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Here's to them, the ones who are out there cooking for us every day.

Restaurants are the heart of everything we do.

We are Performance Food Service.

Proudly supporting Food Is Love.

I started out this season asking some big questions questions that have echoed through the ages.

What does it mean to follow your dreams?

What does it take to be the first to do something?

How do you turn an idea into reality?

These are questions that some people spend their whole life asking and never find answers to.

Amazingly, I found the answers to all of these questions and more right here in the heart of the St. Louis food scene.

As a chef, I need to stay curious in order to evolve.

For me, that means looking beyond a good meal to learn more about who made it and what inspires them to cook.

La comida es amor.

Every great city has great food.

I'm going on a journey around the world.

Right here in St. Louis I'm on a quest to find passionate chefs who cooks from the heart.

"That's exciting" and I think it's the best to prove that food is love, and it's going to be delicious.

Food is love.

Love your food.

For me, there is something that happens to regular food once I've had the chance to hear what's behind it.

The stories of triumph and struggle that played a role of bringing it to the table all make good food even more appealing.

Like any good aunt would do, Su insists, on feeding us while we're here, and who am I to resist?

Plus, it's a chance to taste some of the food Su learned to make back in Chiang Mai.

This is you can eat just like lunch.

Okay.

Something very simple that remind me when I was a kid, my mom would make this for us, and she gave us a lot of rice, and we had to share.

What is it called?

Okay.

Pad woon sen, pad means stir.

Oh, I didn't know that.

So means stir.

Yes.

Okay, but what kind of noodles is that?

Like glass noodles?

Glass noodle.

Yeah, cellophane noodles.

You cook something easy, you put a little bit of salt, and you see it smell good.

Yeah.

Is this like a peasant meal?

Yeah.

Chinese would use the oyster sauce, right?

Yeah, they're everything oyster sauce.

We use soy sauce.

Okay.

Light soy sauce.

Okay.

A little bit of green onions and onions.

A reoccurring theme that I've noticed is the value that's placed on tradition.

Whether it's a family legacy or a time honored recipe, the respect for upholding the standards is a common trait in great kitchens.

People say, this is the best chocolate malt, the best chocolate shake I've ever had.

And I think a part of it is the fact that we make this chocolate right here, and we've been making the chocolate the same way for 109 years.

My grandfather was a Greek immigrant, so he came over maybe around 1905, 1906.

And he had confectionery skills that he brought with him from over, And he was Macedonian Greek.

So he's from northern Greece.

You have to respect his commitment.

Living next to the restaurant, waking up every day, doing the things the way they've been done from the start.

I love living upstairs.

I love this neighborhood.

It's part of our family history.

So, I mean, a lot of the stuff you do is based on tradition.

Oh, absolutely.

Now, this candy stove is older than all of us.

The chocolate syrup needs to taste the same.

Yeah.

Hot fudge needs to be the same.

Everything is very consistent here.

So all of these recipes was handed down oh, yeah.

From my grandfather to my father to my brothers and I, this has been the way we've been doing it.

You know, I remember being taught how to make chocolate syrup for my big brother.

You know, Mike taught me how to do this.

Mixing it up and stirring it and doing the figure eight and getting all the lumps out and not walking away from it for too long, otherwise it boils over.

Floods the whole kitchen with chocolate.

Has that ever happened?

Yes, it has.

My foraging mentor, he loves to tell the story how he was out, literally in the middle of the desert.

You can't see anything in any direction.

It's a salt flat.

The plants told him to go, and he just felt compelled to go in a certain direction where there's nothing said.

He walked about 5 miles.

He gets out there, and he sees a burned out tree in the middle of nowhere.

He looks inside, and a freshly vacated beehive.

The whole thing was filled with the beehive.

He gathers all that comb, takes it back to his cabin up in the mountains, and it was fresh smoked desert flower bee honey.

Oh, wow.

I have never had honey that amazing the complexity of flavors.

And he only found that because he felt the plants were telling him to go in that direction.

I'm not that connected with nature.

I love nature, but he's connected.

He's the one who mentored me in foraging.

Okay.

Really amazing.

How old is this place?

This place goes back to my family to 1916.

My grandfather bought this bar from the Lemp Brewery.

I'm third generation.

People usually hear, you've been here that long, and they think I'm at least fourth, right?

Yeah.

But just third generation.

My grandpa was born in 1886.

He bought this bar when he was 30, a few years before Prohibition kicked in.

And luckily there's generations, it's it's still going.

And now we have a fourth generation, my nephew's here and my partner.

So that's great.

Not counting on me to run this place by myself.

Yeah, so that's priceless.

So did they run through prohibition too?

Did what you had to do.

My uncle used to tell me that it was hard to make payroll selling chocolate and near beer and sodas and stuff like that.

So it was a speak easy.

You would hide the moonshine.

You'd always get like two bottles and you would hide it.

And you'd usually catch wind if somebody was coming.

And if someone was at the bar that you didn't know, you would wait for him to leave to take it out.

As an immigrant myself, learning about immigrant cultures and their impact on the food scene strikes a personal chord with me.

