1 of 3
From Elaia, porchetta, braised artichokes, lentils, and bitter greens, a dish being paired with Julius Caesar.
2 of 3
From Olio, ancient Roman bread salad, a dish being paired withTitus Andronicus.
3 of 3
Aya Sofia’s baked Mediterranean sea bass, paired with a Turkish white wine called Cankaya, is a Cretian (and Turkish) feast, a dish is being paired with Othello.
Participating chefs and restaurants have been finalized for 38 Eats. That’s a new feature of the eighth annual SHAKE 38, the series of events that Shakespeare Festival St. Louis is hosting April 19–23.
Chefs and restaurants were invited to take part, offering a new creation or highlighting an existing one that ties in with a bit of Shakespeare (not difficult to do with our eclectic friend The Bard).
It’s a great lineup: Everyone from Bill Cardwell at Cardwell’s on the Plaza (serving a salad of romantic and erotic elements honoring Romeo and Juliet) to the Karandzieff family’s Crown Candy Kitchen (offering a sundae in tribute to Henry IV, part 2) pitch in for the fun. Other participants include such as chefs as Ben Grupe of Elaia and Olio, Vince Bommarito of Tony’s, Ramon Cuffie of Parigi, and many more. The 38 restaurants/chefs and their respective dishes can be viewed on 38 Eats' website. (Several are pictured in the gallery above).
Want more tantalizers? Simone Faure of La Patisserie Chouquette is doing The Taming of the Choux (the pastry for a cream puff) in honor of The Taming of the Shrew. Look for Brian Pelletier’s Kakao Chocolate to create a pate des fruits, with those fruit gels that are sort of like Chuckles candy gone to heaven; he’s doing a raspberry-lychee-rose one, referencing Henry VI, Part 1. (If that’s a reach, remember that particular Henry was involved in the War of the Roses.) And then there's a Roses-themed thirst-quencher from Water Street: a rose-infused gin, amaro, and lemon cocktail topped with a dried rosebud.
As St. Louis Brewery (a.k.a. Schlafly) did last year, it's making a quaff just for this year’s Shakespeare action, calling it The Winter’s Ale, a tie to the mainstage production of The Winter’s Tale that runs later this spring.
