While this April wasn’t a banner month for restaurant openings in St. Louis—there were four, plus a reopening (BaiKu Sushi Lounge), and a move (Pint Size Bakery)— it may have set a record for chefs on the move.
Here’s the current tally (and the month’s not over yet):
A week ago, Gerard Craft’s Niche Food Group announced that Nick Blue, executive chef at Brasserie by Niche, will take over for Nate Hereford at Niche (which is convenient, since Blue's wife, Sarah Osborn Blue, is exec pastry chef at Niche). Brian Moxey (right), the former exec of Pastaria who had been cheffing at Perennial Artisan Ales, will take over for Blue at Brasserie. Nate Hereford has taken a position with Hampton Creek, a four-year old, San Francisco-based revolutionary food technology company that claims to be “the fastest growing food company on earth.”
In other news, former Niche pastry chef Mathew Rice (right) will rejoin the Niche family as exec pastry chef at the new Pastaria in Nashville, opening this summer. Rice moved from St. Louis to Chicago in 2011, where he worked for three notable restaurants: Nightwood, Girl and the Goat, and Publican.
Taking Moxie's exec chef position at Perennial Artisan Ales is Kaleigh Brundick, a sous chef at the brewery for the last several years. Feast reported that news here last week.
Brad Beracha’s BaiKu Sushi Lounge reopened yesterday after a 90-day remodeling of the Hotel Ignacio in Midtown, where it occupies part of the ground floor. Beracha tapped Eliott Harris, his sushi chef at the now-shuttered Miso on Meramec, to head up the kitchen. In the interim, Harris was responsible for the original sushi program at Central Table Food Hall and also operated Chop Shop STL, a Japanese-food themed food truck. Joining Harris at BaiKu is renowned chef Kenji Nemoto, who sushi aficionados remember fondly from Sekisui on S. Grand.
Yesterday morning, the RFT announced that Alyssa Bennett, creator of Pie Craft and familiar face at local farmer’s markets, will run the kitchen at MAUHAUS Cat Cafe & Lounge, the well-publicized undertaking opening in Maplewood later this year. The RFT says to expect an assortment of pies, baked goods and savory snacks, such as arepas, quiches, samosas, and hummus.
Photo courtesy American Culinary Federation
Stephan Schubert (right), exec pastry chef of Pinnacle Entertainment (River City Casino and Ameristar Casino) will be moving to Florida to work at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa in the same capacity. While at River City, Schubert won several prestigious awards, including ACF Pastry Chef of the Year in 2014 and Best Pastry Chef of the Americas in 2015, the latter competition held in Quito, Ecuador.
Schubert told SLM that on one hand, he never wanted to leave St. Louis, where he's lived since 2002; on the other, he felt that "there was not much left at River City to do or fix," adding that he feels his chef team there was so ready "I felt that I was not giving 100%." Schubert mentioned that the Seminole facility was the largest casino in North America from a revenue standpoint, and that $800 million was currently being invested, some of it on pastry niceties like "a dedicated chocolate room." Schubert's last day at River City is tomorrow, April 28.
SLM also learned that John Johnson, River City's Executive Chef, recently left to work in the same capacity at Ameristar Casino in Kansas City, another Pinnacle property. Johnson still maintains residency in St. Louis and plans to return often, especially since he'll be launching Nytche, a free networking app for cooking professionals, from here this summer.
Photo by Kevin A. Roberts
And while on the casino beat, a belated announcement and welcome on the arrival of Don Yamauchi (right) as exec chef at Ameristar Casino in St. Charles. (SLM published a Q&A with him this month.) In 1993, Food & Wine magazine named him one of the “Top 10 New Chefs in America” and in the same year the James Beard Society called him one of the “Top Five Rising Chefs in America.” Chalk up another credentialed chef for the metro area.
Editor's note: Sarah Osborn Blue is the exec pastry chef at Niche, not Pastaria. The article copy was revised accordingly.
