Kelli Best-Oliver

Meet StewedSTL, the New St. Louis Food Podcast

​This week saw the debut of StewedSTL, a new podcast about food, drink and restaurants in St. Louis. Its four hosts are active participants in the area's food community: Bill Burge, who writes the food blog STL Bites and contributes to St. Louis Magazine; Kelli Best-Oliver, who wrote the "Novice F ... More >>

The RFT 2011 St. Louis Web Awards: Best Food Blog

Patriot Dame: Dana Loesch, Tea Party co-founder and rising star of conservative talk radio, reporting for duty!

The Novice Foodie Worships at the Church of Burger

While most former vegetarians cite bacon as their gateway food back into carnivorous behavior, for me, it was the humble hamburger. A burger and fries is the quintessential American meal, and I'm always on the lookout for a burger that leaves me satisfied.So when my friend and fellow food blogger An ... More >>

The Novice Foodie's Tour of Misfit Kitchen Tools

As part of my quest towards foodiedom, I'm trying to create a kitchen full of useful, dependable tools that will help me create good food at home. Tools like I mentioned in my holiday gift guide for novice foodies: multitaskers that will last forever if cared for properly.However, in my pre-foodie l ... More >>

The Novice Foodie Presses for Better Coffee

Ah, coffee. I love the comfort of the morning coffee ritual: the first sip, the way a warm mug feels in my hand, the permeating aroma as I get my day going. But woe was the Novice Foodie this past summer when my doctor said I had to cut out caffeine for a while to ensure I wouldn't drop dead at a m ... More >>

The Novice Foodie Sheds Tears of Joy for the Humble Shallot

In his bestselling memoir, Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain lists as the first necessary food item in the chapter titled "How to Cook Like A Pro" -- before butter, my friends -- the humble shallot. He writes, "You almost never see this item in a home kitchen, but out in the world they're an e ... More >>

The Novice Foodie's Homemade Cheese Snacks

Still bloated from holiday feasts in Iowa with my family, my husband and I returned to St Louis for even more dinner events. What to bring to these meals? I knew I didn't want to tackle yet another hearty dish. In fact, my mind could barely get past appetizers. So why fight it?Kelli Best-Oliver​I ... More >>

The Novice Foodie and the Cheesemonger

User "Myrabella," Wikimedia Commons​I love most cheeses in most forms, but I don't really know much about cheese -- good cheese, I mean, artisanal cheese. Being friends with local food blogger the Cheesemonger's Wife has taught me that I'm missing out. So I asked the Cheesemonger himself, Simon L ... More >>

The Novice Foodie Isn't a Slow-Food Novice

There's a good chance your food didn't come from anyone like her.​If there's one area of food where the Novice Foodie isn't such a novice, it's local, organic and sustainable foods -- a.k.a. Slow Food. I've been digging around to learn where my food comes from since I saw Canadian farmer/activist ... More >>

What to Get Your Novice Foodie This Holiday Season

User "Wikidemo," Wikimedia CommonsMerry Christmas! (Watch your knuckles.)​What to get the novice foodie(s) in your life this holiday season? Here are some gifts that I heartily recommend. These are invaluable tools, well worth the space they take up in my own kitchen because I use them so frequen ... More >>

The Novice Foodie is Full of Crêpe

Stu Spivek, Wikimedia Commons​Encouraged by last week's no-knead bread success, and bloated from several Thanksgiving dinners, this week I decide to tackle another classic while keeping things light.What's lighter than thin, airy crêpes?When I want crêpes, I usually go to Rooster or Murdoch Per ... More >>

The Novice Foodie: No-Knead Bread, No Need for Dishcloths

Kelli Best-Oliver​I have made mention of my terrible baking skills before, noting my failure-in-triplicate to reproduce the infamous no-knead bread faithfully. Yet I am a sucker for punishment as well as crusty bread, so I dared myself to try just one more time to not completely screw up a recipe ... More >>

