What two words will spark a lively conversation in St. Louis faster than any other? With the exception of Donald Trump, the answer is Provel cheese, the pasteurized cheese product that’s synonymous with St. Louis–style thin-crust pizza. Arguably, there is no more incendiary culinary term in the metro area. To devotees, it’s manna from heaven, a gift from the gods; to detractors, it’s simply god-awful. (SLM opined on Provel cheese here).
The divisive fires have been stoked one again, this time by Phoenix-born freelance writer Asonta Benetti, who penned an adulatory article, “How Salty-Velvety Provel Cheese Became a St. Louis Icon,” yesterday on Bon Appétit‘s website.
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Benetti jumped on board the Provel train after surprising her boyfriend, a former St. Louisan, with a box of frozen mail-order pizzas from Imo’s. Biting into her first square, she replied, “It’s…different,” struggling to describe the creamy, buttery, subtly rich flavor. She said the melted cheese “resembled something between bechamel and a thick, savory crème anglaise. But I seriously dig it”—and proceeded to demolish the square.
Benetti first learned of Provel at Frasher’s Smokehouse, a Phoenix-based barbecue joint founded in 1999 by St. Louis native George Frasher. Her boyfriend noted that besides the usual smoked meats, Frasher’s featured several St. Louis classics: toasted ravioli, gooey butter cake, pork steaks, and St. Louis–style pizza, made exclusively with Provel cheese. “I try to utilize it on as many dishes as possible in my three restaurants [Frasher’s Smokehouse, Frashers Tavern, and Mrs. Chicken],” Frasher says in the article.
Provel has popped up sporadically on menus across the country. At Brooklyn’s Speedy Romeo, SLM’s Andrew Mark Veety wrote in 2012, that the Saint Louie is “a wood-fired Neapolitan pie cut into squares and topped with Italian sausage, pepperoni, and thin coins of pickled chili peppers, all riding on a bed of fire-kissed Provel.” Veety observed that “Provel pulled bubbling from a wood oven is vastly superior to Provel baked in a gas-fired deck or a conveyor oven,” concluding that it “looks like the best St. Louis—style pizza you’ve ever had is actually from a neighborhood pizzeria in Brooklyn.” (Speedy Romeo is still there, and after a name change, so is the St. Louie pizza.)
According to Imo’s, millions of pounds of Provel are consumed each year, yet it’s difficult to find it virtually anywhere else in the U.S, the Bon Appétit article states. We’ve found that the easiest way for an out-of-towner to procure Provel is to order it via Goldbelly (10 pounds cost $85).
Over the years, Provel has been the subject of praise and ridicule, sometimes both by the same person. Despite being “obsessed” with the stuff, Judah Friedlander, who played Frank on the sitcom 30 Rock, said in this article, “It’s not even legally cheese. It’s melted plastic from the ’80s.” When given a choice between Imo’s pizza and a Ted Drewes concrete for his last meal, Andy Cohen chose the hometown pizza, saying, “It’s so gross, but in the best way possible.” He added, “Provel cheese is a delicacy to me. I think it’s made in a factory, but I lovvve it.””
During the 2020 Summer Olympics, the country learned that gymnast Simone Biles was an Imo’s Pizza fan. Homeboy Jon Hamm is, too. “It tastes like 11 World Series victories,” he famously told Jimmy Kimmel, a detractor. Kimmel’s wife, a St. Louisan, is an admirer.
SLM restaurant critic Dave Lowry once called Provel “the bastard child of Amoco, the god of oil, and Velveetus, the goddess of potluck suppers.”
When he visited St. Louis in 2013 (read more here), Bizarre Foods‘ Andrew Zimmern tried Provel for the first time atop a pizza at Schottzie’s Bar & Grill and said, “I actually did like it.” The next day, Zimmern was presented with a 5-pound block of Provel as “a gift from the city.” Despite it being a warm day, he asked someone to “take it to the car… I know it’ll keep.”
May the Provel debate continue. It’s some serious, greasy fun.
