Gut Check heard through the grapevine a few weeks ago that chef Edward Farrow, most recently of Phoenix, Arizona, would be moving to town this summer to oversee the new restaurant and café at the Saint Louis Art Museum (Forest Park Street; 314-721-0072).
Yesterday, a press release from the museum made it official. Farrow will oversee the new Panorama Restaurant, which will open this summer in the Saint Louis Art Museum's new east building designed by Sir David Chipperfield.
Farrow, 49, will be coming to St. Louis from the café at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, where he was executive chef. Under his leadership, the museum cafe received the Arizona Republic's award for Best Museum Restaurant in 2012.
Farrow is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York, and he has been a member of Slow Food USA since 2005. He's committed to using local, sustainable food in his cooking in order to make good food that's also good for the environment. The quarterly publication Edible Phoenix named Farrow a "Local Hero" in 2012 and 2013 for his support of local farmers, ranchers and other artisan food producers.
At the Saint Louis Art Museum, Farrow will be in charge of the new Panorama Restaurant (named for its views of Forest Park), as well as the smaller museum café and special event catering.
The café will open June 29, and Panorama will open July 1. Farrow intends for both the restaurant and café to feature evolving menus that link the art of cooking with the exhibitions and collections of the museum.
Gut Check has a call out to Farrow. More details and insight from the man himself as soon as we get them.
