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
Next Up: Galliano in Southern Living
Aug 23, 2009 St. Louis, chefs, missouri, restaurants
The accolades keep coming for St. Louis’s favorite chefs, and this time they’re for Monarch executive chef, Josh Galliano, who appears on page 28 of the September issue of Southern Living magazine. Not yet in stores or online, writer Corlanne Griffith Roberts gushes over Galliano’s dishes even if she is an Alabama fan (Galliano graduated from LSU).
Check it out on newsstands in the coming weeks, and join me in congratulating Galliano for joining the growing list of chefs bringing national attention to the St. Louis dining scene.
Remember also, you can check out Galliano’s cooking for yourself at Monarch’s Australian Wine Dinner on August 25. (menu)
Holy-hell, is this thing the greatest or what?
Apr 13, 2009 St. Louis, missouri, restaurants
Apparently that’s what I thought when I typed but never posted about the Monarch chicken nugget on Halloween of last year. At the time I thought they’d disappear swiftly, but dining there Saturday, some of our companions had them before we arrived. So run–don’t walk–and get yourself a Monarch chicken nugget if you haven’t had one.
They consist of unctuous chicken thigh confit mixed with red bell peppers and I think a little onion that has been breaded, deep fried, and placed into a bowl of a perfectly acidic salsa verde of capers, lemon juice, oil and parsley.
So simple. So delicious.
Tags: chicken nugget, Eat This, Josh Galliano, Monarch, salsa verde
Monarch Tasting Menu
Jan 13, 2009 St. Louis, missouri, restaurants
I completely forgot about this until I saw a post about it on the forum but, Josh Galliano did recently start a tasting menu up at Monarch. Of special note, some of the dishes are paired with cocktails from Ted Kilgore.
Though I’ve only experienced cocktail pairings once at Bluestem in Kansas City, non-wine pairings in general seem to be on the rise around the country. It made for some particularly interesting flavor combinations at Bluestem and, with Kilgore’s bartending chops, I’m glad to see someone doing this locally.
- Country Ham Consomme – hamhock ballotine, persillade clams, shaved fennel
- Skate Steak – pineapple-basil ravioli, thai long peppercorn cream, jasmine tea (tea infused with ras al hanout to make the sauce)
- Rosemary Skewered Sweetbreads – beluga lentils, carrot butter, cilantro – carrot top puree
- Braised Lamb Belly – celeriac puree, brussel sprouts, tempura tomato confit
- Sweet Potato Pudding Cake – blood orange – szechuan peppercorn jam, blis maple syrup meringue, bacon pain perdu
Tags: brussel sprouts, Josh Galliano, Monarch, sweetbreads, tasting menu, Ted Kilgore
How I Met Josh Galliano
Oct 31, 2008 St. Louis, chefs, missouri
Over a year ago, when I legitimately started posting on stlbites.com, I’d made a comment that home cooks have a difficult time obtaining things like offal or quality meats that have never been frozen. What I received in response was an entirely unexpected email from Josh Galliano in which he suggested passionate home cooks team up with local chefs and restaurateurs to coordinate a purchase of whatever it is they’re hoping to cook. In his own words he felt it would be a big win “as far as building trust, building community economies, and getting more people interested in great food.” He extended to me–as he had for many of his patrons—an offer to help order anything I wanted. At the time, however, not a single customer had taken him up on this.
“I ordered a batch of duck testicles that I thought you would be interested in trying… I’d like to share some with you.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Joshua Galliano, Monarch
Other Restaurant Stuff
Jul 31, 2008 St. Louis, chefs, restaurants
From the same source as the Andy White news I’d also heard that Brian Hale was parting ways with Monarch on less than savory terms. As I didn’t think that was the case, I just got off the phone with Hale who confirmed that the parting of ways is cordial between all parties. He will be moving on to take over all three kitchens at the Chase Park Plaza.
Of course no sooner than getting of the phone with him did I notice Joe Bonwich’s post out-scooping me to the same information just minutes ago. He also mentioned another oft-heard rumor about Gerard Craft spreading his wings a little further by picking up the old Melange space in the Central West End.
Edit: Actually Sauce Magazine seems to have out-scooped everyone including more information about who will be taking over the Monarch Kitchen to what they’re doing with the old Balaban’s space.
Edit 2: See where all this gossip gets us? Ian Froeb has the whole story from Monarch co-owner Jeff Orbin over on Gut Check.
Tags: Brian Hale, Gerard Craft, Monarch, Niche
Taste of St. Louis 2007
Sep 25, 2007 events, general food, restaurants
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It’s an interesting question, Jenny Vergara raised recently on Chowhound when she wondered whether “Taste of” events truly give you a taste of what a city has to offer. My personal opinion –no great shock I’m sure– is that they do not. Still, I can’t help being curious about what the more upscale restaurants will bring each year to entice us to visit their actual locations. Sometimes floundering, sometimes hitting the mark, Ellie and I look forward to going each year. At the very least, we know we’ll always get some Harvest bread pudding out of the deal and any day with that is a success.
