During his 30-year career, chef William “Bill” Gideon has worked for the Four Seasons in Chicago, Philadelphia, the West Indies and Beverly Hills, garnering a James Beard hotel chef nomination along the way. He’s also run his own establishments, including Gideon’s Fine Dining in North Adams, Mass., where he earned three stars from AAA and three diamonds from Mobil in his first year of business. Somewhere in there, he found time to execute menus for the last four U.S. presidents, the Kennedy family and even the late Julia Child – in her own home.
These days, Gideon, who hails from Hannibal, serves as executive outlet chef for the recently opened River City Casino. He’s happy to be back in Missouri, but what he’s really excited about is offering St. Louisans a taste of his dining philosophy: “If you go out for a dining experience, it should be way better than what you get at home – no matter what the price point.”
You have worked at hotels and restaurants, for catering companies, as a consulting chef, and you’ve owned your own restaurant. What led you to your current position at River City Casino?
I wanted to go back into a really high-end organization where food was fun but still steeped in tradition and great flavors. I saw a thing for St. Louis and Pinnacle Entertainment. To be honest, I had no interest ever in being in a casino. They aren’t known for great food; they are known for bringing in chefs, and they throw a name out there, but they are not always executed very well. But it said “five-star, five-diamond chef,” which caught my attention because it meant that they wanted someone with a good food background. So I put the application in.
You oversee day-to-day operations for Lewy Nine’s Café, 1904 Beerhouse and Burger Brothers. Can you tell me a bit about the concept behind each of those restaurants?
You have Lewy’s, which is a casual diner, but at the same time you are getting things like soy-glazed halibut. You’re really seeing a worldly melting pot of different flavors. At the beer house, it’s shared appetizers, big bold flavors – probably a little more in the Midwest tradition. But everything is still tied together in the true culinary tradition of … [being] made from scratch. Mac and cheese … has six different cheeses inside of it. Burger Brothers: It’s gotta be a “wow” burger. We are averaging 700 to 800 burgers a day. Our top day was 1,500 in one day.
They are definitely different, but the unifying piece is that everything is made from scratch. We’re not opening bags and boxes.
Why go to such an effort to prepare even condiments – jams, barbecue sauces and ketchup – from scratch?
I concentrate on true flavor profiles. I believe that what sets us apart from other places is making sure that the flavors themselves are really to the highest standards. And I need to be teaching chefs of the future. I make sure that all of the people that work for me know how to do everything on a basic level.
Talk to me about that tangy, mustard barbecue sauce for your barbecue pork shoulder sandwich on the menu at Lewy Nine’s. That’s not a sweet, ketchupy, St. Louis-style sauce.
We wanted to put something different on and see how responsive people are to it. We took lots of different recipes that I’d seen from St. Louis and other places, and we tried to create something that we thought everyone would enjoy in St. Louis, with our own little “cheffed up” kick to it. They love the mustardy barbecue sauce. It’s not Midwestern. It’s Southern. It’s different enough that it kind of gives you a change of pace.
Last month you launched a three-course prix fixe menu at Lewy Nine’s. What can we expect for $14.50?
One of the dishes is a mixed garden salad to start, then bacon-wrapped cod with scallion-whipped potato and slivered green beans. I’ll take the applewood bacon, pound it down thin and then wrap it around the cod and pan sear it until it’s crispy. I make a purée of scallions and fold that in so they are a bright, vibrant, emerald mashed potato, put that on top and then the green beans cascading over the top with a really light butter sauce. And then you get one of [our pastry chef’s] famous cupcakes as a dessert – and a glass of wine. We’re also doing a wild mushroom stew inside a puff pastry as an appetizer, and then braised short ribs tossed with orecchiette pasta and caramelized onions with Asiago.
At Lewy Nine’s you serve up a beef bourguignon in a Japanese teapot, and the black soy-glazed halibut and salmon are both served in a tajine. At 1904 Beerhouse, there are fried mac and cheese croquettes on the menu. Is “fun” a word you would use to describe what you’re doing from a culinary standpoint?
I think that’s where we start, but I see us evolving into much more than just fun. I think it will always be fun, but for instance, in April we had our first beer and food pairing. That’s a symphony in your mouth, and we’re heading in that direction. The fact that we can do it, I think will definitely pique the interest of the foodies out there.
River City Casino
777 River City Casino Blvd.,
St. Louis, 888.578.7289>/b>
This article appears in May 1-31, 2010.