Are you a vegetarian?

Vegetarian yes sir Is that a choice?

Yes.

I always grew up eating vegetarian food.

Nobody ate any meat at home.

And I say I'm such a strong vegetarian, I don't even say glad to meet you.

Yeah.

(Laughing) It's also because it's healthy for your body.

Essentially, you consider food as your medicine, natural medicine, so that it heals the body as much as organically possible so that medicine doesn't become food.

Yeah.

Why don't you eat beef in India?

And I know that there is a religious meaning.

Cow is considered sacred.

Why is it considered sacred?

Two reasons.

So that you can create the phrase "holy cow" from India.

Just kidding.

The real reason is cow provides milk.

And when you bring up the baby and milk,.. You use that for the ghee?

For ghee and all milk products.

Right.

Even yogurt is made from milk.

Butter is extracted from milk.

Those are all milk products, right?

Yeah.

Many people breed cows at home.

Like keep a cow at home to feed the family.

With milk, it becomes a nurturing effect.

And so the cow is considered like a mother.

I see.

And that is the significance that you don't want to kill your mother.

She provides your milk, and along with the milk, you use yogurt, butter.

Yea.

Everything comes out of it.

So more out of respect.

We've been welcoming St. Louisans for more than a century.

Our collection is really a result of incredible donors and patrons who have gifted works.

Almost 70% of our work is a reflection of collections and gifts that have been generously donated.

So when I say we have a world class collection, it really means we have world class collectors here in St. Louis.

It's like when people ask me, what's your favorite restaurant?

You don't have a piece in here.

You can say that that's your favorite.

Oh, just like you couldn't answer.

Yeah.

I mean, for me, it's a little bit like asking, who's your favorite child?

In 2021, Min was appointed the first female director of the museum's history, bringing a storied background of experience to a role here.

Formerly, Min worked with the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

I'm originally from Korea and have lived in different parts of the United States, but really, I'm so excited to be here in St. Louis.

I feel like there's so much more about this great place that I'm just getting to know.

We've got a little soup terrine here.

Yeah, I mean, what's the odds?

This is the first thing we see.

Wow.

So as you see here, this is an extraordinary work by Paul Delimary, and it's a terrine in the shape of a green turtle.

Soup was actually served from this terrine as well, and I would guess it's probably for turtle soup.

Turtle soup was indeed quite the fashion at a point in time, and it's delicious.

I've made it many times.

It tastes like chicken?

Moving to St. Louis no doubt was a little bit of a culture shock, but in talking to Men, I can tell she already has a good understanding of St. Louis immigrant culture and the role the museum plays in all of it.

When I go to a different place, I want to eat the food in order to get to know the culture.

And to some extent, that's what I'm doing here in St. Louis.

As I'm coming into a new community, I'm trying out different restaurants as a way of getting to know St. Louis And whether it's Bosnian or Vietnamese, Thai, you're also getting to know a little bit of the immigrant population and more into the different communities and identities of a particular place, and all of that, As much as I love it personally, it also relates back to the museum because virtually every culture that I've mentioned, plus more, is also represented here as part of our collection.

So to be able to make those connections from food to art as part of community is something we're really excited to be a part of.

You're here on your own will, and you're cooking for other people that's love, right?

And now I'm learning what you're doing.

You're throwing this good karma out, and you're going to get a lot of positives back.

Ashok has outdone himself and represented the Indian community well.

I knew so much less about it just a couple of days ago when I started on this tour of Indian food and culture, when we went to different Indian temples around St. Louis I'll admit I didn't immediately make the connection on why Ashok was taking me there, and to so many of them know less.

Sure, there was cooking involved, and yes, they were feeding others amazing food.

But after gaining a better understanding of not just Indian culture in St. Louis but Indian culture as a whole, I can see it now.

When I went to cooking school, we learned this Indian soup called mulligatowney.

It's all connected.

The beliefs and practices of the temple, the philosophies of yoga, all of those things are reflected in the overall culture, the diets, the food, the way food is used to care for others.

Well if there has ever been a true food is love, This is it right here.

Throw positive thoughts, create positive ripples.

Helps everybody.

But that's what we try to do with our food.

We try to throw love and positivity out through the food.

Spread the love.. and spread the love.

Yeah.

I had to experience it all to see the bigger picture it demonstrates.

No matter if it's India or St. Louis the universal truth remains that food is love.

In my journey around the St. Louis food scene, I've been fortunate to meet some really great people.

One of my favorite parts is getting to know chefs and restauranteurs on a personal level.

Whether I'm invited to dinner at their home or something else, spending quality time outside the restaurant with some of the brilliant minds behind the food has not just been a great honor for me, it's also been a lot of fun.

This is the kind of food and the kind of evening that raises the benchmark, a dinner, built around family recipes and good stories.

I remember that when Nick came to us and said that this is the restaurant that he wanted to be.

And I said, Nick, are you sure you're going to put this on the menu?

I said, Nick, I don't know.

This is a little bit risky.

I just said that.

What if they don't order?

