More from Five Questions For Adam Altnether

The 24-year-old Gerard Craft protégé, former chef de cuisine at Niche and executive chef at Brasserie by Niche, and new owner of Taste, scheduled to open its new Central West End home this month. Taste will be larger than its inspiration, Taste by Niche. How many will it seat? Fifty to 55, which is a nice size for my first place. I think at that size you can change the menu often without getting too stressed out. What will the menu look like? We're gonna keep it kind of like Taste by Niche … European tavern fare. We'll still have stuff like roasted chicken, a couple bruschettas, pickled vegetables, a few terrenes, burgers, some braised meats. We'll have fish and chips, and maybe some sort of pot pie, and some pastas – and the pigwiches, those can never leave the menu. They're a huge hit. Those are the chocolate cookies shaped like pigs with bacon-flavored cream in the middle, like a bacon Oreo. What part of the Taste menu will you be most proud of? I find the burger at Brasserie to be extremely good, and hopefully mine will be too, and also the charcuterie. When you cut into a perfectly aged salami, that's one of the best feelings you'll ever get. I started two prosciutto hams in March of last year, and they're still going, and they're not ready yet. Some of this stuff takes 18 to 24 months to be ready. How huge is it to have Ted Kilgore behind the bar? Ted is a huge part of this project. I can't say enough about that guy. He's incredibly talented and extremely passionate and a genius about opening restaurants, too. I was lucky to get Gerard to let him go. But this is Ted's baby, too. He's involved in the design of the bar, for instance. What plans do you have for Taste after the opening? I'd like to have a tiki bar on the patio in front with tiki cocktails in the summertime. Describe a kitchen moment that made you laugh. There was one time when I first started at Niche, on a Saturday night, when we had "deep-clean," and we were cleaning the hoods. As the smallest person and the new guy, that was my job. I hopped up on the stove, and I'm scrubbing and scrubbing, and I smell this burning smell, and I think, what is that? So I keep scrubbing, and eventually I look down, and my shoe is on fire. I think I screamed and somebody behind me wrapped a wet towel around it. When you're climbing up on the stoves, be sure to turn off those pilot lights. [Laughs] What's the best thing about St. Louis? The thing that brought me back to St. Louis from New York in the end was my family. As little as I get to see them, watching football with my dad and laying on the couch at my dad and stepmom's place is like a dream. What's the best part of a chef's day? During the harvest months, there were times when I was getting 98 percent of everything we used at Niche from area farms, and I hope to do that at Taste, too. The most exciting part of the day is when a farmer comes into the restaurant and we look at all the beautiful produce.