Last issue of Feast magazine...

Alright, I was flipping through the pages of the latest FEAST magazine when I noticed a long feature article.  This article involved a discussion with what FEAST considers to be the "region's most innovative entrepreneurs" and while 7 out of the 8 guests were considered experts in the field of culinary, only one was in architecture and design.  (So, it barely sounded like a professionally gathered group of individuals, unless all they were going to talk about was food.)

So, at this discussion was:
Stanley Browne, owner of Robust Wine Bar and certified sommelier
Maddie Earnest, co-owner of Local Harvest Grocery, Cafe' and Catering
Gerard Craft, owner of Craft Restaurants Ltd.
Tom Niemeier, owner of Space Architecture and Design
David Wolfe, co-founder of Urban Chestnut Brewing Co.
Josh Ferguson, co-owner of Kaldi's Coffee Roasting Co.
Brian Pelletier, owner and chef chocolatier of Kakao Chocolate
John Perkins, chef and owner of entre

Now, the first thing that grabs my attention, is that this group met to discuss the current state of the culinary industry and its future, in Saint Louis.  So, why were these people selected?  I'm not saying that these people are not highly respected or professionals, but it is only my thought that if you wanted to get a discussion going about the current state of the culinary industry, then perhaps you should get people that have more to do with it.  So, who would I get?

A member of the Barroni family, current owners of Al's Restaurant, one of the oldest and continuously run restaurant in St. Louis, for over 85 years
Bob Dierberg, owner of Dierburg stores, which is a St. Louis based store and chain

David Ringle, sommelier at The Market Place with over 20 years of wine experience
Larry Forgione, owner of An American Place, and the first internationally recognized chef to open a restaurant in St. Louis

Catherine Neville, owner and leader of FEAST magazine

A member of the Stuckmeyer family, a family owned and operated all natural, non GMO farm, selling food to the St. Louis area

Chef Borchardt, Director of L'Ecole Academy

Kevin Willmann, owner and founder of Farmhaus, St. Louis's best farm to table restaurant

Maddie Earnest,  co-owner of Local Harvest Grocery, Cafe' and Catering

Here are my thoughts: For you or I to make something delicious or buy something, Dierburgs probably has it. A wine expert with plenty of experience is better than anyone else. Larry Forgione is not only the father of an Iron Chef but also knows the St. Louis fine dining scene better than anyone else; he probably invented it. The Stuckmeyer's have produce that can be bought at many grocers in the St. Louis area and they do not use any GMO or anything engineered.  Catherine is in charge of FEAST magazine so we need her.  Chef Borchardt is the Director of L'Ecole and as it is the only cooking school in St. Louis now, then it would be a good idea to talk to him.  Kevin Willmann is the owner of Farmhaus which is an excellent farm to table restaurant for not a lot of dough.  As for Maddie, I have never been to Harvest, but think the idea of a green cafe and catering company is very nice.

So, besides my selection, how would I answer or look at some of the questions and topics they discussed?

Well, one thing discussed was how most of the customers who go to these restaurants are looking for that connection between the food and the location.  Most foodies in this area are localvores and like the idea of eating a piece of meat that was from an animal grazing in Southern Illinois or Western Missouri.  Even more so, I have made apple butter, wonderful, sweet, sugar free, apple butter, from apples at Eckert's farm.  I have also made wonderful corn relish from corn grown by the Stuckmeyer's farm, a mere 1/2 mile from where I live.  The idea of eating something local or just knowing where it came from is a big thing now and many more people are interested in this.  I remember a tasting I had at Noodles & Company at South County Mall where my family and I learned that they don't use any ingredients that they cannot find locally.  Essentially, they are a farm to table restaurant as well.

Gerard Craft said it best when he stated that "the need for a 3 pound steak is ridiculous", when talking about how people are wanting more and more food at restaurants.  That is exactly what Larry Forgione was complaining about with his restaurant.  He would serve a 12 ounce steak and people wanted more.  A 12 ounce steak is a perfectly good size for a great quality and well prepared piece of meat.  If you had anything more it would overdo it.

