A new food truck took to the streets several weeks ago. Owner Jodie Ferguson has as rich of a culinary resume as any fine-dining chef in town.
Clara B’s Kitchen Table is a Southern food–inspired, brunch-themed food truck that doubles as an homage to Ferguson’s Austin, Texas-born grandmother, who was the primary cook in the family until she died when Jodie was 6 years old.
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“My mother was a single working mom and didn’t have time to cook,” she recalls, “so when my grandmother passed, my first question was, ‘Who’s gonna feed me?’ So you might say my interest in the culinary world was born out of necessity. My mom’s friends were all good cooks, scratch cooks, and I learned a lot from them.”
She didn’t think about a culinary career until she lost interest in her major, marketing, during the last semester of her senior year at the University of Missouri–Columbia in 2005. She took an apprenticeship at Mizzou’s University Club and graduated with a certified sous chef, a designation sanctioned by the American Culinary Foundation. Concurrently, she picked up baking skills at Wild Flour Bakehouse, a small bakery in Columbia. The chef at the U Club, Daniel Pliska, was trained in more formal Austrian-type pastries, and Wild Flour owner Kenna Lanette Morris was a scratch baker, so her pastry education was well-rounded.
Ferguson eventually became pastry supervisor at the club. During a farm-to-table forum, one of the guest attendees was chef Bill Cardwell, who recruited her to work at his restaurant in St. Louis. From there, she went to Table Three in Wildwood, where she became executive chef within a year. She then worked at Ameristar Casino, Marriott Grand, and The Ritz-Carlton St. Louis, where she became executive sous chef.
Recently, she decided to strike out on her own, cooking the things that she loves. She thought that after reaching her goal of being an executive chef, she “would retire into a small diner, hanging over the counter, greeting people by name and serving fresh interpretations of comfort-food favorites that I had grown up with.” When the COVID-19 pandemic derailed those plans, Clara B’s Kitchen Table became the next best thing.
Ferguson’s favorite meal time is breakfast and brunch, and since there were fewer food trucks in Metro East than St. Louis (and none catering to breakfast foods), she felt there was opportunity, so she launched the truck in Belleville, near where she lives. With a “have biscuits, will travel” attitude, she’s more willing to cross the river, having just completed a successful election-night gig at Rockwell Beer Company.
The signature offering is a humongous biscuit sandwich (with bacon, smoked sausage, or chicken sausage), served with cheese, apricot red onion jam, and egg. A Bacon/Egg/Lettuce/Tomato (BELT) sandwich gets a smear of Brie cheese.
Other items include pancakes, avocado toast, breakfast tacos (a staple in her hometown of Austin), and a smoked chicken cobb salad with Southern Green Goddess dressing.
The dozen specialty items that rotate on and off the menu include biscuits and sausage with duck fat gravy (pictured at right), wood-fired shrimp and grits, savory French toast with Andouille, and a Frito pie that she serves atop cornbread with an egg “to make it brunchy,” she says. (“I put eggs on everything,” she admits.)
At present, Ferguson is baking biscuits, ciabatta, and cinnamon rolls (everything except the brioche buns) out of a church kitchen, but she’s looking to expand into a larger commissary space.
The truck can be booked for public events and private catering jobs, in which food options can go beyond the standard offerings. “At The Ritz-Carlton, we got a lot of off-menu requests, so I’ve pretty much learned to never say no,” she says.
Ferguson feels that with the launch and sudden popularity of 9 Mile Garden and the pandemic-influenced demand for trucks visiting residential neighborhoods, she feels she entered the business at the right time. (Check out the truck’s event schedule here.)
“And the whole ‘breakfast for dinner’ thing continues to be the rage,” she adds. “Sometimes it’s better than having breakfast for breakfast.”
