The St. Louis food and dining scene is kind of a big deal

St. Louis is fast becoming an important player in the national food zeitgeist.  Recently Chef Gerard Craft was awarded “Best Chef Midwest 2015” by The James Beard Foundation.  Esquire Magazine named St. Louis “The 2015 Bar City of the Year.”  New wildly progressive and heartwarmingly traditional restaurants are opening weekly and the dining scene has never been more robust.  St. Louis is finally gaining recognition for the variety of flavors and foods that it’s talented community of Chefs have introduced to anxious diners. Local Chefs have become smarter and more comfortable taking risks with what makes the menus and eaters more curious and with a desire to challenge and expand their previous culinary experiences.  Beyond the restaurant walls a number of specialty food shops, artisan butcheries and scratch bakeries have begun serving the home cook as well as educating the food community about farm to table, eating local and small scale farming.  The number of neighborhood farmers’ markets keeps increasing and established farmers’ markets are enjoying robust attendance.   Food is a central focus in St. Louis and there has never been a more compelling time to focus on it than now.

My goal with GastronomicSTL is to provide insight via interviews and editorials on the people who are, consciously or not, defining the local culinary scene, setting trend and educating diners.  It will be a place to read about Chef’s purest hopes and intentions before opening new ventures as well as the realities of running an established restaurant.  It will become, hopefully, a place you visit on a regular basis with high hopes and expectations.