we like the staff it’s Kevin Wilmann’s daily changing menu of whatever looks freshest that keep us addictively trekking back for more; today though we’ll be talking about the one menu that doesn’t change daily.
Doubling as the restaurant’s pastry chef we’ve basically memorized Sous Chef Jon Olson’s dessert menu as he keeps it small almost always having the staples of a chocolate cake with basil ice cream and carrot cake with goat cheese icing.
Mostly this is the result of their kitchen being about the size of my closet. Still, he’s been trying to mix it up recently, and over the weekend served a lemon curd with blackberry tea foam (with I believe preserved lemon rind). The blackberry foam was a subtle flavor to compliment the tartness of the lemon, and while it did need a bit more textural crunch, when asked how he made the curd, he was happy to oblige by sharing the recipe.
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Tags: dessert, Edwardsville, Erato on Main, Jon Olson, Jonathan Olson, Kevin Willmann, Sauce Magazine
