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Photographs by Mark Gilliland

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There's a changing of the guard in St. Louis dining. Fresh market menus are replacing the standard meat-and-potatoes fare of old, and new restaurants are opening monthly. The shift's been years in the making, led by a handful of innovative chefs willing to push tradition's envelope and welcomed by a new breed of St. Louis diner willing to play along. We've chosen to spotlight eight of these chefs, each an imaginative contributor to the new culinary kingdom.

Ivy Magruder

Executive chef, Eleven Eleven Mississippi
Ivy Magruder can re-member the day he first felt the thrill of feeding a crowd. Just 13, he was pulled from dishwashing duties at a local banquet hall and thrown into the kitchen to replace a missing cook. The experience eventually propelled him to Johnson & Wales in Charleston, S.C., and later into the kitchens of Remy's Kitchen & Wine Bar and Blue Water Grill.

Eleven Eleven owners Paul and Wendy Hamilton recruited Magruder to their project with the directive, "We want to have a warm restaurant; go plan a menu." The result is a collection of hearty, comforting foods that feature unusual old-school ingredients such as wild boar and red deer. Items such as a lobster BLT and rabbit fricassee spotlight Magruder's imaginative style, but he's careful never to let creativity outshine the ingredients.

Of the dishes your mom use to make, what was your favorite?
I can tell you one of my least favorites--it's actually on the menu here. About once a month, my mom would set the dining-room table and we'd all dress up and have a five-course meal. One time Brussels sprouts were on the menu; I didn't like the smell or the look of them. At my house, you didn't have to like it, just try it. I was about 8, and I refused. The dishes were done, my sister was doing her homework and I was still at the table, crying, and my dad was screaming and yelling. I ate the Brussels sprouts that night and so now, as a tribute to my father, they're on the menu here.

Did you ever grow to like them?
I've grown to tolerate them. Do I taste them to make sure they're OK? Sure. But they're more of a nod: 'Dad, I turned out all right; this one's for you.'

Have St. Louis diners changed?
Absolutely. When we talked about opening this restaurant, Paul said 'I want wild boar and rabbit on the menu.' I said 'I guarantee you St. Louis is not ready.' Now rabbit and wild boar are in our top five sellers every month. Diners are challenged by something different instead of being scared away, as they were five or 10 years ago.

Do you get strange requests?
We had a guest when we first opened who thought the silverware was too heavy, so we ran up to Arcelia's and borrowed some for her. Some of the questions I find comical, like, "Can you do the potato-wrapped grouper without the grouper?" Well, that would be potatoes.

What's your culinary pet peeve?
Overdoing the food. To me, it's not a pissing contest. Yeah, you can locate all these exotic ingredients, but is that supposed to impress me? I hate it when I have to ask questions about the menu. Chefs' egos, that's what it is.