Acclaimed pastry chef Nathaniel Reid, of his eponymous bakery, admittedly doesn’t get out to eat much around town, so instead of putting together a list of his top five St. Louis restaurants to coincide with his recent episode on The Sauce podcast, we took things a different direction. Here, he shares three life-changing meals that helped him become who he is today.
1. L’Arpège – Paris, France (2004)
“In my mid-20s, when I was completely broke living abroad in Paris, an older classmate from Le Cordon Bleu and his wife invited me to dinner at L’Arpège, a three-Michelin-star restaurant. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before – probably a 14-18 course meal. It felt like stepping into another world. To this day, I still think about some of the dishes I had there. Langoustine with caviar and warm cream sauce, caramel mille-feuille, and his signature Tomate Confit Aux Douze Saveurs (tomato stuffed with a variety of fruits and nuts, finished with gastrique and a quenelle of vanilla crème glacée). But the best bite of the night was something deceptively simple. He has this garden in the south of France where he gets his produce every day, so it’s incredibly fresh. The dish was a long, skinny beet, almost shaped like a carrot, roasted in a sel gris crust that was cracked tableside. They’d carve the beet and plate it for you with a 100-year-old balsamic vinegar. The dinner was unbelievable, start to finish. It really showed me what can be accomplished if you use fresh, quality ingredients and treat them with respect.”
2. The Peninsula Tokyo (Make-A-Wish Japan Event) – Ginza, Tokyo, Japan (2011)
“Back in 2011, I was invited by Make-A-Wish Japan to cook at a week-long event at The Peninsula Hotel in Ginza. I cooked several nights, but on my days off, I got to try some of the best food I’d ever had, cooked by so many other amazing chefs. To this day, one of the most impressive dishes I’ve seen was Michelin star chef Makoto Ishii (of La Musée and Contraste)’s savory interpretation of a Mont Blanc. He is an incredible chef, one of the best I’ve met. It was a bacon flan topped with a perfectly poached egg and finished with potato mousseline piped to look like Mont Blanc strands with shaved white truffle on the sides. It was creative, clever, and executed flawlessly. It raised my bar for what’s possible when imagination and technique are working together at the highest level.”
3. Joël Robuchon – Las Vegas, Nevada (2009)
“In 2009, after I had helped open Robuchon restaurants in Las Vegas, I was invited back with my wife, Lee Lee for a dinner experience I’ll never forget. We were seated at the best table in the house, which was Celine Dion’s table at the time, and had an unbelievable 16-course dinner.
Everything about it was perfectly done, from the bread and cheese service to the hospitality. The staff all knew me there and truly went all out, bringing extra food, adding special touches, and just making the whole night feel so personal and over-the-top in the best of ways. Robuchon was excellence at its peak and it felt so special to be a part of that.”