FEAST also pointed out a good point, most people watch TV and see all of this food and buy food but have no idea how to prepare the food.  I think this has to do with the "cooking" and "food" channels having more reality shows about who is the best of this, than a one on one show with a chef showing you how to cook something.  I don't mean to sound mean, but one of the best shows they had for a while was "How to Boil Water."  You had a chef teaching people how to pan cook chicken.  A lot of people don't know how to do this!  Also, for those that can cook chicken or boil water, Alton Brown's show "Good Eats" is a staple as unlike anyone else, I've ever seen on TV or elsewhere, instead of just showing you how to cook chicken in a pan, he tells you how it works, using science, puppets, and some acting.

Brian Pelletier pointed out that some people don't cook.  I recently took some sunchokes and threw them in a rice cooker with some chicken stock and quinoa and make a delicious meal.  I am one of 4 brothers in my family.  I know that for a fact, if you took away any cooking knowledge I had gained while doing my various degrees, I'd probably be on par with my older brother.  But my younger two, don't feel the need to cook food for themselves and seem to be content eating their cans of tuna, pound of fried bacon or Jack in the Box fried tacos, which tend to eat through the bags. I don't know how you would get people interested in cooking, besides doing home cooking parties or something like that.

Gerard also suggests that chefs are basically educators, teaching people about foods.  I think that is only 85% true.  I can tell you about some strawberry caviar which I have made.  I can tell you the process of what I did, just like most waiters do.  But, until I come to your table and show you what I am doing, you may not get it still.  I know of worldly and well known chefs who still don't get molecular gastronomy.  The thing is though, there is a secret in cooking.  The secret is the recipe.  Most chefs don't want to divulge anything about their dishes for fear that someone may take it and undercut them.  But, I would take that risk.  I would do a restaurant that while people could come in and try things on the menu, for an added price, I would take people to the kitchen and show them what the recipe is and how to prepare it.  I would not be afraid to teach people or even just a single customer, what I did and why it works.

Well, then they talk about taxes, license fees and costs that make opening restaurants in St. Louis a hurdle.

Finally, towards the middle of the article, we get to the heart of the problem at St. Louis: transportation. I think I have stressed or voiced concerns of this issue before and always see an issue.  St. Louis has a Metro Link and while it is a great idea, not having a cop on every tram is a bad idea.  They went from being nice and safe to being a spot where crooks and criminals could now access every neighborhood. They discussed how St. Louis doesn't take care of their tourist areas and doesn't have any tourist destinations.  I wrote about Union Station recently because the owners view it as a destination and the rest of St. Louis views it as a hole in the ground where nothing is anymore.  It is now a shopping mall with probably one less retailer than Crestwood Mall (which is a hard thing to accomplish).

Josh Ferguson said it best "there's all these restaurants promoting local Missouri stuff, but when you look at the wine list and no Missouri wines..." this is the core.  A few years back, my wife and I went to Hubert Keller's Sleek in the newly opened Lumiere.  While claiming that so much food was local, the most local ingredient came from Eureka.  The meat wasn't even from the Midwest.  When you go to the West coast or Las Vegas and they have Missouri beef on the menu at $30 for a 12 ounce steak and then you go to a local butcher and get the same cut for $8 or $9, it makes you wonder.  If our meat is so good that it is being served in other places, then why can't St. Louis restaurants use St. Louis or at least Missouri items?

Gerard also pointed out that some restaurants, like his while being in competition with other restaurants, are also friends with them.  This is something that I don't see much, even in St. Louis, but reminds me of Top Chef Masters.  On that Bravo Network show, chefs who are already famous, have nothing to lose as they compete for charity.  So, what you have is chefs not creating drama, fighting or even being mean to other chefs.  If during a competition a chef forgets an ingredient, he may ask the other chefs and someone may come up with extras for that chef to use.  No evil strategy, no game playing, just fun.  If a St. Louis chef also tells his clients that the bar down the street is a great place to go, of course he will gain business as well.  It is like the early days of the Internet with link trading.  It was also said that word of mouth is the real seller of a restaurant and as a blogger, I can relate to this.  I know that if I tell my friends about and write about a restaurant with a good review, people flock to that restaurant.  I know that I have personally brought in at least 4 adults to the Noodles & Company at the South County Mall, just based on what I wrote about when I won a tasting meal.  I may have brought in more, but no one told me.  People read my blog and it may not be for the reasons I intended but they do and they learn to trust me and what I say.  For this reason, people like me are important to the restaurants.  Basically, if I suggest that all 200+ fans of my site on Facebook, go to a restaurant, I'm pretty sure that a good amount will show up, just based on word of mouth.  Does that make me powerful?  Nah....  I think of it as still just a guy recommending things to his friends.

