This is part three of Gut Check's Chef's Choice profile of Joseph Hemp V of Robust. Read part one, a profile of Hemp, here. Read part two, a Q & A with Hemp, here.

The scallops with ham atop creamy polenta at Robust | Corey Woodruff

Joseph Hemp V, the chef of the popular wine bar and restaurant Robust (227 West Lockwood Avenue, Webster Groves; 314-963-0033) and its new downtown outpost (635 Washington Avenue; 314-287-6300), has come a long way from helping his mother cook Sunday breakfast for the family. Yet all his years of cooking and watching others cook has paid off with an attention to detail evident on the plate and in the instructions he provides for this recipe.

When I reviewed the new downtown location of Robust earlier this year, one of my favorite dishes was the seared scallops with ham in a tomato-truffle sauce. Here Hemp tells you how it's done.

See Also:
- Ian Froeb's RFT Review of Robust (2013)
- Adrenaline Junkie Joseph Hemp V Finds a Home in the Kitchen
- Being Happy While You Cook and Learning to Love Bourbon: A Q&A with Joseph Hemp V of Robust

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This is part two. of Gut Check's Chef's Choice profile of Joseph Hemp V of Robust. Read part one, a profile of Hemp, here. Part three, a recipe from Hemp, will be available Monday.

Joseph Hemp V, chef of Robust | Ian Froeb

As a kid, Joseph Hemp V would stand on a step stool next to the stove to help make Sunday breakfast, his family's breakfast. In the summer, he'd tend his grandmother's vegetable garden -- and dutifully eat the vegetables that she'd just plucked straight from the ground.

Was Hemp destined to become a chef? Maybe, though the course he took to his current position at the popular wine bar and restaurant Robust (227 West Lockwood Avenue, Webster Groves; 314-963-0033) and its new downtown outpost (635 Washington Avenue; 314-287-6300), was a long one. It took him to hotels and country clubs and some of the best restaurants in St. Louis; it included two stints in culinary school -- the second necessary after the first ended with his being kicked out.

Hemp and I met at the downtown Robust this week to discuss his journey as a chef (read more about that path here), why you should smile while you cook and why you should give new restaurants a chance to get it together before you lambaste them online.

See Also:
- Adrenaline Junkie Joseph Hemp V Finds a Home in the Kitchen
- Ian Froeb's RFT Review of Robust (2013)

More »

This is part one of Gut Check's Chef's Choice profile of Joseph Hemp V of Robust. Part two, a Q & A with Hemp, and part three, a recipe from Hemp, will be available on Friday.

Joseph Hemp V, chef of Robust | Ian Froeb

Growing up, Joseph Hemp V always looked forward to Sunday breakfast. "We were all together as a family," the chef of Robust (227 West Lockwood Avenue, Webster Groves; 314-963-0033) and its new downtown outpost (635 Washington Avenue; 314-287-6300) explains. "Dad always worked nights. We had school and everything else. But Sunday breakfast was always big."

But Hemp was no passive participant in the feast.

"We'd have a little tiny footstool we'd put next to the stove so I could sit there and watch. And then eventually it came to a point where my mom got six recipes on a looseleaf paper, and I kept watching and practicing with her until one Sunday she said, 'All right, I want you to make breakfast.'

"I was like maybe seven by then. It was fun. Everybody was all excited about the terrible eggs I made or the overcooked this, that and the other."

See Also:
- Ian Froeb's RFT Review of Robust (2013)
- Corey Woodruff's RFT Slideshow of Robust (2013)

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This is part three of Gut Check's Chef's Choice profile of Qui Tran of Mai Lee. Read part one, a profile of Tran, here. Read part two, a Q & A with Tran, here.

The interior of Mai Lee | Jennifer Silverberg

Qui Tran of Mai Lee (8396 Music Memorial Drive, Brentwood; 314-645-2835), doesn't place himself among the St. Louis chefs he so admires.

"I respect those guys and love them to death," he told me when we sat down earlier this week. "I can't do what they do. I'm a self-taught cook. I learned from my mother. They create stuff. I just imitate stuff."

Anyone who has eaten at Mai Lee -- and that's more than a few of you, if the daily crowds at St. Louis' first Vietnamese restaurant are any indication -- would disagree. Tran's food is a tribute to his mother, who founded the restaurant in University City in late 1984, but if you know nothing of Mai Lee's remarkable history, you will still find it delicious.

Here Tran shares the recipe for one of Mai Lee's essential condiments, peanut sauce.

See Also:
- Qui Tran Lives the American Dream and Continues His Mother's Legacy at Mai Lee
- Loving Las Vegas and MSG: A Q & A with Qui Tran of Mai Lee

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This is part two of Gut Check's Chef's Choice profile of Qui Tran of Mai Lee. Read part one, a profile of Tran, here. Part three, a recipe from Tran, will be available on Friday.

Qui Tran, chef of Mai Lee | Ian Froeb

Mai Lee (8396 Music Memorial Drive, Brentwood; 314-645-2835) isn't simply a job for chef Qui Tran. It's his legacy.

His mother, Lee, founded the restaurant in 1985, eight years after the family had fled near-certain death in Vietnam. He spent his childhood washing dishes and papering houses and cars with copies of the menu. Though he initially resisted making a career in the restaurant industry, he realized that it was what he "was bred to do."

Under his stewardship, Mai Lee is more popular than ever. Its Brentwood location is much larger than the original University City spot, but is still packed at lunch and dinner.

