St. Louis Cuisine - Wikipedia

Jump to content

Contents

move to sidebar hide

• (Top)
• 1 Foods of St. Louis
• 2 References

• Article
• Talk

English

• Read
• Edit
• View history

Tools Tools move to sidebar hide Actions

• Read
• Edit
• View history

General

• What links here
• Related changes
• Upload file
• Permanent link
• Page information
• Cite this page
• Get shortened URL
• Download QR code

Print/export

• Download as PDF
• Printable version

In other projects

• Wikimedia Commons
• Wikidata item

Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from St. Louis cuisine) Culinary culture of the Greater St. Louis area of Missouri, U.S.

The cuisine of St. Louis is influenced by the city’s history as a home for German, Irish, Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Bosnian immigrants and African Americans who migrated from the rural South.[1]

While the cuisine is especially prevalent in St. Louis, it extends to other areas in Missouri and Illinois, forming a distinctive part of the cuisine of the Midwestern United States.

Foods of St. Louis

[edit]

A number of dishes are particularly distinctive to St. Louis.[2]

Name	Image	Description
Frozen custard concrete		Ted Drewes developed a “malt shake” with frozen custard so thick that it can be turned upside down without falling out of its cup.[3] Dubbed a "concrete", it was later imitated by a local franchisee of Dairy Queen, who blended soft serve with candy and cookies and developed the product known today as a Blizzard.[4]
Gerber sandwich		A Gerber sandwich is a toasted, open-faced sandwich made from halved Italian or French bread, spread with garlic butter, topped with ham and Provel cheese.[5]
Gooey butter cake		A type of cake supposedly invented by a German-American baker in St. Louis.[6] It is buttery and sweet, and relatively short and dense compared to other cakes.
Mayfair salad dressing	Created by chef Fred Bangerter and head waiter Harry Amos at The Mayfair Room, Missouri's first five-star restaurant in the Mayfair Hotel in downtown St. Louis. While the original recipe is lost, several versions are still served in St. Louis.[7]
Provel cheese		A white processed cheese, made from cheddar, Swiss, and provolone.[8] One claim to its origin is that it was invented on the Hill, specifically for pizza, from Wisconsin’s Hoffman Dairy and Tony Costa, a local St. Louis restaurateur. Ed Imo bought Costa’s Grocery, which gave Imo’s Pizza the exclusive rights to sell Provel cheese in the area. Provel is manufactured by a Kraft Heinz subsidiary.[9]
St. Louis-style ribs		Spare ribs that have had the sternum bone, cartilage, and rib tips removed, giving them a rectangular shape. The ribs are heavily sauced with a sweet and vinegary tomato-based barbecue sauce.[10] In St. Louis-style barbecue, meats are grilled rather than slowly cooked over indirect heat.
Pork steaks		A steak cut from pork shoulder. Well-known in St. Louis, though it did not originate in the city.
St. Louis-style pizza		A type of pizza made with Provel cheese, sweet tomato sauce, and a very thin crust.[11] It is often square-cut.[12] St. Louis-style pizza is served at many local restaurants and chains such as Imo's Pizza.
St. Paul sandwich		A type of sandwich served at American Chinese takeout restaurants in St. Louis. It consists of an egg foo young patty (mung bean sprouts, minced white onions) served with dill pickle, white onion, mayonnaise, and lettuce, between two slices of white bread. Steven Yuen is said to have invented the sandwich in the 1940s for his restaurant Park Chop Suey.[13]
Slinger		A late-night diner specialty made from two eggs, hash browns, and a ground beef patty, covered in chili con carne, and topped with cheese and onions.[14]
Toasted ravioli		An appetizer made of breaded deep-fried ravioli, dusted with parmesan cheese, and served with marinara sauce. Generally, beef ravioli is breaded and deep fried until the pasta shell becomes crispy. It is commonly served at Italian-American restaurants in the city.[15]
Red Hot Riplets		Ridge-cut potato chips flavored with "St. Louis Style Hot Sauce", a mix of hot chili pepper and sweet barbecue powdered seasoning.
Chop suey		Chop suey, from the mid-20th century, especially declined in the West Coast and the East Coast with new Chinese immigration and with more diverse types of food available, while it retained more prominence in the American Midwest, where there was less Chinese immigration. St. Louis, Missouri, as of 2012, continued to have a number of chop suey restaurants in low income neighborhoods.[16] That year, the majority of them were in the northern part of the city, in African-American communities.[17] The restaurants were spread around since the previous Chinatown, Hop Alley, was razed.[16] In 2012, 22 restaurants directly used the words "chop suey" in their names.[17]