The first Taste of St. Louis I am aware of was held during the Final Four in 2005. Few restaurants of quality were involved, and of those that were, some of the choices they made seemed especially strange. The one that sticks out most was Arthur Clay’s decision to serve pork steaks. As good as they were –and they were great– it was an odd decision considering what you would have found visiting their restaurant. A second Taste occurred in the late summer that year, so I will consider that the true first, and the 2007 Taste of St. Louis to be the third annual.
This year they moved the bulk of the action over to the Market Street side of the Gateway Mall. I’m not sure if they really wanted to do so, or if construction downtown forced them to, but it threw us when we didn’t see the restaurant row on Chestnut Street. Showing up around four, our initial reaction was that it seemed a lot smaller than the first two years. I’m not sure if this was a result of the time of day, or an actual truth, but we came to this decision non-scientifically by noticing the lack of port-a-potties compared to years past.
Although I never sit to eat, one thing I preferred to this years setups was the placement of park benches on 10th Street. This helped keep congestion down as they had been alongside Chestnut last year which had caused problems with the restaurant row foot traffic.
My approach to these events is to always take an initial pass to see who is there and what they’ve brought. On this pass I can determine my must-have items. Although I can eat a fairly impressive amount of food for my size, pacing is key, and I’d hate to waste room on something less then worthy.
Right or wrong, you can find our decisions after the jump…
On the first pass I spotted arancini at the Monarch booth. If you’ve never had one, an arancini, in its simplest form, is typically risotto that once cooled is rolled into a ball; stuffed with some kind of meat, cheese, or vegetable mixture; breaded with breadcrumbs; and fried to a golden brown. They get their name because the Italians say they look like “little oranges”. Arancini, as I understand it, is close to the Italian word for “orange”. They are one of my favorite Italian foods, so I was excited as I don’t often see them in St. Louis. Unfortunately, these weren’t very good. The filling in most I’ve had has always been relatively stodgy with rice that, while perhaps not al dente (do to the traditional usage of using leftover risotto) still had a touch of bite to it. The filling in these was very thin and coupled with the rice, which was overcooked, they had a porridge like quality that I found unappealing. note: I have noticed that one traditional version calls for making a ragu for the stuffing. It is entirely possible that this is what they were going for, and it was just a personal bias based upon what I like about arancini.
We also had the empanadas at Monarch. Unremarkable, they were a bit doughy, and merely ok. They were filled with braised beef that the menu said was tenderloin. It was a waste if it in fact was, because they would have had a more meaty flavor if they’d used a tougher more flavorful cut of beef or even oxtail. They were also missing the aioli mentioned on the menu. I’ve only ever had lunch at Monarch, but if these are truly items they would serve, I’m even more baffled that people flock there than I was before. Neither of these items was worth the five dollars they charged. |
Everest Café is a restaurant I’ve never been to. At their booth I sampled Gorkali Chicken with Basmatti Rice. Wisely serving some dark meat, the chicken was moist, and for someone who loves it (like myself) the heavy hand of curry was wonderful. If unfamiliar, Everest is a Nepalese restaurant. Two of the dishes they served –gorkali and vegetable samosa- are both common Indian dishes. While I understand the food of Nepal has roots in the various cultures in their region (like India) I found the decision to serve only Indian influenced dishes perplexing. When an ethnic restaurant goes to an event like this, they are there, at least on some level, acting as culinary ambassadors for the nation whose cuisine they serve. Knowing as little as I do about Nepalese cuisine, I have to believe that the general public knows even less. Why then, would they not throw in something like a more Tibetan influenced dish to showcase another angle of what Nepalese cuisine has to offer? I just don’t get it. |
LoRusso’s pulled through for me by proving another one of my culinary theories: everything tastes better fried. Frying, it seemed, was the order of the day so far – and what could be better than friend dough? Just about every culture has some sort of fried dough in their arsenal and for the Italians, apparently it is sfinges. I’d never heard of this, and wanting to make sure they weren’t just making something up, I did a little digging when I got home and found that they are also often referred to as zeppole. Basically like a sweet fritter, these had ricotta in them and tasted similar to a funnel cake do to the liberal dusting of powdered sugar. The ricotta gave them an appreciated lightness as they were our third fried food of the day. |
If you hadn’t noticed by now, the Taste of St. Louis palette is decisively beige; the scent of fried foods lingering in the air. With a great deal of money riding on their success, Lumiere Place did their utmost to pull all the stops for this event striding in with a refreshing dash of color. Their tent was two to three times larger than everyone else’s, and I have to admit, the presentation of everything was amazing for an event of this size. They were well organized, and I knew I had to try them all. |
