Bistro La Floraison’s executive chef Patrick Fallwell and Take Root Hospitality partner and culinary director Aaron Martinez are both well-versed in Michelin-starred restaurants, including a stint when their paths crossed at San Francisco-based Michelin three-star restaurant Quince. They also worked together in other restaurants, and Bistro La Floraison’s food program shows the fruits of blending their long-term collaboration with chef-owner Michael Gallina’s own experience in Michelin-starred kitchens. No dish exemplifies this better than the French onion financiers, which Fallwell and Martinez have executed in different forms (both sweet and savory) and flavors (corn and black olive, to name two examples) throughout their years working together. These little almond flour cakes, flavored with onion powder, are topped with a Comte cheese concoction made by first heating the cheese with milk and a thickener, then cooling it before blending and piping. They’re finished with just a couple of drops of thyme oil: The herb’s leaves are plucked, blanched and shocked, then blended with oil, before the mixture is strained. It’s years of work condensed into just one bite, and like so much of La Floraison’s menu, from the fried chicken cordon bleu to the beef bourguignon to the delightful pain perdu dessert, it’s been edited over and over to strike the perfect balance between familiar and fresh.
7637 Wydown Blvd., Clayton, 314.725.8880, bistrolafloraison.com
The Sauce 75 is a photomosaic of the best in St. Louis dining in 2024. This list is a celebration of the diverse skills, techniques and culinary traditions that meet across our region. In sum, it tells a story about where St. Louis has been, where it is now and where it’s going next. Many great and good St. Louis restaurants have not made the cut. (Seventy-five is a lot fewer than you think!) Restaurants are constantly growing and evolving and go through ups and downs. Newly opened restaurants can take time to find their feet: There are a few exciting new places we’re cheering for, but which we feel haven’t yet fully hit their stride. Read the entire list here.
This article appears in August 2024.