And, yes, Mom still checks in to see how her son and his staff are doing.

"She's an old immigrant woman," Tran says and laughs. "You're not getting her out of here ever. As much as you try to."

See Also:
- Qui Tran Lives the American Dream and Continues His Mother's Legacy at Mai Lee

More »

This is part one of Gut Check's Chef's Choice profile of Qui Tran of Mai Lee. Part two, a Q & A with Tran, will appear tomorrow. Part three, a recipe from Tran, will be available on Friday.

Qui Tran inside his family's Vietnamese restaurant, Mai Lee | Ian Froeb

Qui Tran can't discuss his childhood without mentioning Mai Lee (8396 Music Memorial Drive, Brentwood; 314-645-2835), the restaurant that his mother founded in University City in 1984 -- not incidentally, the first Vietnamese restaurant in St. Louis.

"As a kid, I used to ride my bike up and down Delmar, passing out menus," Tran recalls. "That was my job. I was either washing dishes, because we didn't have a dishwasher, at eight years old, or biking up and down the street, passing out menus door to door, putting them on cars."

See Also:
- Loving Las Vegas and MSG: A Q & A with Qui Tran of Mai Lee

More »

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Chef's Choice is Gut Check's regular profile and interview, with recipe, of a St. Louis chef. From time to time we'll present several chefs' answers to one of our regular questions. This week: What is your favorite cookbook?

Shopped for a cookbook lately? So many beautiful choices. So many expensive choices.

Sure, it looks like you can't make a bad decision. But how can you know for sure when you haven't cooked a single recipe from any of them?

Who better to ask than an actual chef? We quizzed several top St. Louis toques about their favorite cookbooks. Here's what they told us:

- Cassy Vires, Home Wine Kitchen (7322 Manchester Road, Maplewood; 314-802-7676)

Good Meat -- awesome. [Michael Ruhlman's] Ratio -- also awesome. And [the quarterly magazine] Lucky Peach -- not a cookbook, but I love it.

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Chef's Choice profile of Brian Moxey of Pastaria. Read part one, a profile of Moxey, here. Read part two, a Q & A with Moxey, here.

Courtesy: Brian Moxey

Though the menu at Pastaria (7734 Forsyth Boulevard, Clayton; 314-862-6603) is largely the creation of Gerard Craft and Adam Altnether, executive chef Brian Moxey has been able to add his own touches through daily specials as well as his additions to the regular rotation of pastas and pizzas. Diners have noticed.

"I put the bucatini all'amatriciana on" the regular menu, he explains. "But then I took it off and ran carbonara for a week or two. I got positive reviews on that, but we had multiple people every night ask, 'Where'd the all'amatriciana go?'

"So it was like, wow, I was super happy they were that into that dish."

See Also:
- Brian Moxey Journeys from Starry-Eyed Young New York City Cook to Executive Chef of St. Louis' Hottest Restaurant
- Pimento Cheese, Heavy Metal and Learning to Salt Your Food: A Q & A with Brian Moxey of Pastaria

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This is part two of Gut Check's Chef's Choice profile of Brian Moxey of Pastaria. Read part one, a profile of Moxey, here. Part three, a recipe from Moxey, will be published on Thursday.

Brian Moxey slides a pizza into Pastaria's wood-fired oven. | Jennifer Silverberg

Though a native son of Sikeston, Brian Moxey made his bones as a young cook on the world's biggest stage: New York City. After graduating from the French Culinary Institute (now known as the International Culinary Center) in Manhattan, he worked at Craftsteak, from the acclaimed (and now television-famous) Tom Colicchio, and then at two of Marco Canora's acclaimed Italian restaurants, Insieme and Hearth.

The love of Italian cuisine -- not to mention the dedication to working ever harder -- that Canora instilled in Moxey prepared him for his return to St. Louis as the executive chef of the acclaimed Pastaria (7734 Forsyth Boulevard, Clayton; 314-862-6603).

Moxey and I met on a recent afternoon to talk about his journey from Missouri to New York and back again (read my profile of Moxey for that story), his early impressions of the dining scene in St. Louis and his love of pimento cheese and heavy metal.

See Also:
- Brian Moxey Journeys from Starry-Eyed Young New York City Cook to Executive Chef of St. Louis' Hottest Restaurant
- Pastaria's Italian Ramen: One of 100 St. Louis Dishes You Must Eat Right Now

More »

This is part one of Gut Check's Chef's Choice profile of Brian Moxey of Pastaria. Part two, a Q&A with Moxey, will be published Wednesday. Part three, a recipe from Moxey, will be available on Thursday.

Brian Moxey, executive chef of Pastaria in Clayton | Ian Froeb

A chef can't hide at Pastaria (7734 Forsyth Boulevard, Clayton; 314-862-6603). Not only is its kitchen open to the spacious dining room, with cooks plating pastas and sliding pizzas from the wood-fired oven mere feet away from the diners who ordered the dishes, but there are also seats on either side of the pass, allowing patrons to chat with the cooks as easily as they might with a bartender or one another.

Executive chef Brian Moxey, who returned to his native Missouri from New York City to work at Gerard Craft's smash-hit Italian spot, wouldn't have it any other way.

See Also:
- Ian Froeb's RFT Review of Pastaria (2012)
- Top Ten Dishes 2012 #2: Chitarra at Pastaria
- Pastaria's Italian Ramen: One of 100 St. Louis Dishes You Must Eat Right Now

More »