Tropical shrimp and scallop ceviche with cilantro-chili oil I love ceviche so I approached this with an extreme bias. Often, ceviche suffers from people being afraid to use too much citrus. Citrus, however is the point of ceviche. It’s the acidity that “cooks” the fish and gives it bite while imparting flavor. I’m not sure what tropical shrimp are, but these appeared to be rock shrimp. I prefer the choice of rock shrimp in ceviche as, at least in the times I’ve had it, they tend to stand up to the “cooking” better than traditional. I don’t know if this is a true benefit to using them, or if it’s just a matter of better cooks choosing them in my past experiences. Regardless, theirs was well done. It had enough citrus tang to set the rock shrimp and scallops off nicely. It was also the first thing I’d had that was properly seasoned with salt and pepper. If I had one complaint, it would be that the chili oil could have had more kick to it. That, or something like a little jalapeño or other pepper, would have given it a little more heat and rounded it out nicely. |
Heirloom tomato gazpacho and Goatsbeard Farms raw milk goat cheese crostini Last year someone (I forget who) served scallop soup. I learned two things from that experience: 1) it’s a pain to eating soup in a crowd of people and 2) eating hot soup in the summertime temperatures of St. Louis is not the swiftest idea anyone ever had. This on the other hand, was great. I’m not generally a huge gazpacho fan. More often than not, it tastes like someone through a bunch of vegetables and cilantro into V8. That’s obviously not what it should be, and although I was geared up to hate this, because I hate the whole “shooter” style concept, it was a great idea to puree it and serve it this way. It seemed to be almost completely tomato, and again, where others had failed, it was well seasoned. It was refreshing with just the right amount of acidity to bring out the ripe tomato flavor, and the classic goat cheese combo set it off nicely. Although, Goatsbeard Farms does not make a raw chevre to my knowledge. |
White port marinated Tuscan melon shaved Danielle prosciutto and micro arugula Excellent prosciutto; wickedly underipe melon! This is one of those integrity of the ingredient dishes. Without the melon to back it up, you’re left with nothing more than a plate of meat. The melon was so underipe in fact it had the texture of apples, and a little fancy pants micro arugula isn’t going to cover that up. |
Lemon honey poached sekel pear with dark chocolate and toasted almonds This looks beautiful doesn’t it? It’s the first thing I saw when we walked by the Lumiere booth on the initial pass. It was second only to the arancini on my list of must haves. It was terrible. The pear, hardly poached, made it impossible to cut with the little fork/spoons they provided. I was forced to pick it up by the stem to take bites, and even then it wasn’t worth eating the whole thing. The lemon flavor was completely absent, and if you’ve ever poached a pear before, you always do so with several spices in the poaching liquid to add a depth of flavor. Either the spices were absent, or the fact that it was so undercooked made it impossible for the pear to take on the fragrance. Prior to the event, Lumiere Place had stated that they would be showcasing three of their dining establishments at the event. However, not one of these dishes gave you any indication as to which they would represent. Still, I have to hand it to them though. Even though I didn’t care for two of the four, the pricing on what they brought was a better representation of what you should expect at these events. It’s not a way for restaurants to make money, it’s a way for them to showcase their offerings and get you to make an actual trip to their location. |
Knowing we could guarantee leaving on a high note, we saved Harvest for last. In my opinion, the best constant on menu dessert in St. Louis, is the Harvest bread pudding. There is nothing I would dream of changing as it has never been anything but perfect. I ate more then I’d ever care to admit in the year I worked at Harvest, and unlike most things in life, it’s never grown old. The strong egg flavor of the brioche custard pudding in tandem with the warm buttery sweetness of the bourbon currant sauce makes it tough to beat. This year it was served with raisins instead of currants, and although the currants are certainly a better mix as they are a touch sweeter, even this could not hold the dessert back. I can only assume they were left scrambling to make enough bourbon sauce for the weekend, and didn’t have time to get in the truckload of currants needed for three days worth of bread pudding. So if this was the first time you’d ever had a taste, definitely make a trip to Harvest to have the real deal – with currants.. Aside from some Schlafly Oktoberfest (which they sadly ran out of after one), that was our day. We rolled home for a nap a little fatter than before. |
Tags: Everest Café, Harvest, LoRusso's Cucina, Lumière Place, Monarch
From the mountains of Panama and Ethiopia, to the urban-jungles of Portland and Chicago, journalist Michaele Weissman takes us behind the scenes for a look at the world of third-wave specialty coffee. How did we get to Starbucks, and where we go from here?