If you want to read more, please check out the article here at Feast:
http://www.feaststl.com/this-months-feast/feature-articles/article_5fe16f3e-30cb-11e1-9322-0019bb30f31a.html

where is the culinary culture in Saint Louis?

This isn't an anti-Saint Louis bash, but more of how people can take such a great city and destroy it.  I lived most of my life in Saint Louis and I have to say that it is a great place to live.  It is not as violent as people think as only a few areas are the gang warfare areas but outside of those areas, it is safe and quiet.  It is hot in summer and frigid in winter and nice in between.

St. Louis is home to a multitude of farms and great foods and livestock.  As early as 1779, the Soulard Market allowed farmers to bring their fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products to the city to sell to anyone at rock bottom prices.  Some of the foods now are also organic and others are regular and all are for sale there.  Soulard Market is also the oldest food market West of the Mississippi.

Now, with what is there above, I have some issues with how people are treating Saint Louis:

1.  Saint Louis is not a food-mecca.  There is no super fancy restaurant in STL that requires many months of phone-ahead reservations.  I have tried to make reservations twice now, on a day or day before of a Saturday and both times I was told that the earliest seating I could get would be as early as 9:30 or even 10pm.  I'm sorry, but if you have a restaurant with only enough seating to sit 20-30 people, and you cannot seat anyone in before 9pm, then you need a bigger restaurant.  This is not Las Vegas, New York or even San Francisco.  No foot writer, foodie, blogger or critic is going to recommend your restaurant when they cannot get in.  Two times attempting to make a reservation at some restaurants in town, makes me think that I may not want to even review it.  I'm sorry, but of course the food writers of the RFT or Feast can get in, because they tell them ahead of time that they are a food writer.  There is an idea of being secretive about this job or you get different treatment.

2.  I've been a to a couple of restaurants in STL and the good ones have great food but the big issue is: I have only been to a very small group of restaurants in STL that have good food AND good service.  STL is not a food town, as much as everyone likes to think it is.  (Including me).  There are no restaurants making headway and doing anything so mind-bendingly impossibly new and shocking that it is changing the way food is served or cooked.  I have noticed that in these restaurants, there is a balance.  The balance is this: if the food is great, the service is not.  If the service is great, the food is not.  There are the few that have both great service and food and the other bottom few that are bad on both.  But, in Saint Louis here, people treat working at a restaurant as just a summer job or a college or high school job.  It is no big deal and they just deal with the masses and the food and such, until they get off so they can get on with their social life.  There is no passion anymore in food or serving food.  Likely because there are too many restaurants in STL.

3.  Two things here, aimed at a certain food writer.  First of all, he is only famous because he wrote a book describing his experience in the food industry form his point of view.  Yes, his story had drama, drugs, and rock and roll.  But, it was an isolated incident and not every chef does drugs, smokes or is full of drama.  This idea gives chefs a stereotype.  Combine that idea with the cost of cooking schools and you give chefs the same idea of doctors: coming out of school with more bills than they can handle.  So, chefs then try to make it and open restaurants that make money to pay off the bills.  But they make bad choices, like making cupcakes and selling them for more than $3 a piece.  Or deciding to spend their life in a coffee house making desserts while wondering why the coffee house has erratic hours and is closed most of the time. If someone would open a cafe making the cool stuff I make, then it would work.  (Are you an investor looking to open something new and different in STL, contact me).

4.  I am not complaining or ranting about the current food society and culture magazines for the metro area, but not everyone can afford winery trips.  I know that you have a periodical that reaches over 5,000 people and out of those people, maybe 100 can afford the high prices stuff you write about.  So, which is better: Is it better to write to those few people who are either retired or millionaires living in STL about food and culture?  Or is it better to write to the millions of people under the age of 60 who don't live in Clayton or Ladue and are interested in what restaurant has the best grilled cheese or the best BBQ?