The Novice Foodie in Asheville and Atlanta

Kelli Best-Oliver​My husband and I were in desperate need of a road trip. Didn't care much where or why, we just wanted to hit the open road and get out of St Louis for a while. We ended up heading toward Charlotte, North Carolina, to see friends who'd moved out there. Along the way, we planned o ... More >>

The Novice Foodie Goes Clandestine with the Clandestine Chef

Kelli Best-Oliver​I'd read about underground supper clubs before. The New York Times has written a few features on them, as have several of the food magazines. But I didn't have the in on any operating here in St Louis -- being a Novice Foodie and all -- and I was intrigued by the speakeasy-ish a ... More >>

The Novice Foodie's First (!) Cheesesteak

Kelli Best-Oliver​I don't really care about the World Series. Unless the Redbirds are playing, I see it as nothing more than an excuse for my husband to monopolize the television and Fox to preempt Glee. Blasphemous. This year is no exception as, to me, neither team has a compelling narrative. T ... More >>

This Week In Gut Check, Regurgitated

Kelli Best-Oliver​Did Gut Check have Halloween covered this week? Of course, we did! I suggest some cheap and easy food-related costumes, the Sneak helped you plan for the zombie apocalypse, the Novice Foodie showed you how to make your own candy corn, and Farmers' Market Share made a terrifyingly ... More >>

The Novice Foodie's Deadline Trick? A Candy Corn Treat

Kelli Best-Oliver​Much like deadlines, Halloween is a holiday that often sneaks up on me. I always have grand ideas for costumes (or columns), I lose track of time, and then I've got to throw something together. (Except for last year, when I planned my costume a year in advance.) This Halloween, ... More >>

The Novice Foodie: Bacon, Shakin' and Bikin'

Kelli Best-Oliver​When I signed up for my friend's annual bike ride/pub crawl around St. Louis, the infamous Tour de Moose, I was worried more about how my body would hold up than what I would be drinking and eating along the route. After my retirement from collegiate sports, my only regular exer ... More >>

The Novice Foodie: A Visit to Jay's International

After the sushi class I attended a few weeks ago, I knew I wanted to have the ingredients on hand to roll my own sushi. I decided to pay a visit to Jay's International Food Company on South Grand to check out what it had to offer. Since rice is stacked in giant bags in the window, I figured I'd find ... More >>

The Novice Foodie: Monarch, Fit for a Queen (and Her Hungover Husband)

The first time my husband and I ate at Monarch was for my 29th birthday. This was not so long ago, when our visits to nicer restaurants were reserved for a birthday or our anniversary. I'd chosen Monarch because we'd never been there and also because I'd loved chef Josh Galliano's food when he was a ... More >>

Pi Cubed: Obama's favorite pizza joint pushes back opening of second location

The Novice Foodie: The Prix (Fixe) Is Right at Acero

Two common obstacles to people who want to explore cuisine are 1) money and 2) feelings of insecurity. St. Louisans as a whole seem obsessed with value in dining. They want a lot for their money -- ever seen the lines outside Cunetto's? -- and in this economic climate, they might not have much mone ... More >>

The Novice Foodie: Julia & Julie & Kelli

Part of my concept of what being a foodie entails is being able to cook well. I think I'm a decent home cook. I cook mostly from scratch, and I love being in the kitchen, but dishes that take a long time or have a complicated ingredient list intimidate me, mostly because I have the attention span of ... More >>

The Novice Foodie's Taco Crawl

​Any foodie can tell you there is just as much satisfaction to be had from delicious food on the cheap as there is from a multi-course haute cuisine dinner. One way to find reliably delicious, cheap food is to hit up the ethnic areas of town, so I decided a taco crawl down Cherokee Street, home t ... More >>

Introducing the Novice Foodie: Crashing the Cook's Night Out

​Kelli Best-Oliver is on a quest to become a full-fledged foodie. Beginning this week, she will chronicle her adventures for Gut Check. She writes about any damn thing she pleases at South City Confidential.I have no formal culinary training. It's been ten years since I worked in a restaurant, wai ... More >>

"Gabe works his ass off, sleeps like two hours a night and still wants to hang out after a set at Halo."

Week of January 25, 2007