Upon graduating from Mizzou’s journalism school, Steven Caravelli tried his hand at writing and even landed a few assignments at Sauce. Luckily for St. Louis foodies, Caravelli, who worked at a few eateries during college, decided to devote himself to cooking food instead of writing about it – even though “10 years ago, it wasn’t cool to be a chef,” according to the St. Louis native. Caravelli has gone on to work at some of this town’s top fine-dining establishments: Chez Leon, Old Warson Country Club, Moxy Bistro, An American Place, Niche and, most recently, Hubert Keller’s Sleek. “I’ve always sought out the best people in the city to learn from,” said Caravelli, who is now applying that knowledge to the top job at Araka.
What was it like having celeb chef Hubert Keller as your boss at Sleek? He’s a very happy guy. He demands the best of people, but he never raises his voice.
Is that how you are in the kitchen? I’m a quiet guy. You have to deserve it to get it from me. Everybody knows what “burnt” is. If you give me something like that, I’m going to be mad.
Compare working at Sleek and Araka. I was very happy at Sleek. It was and it wasn’t a steakhouse-chef type of job. We had a fine-dining approach to plating, presentation, sauces, the level of technique, even the way we cooked our vegetables was different than most steakhouses. Here [at Araka], it’s the Mediterranean influence that is above everything else. So it’s getting that Greek influence, Spanish influence. I’m Italian heritage mostly and it’s always my favorite type of food in the world, and now having the background of good French technique and adding that to the food.
Is Araka the same as when you staged here almost three years ago before taking your job as chef de cuisine at Sleek? I worked a Friday and Saturday night one weekend and we were doing 250, close to 300 people, which is insane for most St. Louis restaurants. I hope we get that busy again.
Owner Brad Beracha mentioned that we should expect a significant shift in Araka’s use of locally grown products. Tell me about your plans. I’ll be getting lambs every week from Dave Hillebrand of Prairie Grass Farms. I’m working with a couple pork guys. I use Andy Ayers for produce. I always use Claverach Farm, and mushrooms from Ozark Forest. As soon as I get caught up, I will hit the farmers’ market more often. I’d almost rather have Wednesdays off and just hang out at the Maplewood farmers market because all the chefs are there. I wish we could just stand there, have a beer and talk about the produce instead of running there, grabbing stuff and running out really fast.
You also planned on doing tasting menus – including all-vegetarian ones. We started that at the end of August. It may not be 100 percent vegetarian, but they are vegetable-oriented. I think a lot of people would be happy to eat all vegetables instead of a heavy steak every night of the week. My goal is to always have four courses of vegetables, dessert included. For the first one, I had a sweet corn pudding and carrot ice cream [for dessert]. A lot of vegetables lend themselves to the sweet side of the kitchen. And I have a chef’s tasting menu as well.
You like to experiment with food. How will you show your creativity at Araka? I love classic flavors. Sometimes I’m going to put a twist on it, sometimes leave it as-is. Like if we’re going to do mussels, I don’t want to screw around putting some ingredients in that don’t go there. Just a good bowl of steamed mussels with shallots, parsley and white wine is good. Sometimes it’s OK to be funny or cute or play with dishes. Otherwise, my personality really is classic. I learned that you don’t need to add ingredients that no one has heard of before. Just take a classic dish and make all the ingredients shine so you can see them and each of them tastes good individually or [they] come together in a different way than they normally do.
Are you planning on offering any menu items that were offered at Sleek? Some. The yellow tomato sorbet that was on the cucumber soup on the vegetable tasting menu is something we did at Sleek. I’m just using it in a different way. I know that Hubert’s going to come in here and Laurent Pillard [executive chef of Keller’s Fleur de Lys in Las Vegas]. I don’t want them coming in saying, “You stole that from us!” But definitely, some ideas and techniques. Like the cucumber soup, Hubert did it on Top Chef Masters. I never thought of thickening a soup with almond flour before and I do that here. It gives it an actual mouth feel instead of being a watery purée of cucumbers.
Is there anything on Araka’s menu that you will not touch? We’ll always have pasta and the flatbread pizzas, but we’ll change them and do them differently. We’ll always do a steak and a chicken and a pork, but the vegetables and the sauces are going to rotate with the seasons. The bibb salad and the chocolate-hazelnut bar – a Kit-Kat-style dessert – have been on the menu since Araka opened.
What else are you putting on the menu? I’ll have American Grassfed Beef as my beef duo. I’m going to do a Piedmontese flat iron, an Italian breed of cow … sustainable fish. … You can’t break the bank, but I try to make the best choice I can on that line between economical, environmental, local.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years? I would like to own my own restaurant. My dad, who’s a big foodie, says he’d like to stand in the back and do prep work for me, my wife is talented in design and my mother-in-law cooks well. So we have a lot of talent in the family. If I haven’t opened a restaurant in 10 years, I probably won’t do it.
Araka, 131 Carondelet Plaza, Clayton 314.725.6777
This article appears in Oct 1-31, 2010.