Steam-bun-centric restaurant The BAO is on a roll with its new monthly dinner series, which features an all-star lineup of St. Louis chefs. Next up in the series is a Japanese-style dinner with chef Ben Grupe.
Grupe, a St. Louis native and James Beard Award nominee, will headline The BAO’s “No Borders” dinner on January 13. He will work with Nisa York, chef at the Clayton-based restaurant, and Heidi Hamamura of the St. Louis Club to create a five-course menu. Grupe and Hamamura worked together previously at Elaia. The trio will draw inspiration for the first course from kaiseki, a style of traditional Japanese cooking that focuses on small, intricately-prepared plates.
Dishes for the dinner will include kombu-cured hamachi with ponzu sauce, snowbird dumplings, tempura vegetables, and sunchoke chawanmushi, or savory egg custard, with puffed rice and perigord truffles. In keeping with tradition, chefs will also make toasted bao with braised pork belly and mustard greens that has a “super-crispy exterior with pillow-like interiors,” Grupe said.
“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We’re using humble ingredients with proper cooking techniques. We’re trying to put the most delicious food forward that we can,” Grupe said.
Chefs Heidi Hamamura, Tello Carreón, and Nisa York
Grupe’s dinner follows two other events in the series. In November, chef Tello Carreón, the former head chef at Nixta, worked with York and Hamamura to create a six-course menu, and Cynthia Hule, former pastry chef of Privado, handled dessert. In December, chef Malou Perez-Nievera from the local food blog Skip to Malou collaborated with The BAO for dinner and brunch events featuring Filipino cuisine.
As with the last two dinners, Grupe and his team will source ingredients from local farms and suppliers. Bohlen Farms, Dirty Girl Farms, and Bee Simple will contribute produce. 4 Hands will supply its 1220 Spirits Origin Gin for specialty crafted cocktails made by The BAO general manager Ben Bauer.
The BAO dinner series is slated to continue through the summer, Bauer said. The restaurant already has six to eight chefs confirmed, including Samantha Mitchell from the popular St. Louis food truck Farmtruk and Cropcircle by Farmtruk, a food stall at the upcoming City Foundry.
“All the chefs are the caliber we’ve been running with thus far,” Bauer said. “We’re working on the individual dates. We’re hoping by the end of this series to have a schedule nailed down through July.”
Tickets for the January dinner are on sale now on Eventbrite for $65 per person, not including tax, tip, or beverage pairings. There are three seatings, one at 5 p.m., one at 6:30 p.m., and another at 8:30 p.m.