References

[edit]

1. ^ Corrigan, Patricia (2008). Eating St. Louis : the Gateway City's unique food culture. St. Louis, MO: Doisy College of Health Sciences at Saint Louis University. ISBN 978-1-933370-70-5. OCLC 261136089.
2. ^ Baehr, Cheryl. "9 Classic St. Louis Foods — And Where to Eat Them". Riverfront Times. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
3. ^ "Why Ted Drewes' Concretes Have Always Been Served Upside Down". Feast Magazine. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
4. ^ Phillips, Stephen (September 1, 1986). "Dairy Queen's Blizzard Is Hot". The New York Times. Retrieved March 26, 2024.
5. ^ "Gerbergate | News Stories | St. Louis | St. Louis News and Events | Riverfront Times". 2020-02-15. Archived from the original on 2020-02-15. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
6. ^ Stradley, Linda; Brenda (2015-05-03). "Gooey Butter Cake History and Recipe". What's Cooking America. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
7. ^ Fletcher, Helen (2017-01-24). "This Mayfair Salad recipe comes from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair". www.stlmag.com. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
8. ^ Early, Rosalind. "Yes, You Can Make Provel at Home, Says St. Louis Redditor". Riverfront Times. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
9. ^ "How Salty-Velvety Provel Cheese Became a St. Louis Icon". Bon Appétit. 2022-04-06. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
10. ^ Raichlen, Steven (2003). Steven Raichlen's BBQ USA : 425 fiery recipes from all across America. Internet Archive. New York : Workman Pub. ISBN 978-0-7611-2015-5.
11. ^ Richman, Adam (2010). America the Edible: A Hungry History, from Sea to Dining Sea. Rodale. pp. 79–81. ISBN 978-1605293028.
12. ^ The Lantern's Core. Northwestern University Library Staff Association. 1990. p. 315. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
13. ^ "Missouri's immigrants created the St. Paul sandwich 80 years ago. Now it defines St. Louis cuisine". KCUR 89.3 - NPR in Kansas City. 2021-08-24. Archived from the original on 2023-01-23. Retrieved 2023-01-23.
14. ^ "Cheap Eats | Riverfront Times". 2015-04-03. Archived from the original on 2015-04-03. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
15. ^ Post, Aaron Hutcherson Washington (2021-10-27). "Toasted ravioli is a cheesy, crispy party-time dipper". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
16. ^ a b "From Far East to Midwest: chop suey's last stand". St. Louis Public Radio. 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2025-04-14.
17. ^ a b Bogan, Jesse (2012-02-14). "Chop suey: Flourishing chop suey shops fill a need in north St. Louis". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved 2025-04-14.

v t e City of St. Louis
Greater St. Louis Missouri United States
Topics	Architecture Airport Board of Alderman Board of Police Commissioners City Hall Culture Crime Cuisine Economy Education Fire Flag Geography History Timeline Hospitals Landmarks Neighborhoods Parks People Police Public art Skyscrapers Sports School District Transportation
Neighborhoods	Academy Baden Benton Park Benton Park West Bevo Mill Botanical Heights Boulevard Heights Carondelet Carr Square Central West End Cheltenham Chinatown (defunct since 1966) Clayton/Tamm Clifton Heights College Hill Columbus Square Compton Heights Covenant Blu Grand Center DeBaliviere Place "Dogtown" Downtown Downtown West Dutchtown Ellendale Fairground Forest Park Southeast Fountain Park Fox Park Franz Park Gate District Gravois Park Greater Ville Hamilton Heights The Hill Hi-Pointe Holly Hills Hyde Park JeffVanderLou Kings Oak Kingsway East Kingsway West Kosciusko Lafayette Square LaSalle Park Lewis Place Lindenwood Park Marine Villa Mark Twain Mark Twain/I-70 Industrial McKinley Heights Midtown Mill Creek Valley (defunct since 1960s) Mount Pleasant Near North Riverfront Northampton North Point North Riverfront O'Fallon Old North St. Louis Patch Peabody–Darst–Webbe Penrose Princeton Heights Riverview Shaw Skinker DeBaliviere Soulard Southampton Southwest Garden St. Louis Hills St. Louis Place Tiffany Tower Grove East Tower Grove South Vandeventer The Ville Visitation Park Walnut Park East Walnut Park West Wells/Goodfellow West End Wydown/Skinker
Category

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cuisine_of_St._Louis&oldid=1319503150" Category:

• Cuisine of St. Louis

Hidden categories:

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata

Search Search Toggle the table of contents Cuisine of St. Louis 1 language Add topic