5.  No one uses anything local.  A few years ago, my wife and I went to Sleek, in the casino and on the menu, with each dish was a description as to what is in it as well as where the food came from.  The waiter was also good at describing the process of cooking and also where the food was from.  What got me was that none of the ingredients came from St. Louis.  Not even a single pea came from Soulard Market.  As mentioned up there ^, you have a huge outdoor market with the best farmers in the area.  You also have small community farms and other gardens in the area and here you have a restaurant, preaching how it uses local ingredients and the closest to STL that it could find was from Eureka!?!  The dish with the ingredients from Eureka, used baby potatoes and carrots.  I am growing carrots on my front porch right now!  Why couldn't the restaurant grow them?  Or why couldn't the chef grow them at his house?  On the other side of the river, in Columbia, surrounded by farmers selling food at their stands on the side of the road, I am perplexed at why restaurants use food that is delivered from California.  I know that there is some mark-up in cost and so forth so if a restaurant doesn't buy local they can buy from Florida and raise the cost of the dish to make up for the cost of the food.  But, wouldn't it be better if the food was bought just down the street and then that same dish could be sold for a few dollars cheaper?

6.  In Saint Louis, for some reason, food is tied with entertainment, although it is not.  In Saint Louis, there used be a section of the city called the Gaslight District, where people would get entertainment at restaurants while eating.  This type of restaurant that combined the both of them died out and was replaced by night clubs, which served food.  For instance, I had a friend who worked at a Vodka bar that was supposed to serve food but didn't until a year later because they had problems with their kitchen.  Their classy and designer interior was buzz-worthy and in food articles by local periodicals, their food was reviewed, but yet it was not available to the general public.  This meant that this bar and many others like it, while serving food, didn't really want to.  People in STL don't go to a night club to eat, they go to dance, or take pictures and tweet and foursquare or facebook each other.  It is even so much that across the river in Sauget, the strip club called The Penthouse Club, has a full kitchen in their VIP area with good food.  Nothing fancy, although it considers itself a steak house, but you get food and the entertainment of a nice girl walking by or sitting and chatting with you for a bit.  This type of dining with entertainment doesn't work everywhere and sometimes works in Las Vegas, but not always.  Now, I know that there is a new spot opening soon which is supposed to be bringing a Vaudville-type show with a dinner course of food.  Although, according to what I have seen so far, the prices resemble those of Las Vegas.  I remember seeing advertised around Facebook that tickets for a dinner show would be as much as $100 a person, not including drinks.  The issue with this place in general is this: it is not really a supper club.  Supper clubs became famous during the 30's and 40's as a one stop shop where someone would come for cocktails and stay through dinner with nightclub entertainment.  It wasn't for the rich though and everyone could afford going as they were mainly tourist attractions.

7.  Star power?  Where is the STL star power or celebrity chef?  Most likely not in STL, since STL's idea of a culinary school is one that is less than 10 years old.  On top of that, as I expressed earlier, it looks like the Associates in cooking is about $37,000.  Who has that kind of money?  Also, if you are opening a restaurant or wanting to star on Top Chef, no one will know where you learned unless you went to the CIA.  The other issue being that being a celebrity chef in STL is different than being a celebrity chef in other cities.  Here, the local news anchor is a celebrity.  For all I know, since I write a food blog, I could be a celebrity.  When they had celebrities vote for the food competition at Iron Fork, they used writers for the RFT and local news anchors.  So, what I am suggesting really is that there are some famous chefs that should choose STL as their spot.  When you go to NYC, you don't eat at Joe Smith's restaurant down the street.  You eat at places like Bobby Flay's, Morimoto's or even Joel Robuchon's.  What is there in STL?  The last celebrity chef, Larry Fargone, left and closed his restaurant a year ago.  So, what is there left?

Maybe, one day, me and a bunch of investors will change the way Saint Louis is viewed by foodies and food experts.  Maybe one day I'll have my small cafe where I serve fried sage leaves with bacon ice cream or a wine bar with small and tasty sugar free appetizers.  Who knows.  I just know that as I grow older, I see more and more restaurants open and more and more of them close after a few years because they are guilty of a few things like the above.  St. Louis, is not a big city.  It may have been until the 1960's, or even until the 1950's, but now it seems that it is just a spot for restaurants and night clubs to open up one year and close the next.  Investors move their restaurants further and further away from the downtown areas and make you drive further and further to get to anywhere.  I just wish St. Louis would do something with their culinary culture.  Perhaps start an Iron Chef or Chopped competition once every year or so.