And Nick said, Mom, Indo not going to be just another restaurant.

That's what he said.

I remember this word.

He said, I think that's good.

He said he's going to make Indo special.

This is going to be like national.

He always said that word to me, and I got goosebump, too, when I think about that.

And he did it, and he did it so well.

But, you know, opening a restaurant, doesn't matter where you open it, It's a challenge, and it's hard work, and then it's nonstop.

It's seven days a week, 24 hours a day, if you want to make it.

When I was younger and I didn't want to be a chef, I worked at the restaurant, but I didn't want to be a chef, or I didn't know that I wanted to be a chef.

And that was a point in time where I don't think there was a lot of highlighting of chefs and what they did.

And my mom and I saw what the reality of restaurants were very early on, and I knew it from experience.

My mom doesn't get home until 9:30.

I'm usually asleep, you know what I mean?

And I remember trying to stay awake so that I could see her when she got home from work.

And nobody knew who you guys were.

Nobody cared.

Just the guests that came in, maybe a handful of people, and those same people we probably still know now.

But I got to see that reality and understand if you want to do this, you have to work so hard.

So it was good to have that in the back of my head, because I understood what the actual kind of sacrifice you make to try to make such a great restaurant.

And it's just complete dedication to that.

And there is a way to make it pay off, but you have to try.

You have to do so many things.

It's just intense.

And when I knew we were going to open Indo, I was like, I just have to do this as hard as I can.

I have to try.

Maybe my life, I haven't really even tried as hard as I could at anything.

It's real early in the morning, Monday morning, but if you want to see a baker, you better get up early.

First thing this morning, I'm meeting up with baker Josh Allan, who has been baking bread in St. Louis for the last three decades.

And a lot of it.

How did you really get into this in the first place?

I think the intention was always to go into the family business when I went to school, but then I started racing my bike and racing triathlon.

Where did you go to school?

I went to Stanford, out in the Bay area.

Okay.

So I ended up getting a job in a restaurant cooked in a little place called Pearls Oyster Bar, shucking oysters and grilling fish, and then ended up getting a job in a bakery and just loved it.

This would prove to be a turning point in Josh's life.

Once the flower took root in his veins, any plans to step into the family business was gone on the California wind.

The craft bread business started out there, so it was all sort of happening.

So it was right in the middle of it there.

Holy moly.

Yeah.

The ribeye's and the bottle of wine from last night is taking its toll.

We're almost there, guys.

Okay, this is it.

It's just straight into the hike and then it's straight out.

Yeah.

I'm trying to pretend like it's not bothering me.

It's definitely straight up.

I think you're trying to kill me.

Did you all socialize also, the old cousins growing up?

Growing up, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

We were always together.

We were together a lot.

Family vacations?

Yeah.

It wasn't just in St. Louis it was all outside of here.

Traveled together and we're very close in age.

Jody and Andy are the same age, graduated the same year.

In high school, I was a year behind.

Emily was three years ahead, two years ahead of them, three years ahead of me.

So we were all very close in age.

The four of us, as kids Grew up working for the company every summer, and many times not in the summer through the years.

And when I think about how horrible the idea that you and I drove forklifts in the freezer warehouse all day, I mean, I'm kind of amazed that I could do it, like that I was good at it.

We would pick up the pallets.

We are going to end today with some kind of forklift race between the two of you?

And then a pallet stacking competition.

Your grandfather made a lot of money working for the Quebec Tourism Board.

My dad would go, right, He was the king of the fluff piece, and he loved Copenhagen.

He thought it's the best city, he thinks, thought, it was the greatest city in the world.

Copenhagen?

Yeah.

And I've never been there, but just lifestyle, history.

They have it figured out.

They haven't figured out well, I mean, you know, what Danes can teach Americans is about hygge is what we call it.

Have you heard that term?

No, sir.

Hygge.

Hygge Yeah.

Hygge is you know how people are talking about Danes are the happiest people in the world.

Yeah.

And it's because we treasure hygge, or we think it's more important than making money.

And what hygge is,.. What does it mean?

Well, it means just like what we're doing right now this here, what we're doing right now is hygge.

So hygge is when you're with friends, loved ones, you're going to sit down, you're going to relax.

The food is just a part of us talking as human beings, we connect.

We get to know each other, because there's much more value in that than making money.

And if that's what you focus on, you'll be happier.

Right?

Right now, I have a date in the park with a St. Louis food celebrity of sorts.

Chef Mike Johnson, the man behind SugarFire BBQ Hi Point and Chicken Out Chicken restaurants.

His popular barbecue restaurant, Sugarfire, has a location here at Forest Park at the boathouse.

I mean, what is more romantic than barbecue in the park?

Well, maybe a paddle boat ride.

Are you nervous?

No.

I love the water.

Has anybody ever died in this thing?

It's just a great place in St. Louis, Forest park.

I think it's the best part of St. Louis.

You know, I travel the world a lot for barbecue, and whenever anybody comes, the first place I bring them is Forest Park.

I just had a group up from Australia, and they spent their whole time here.

We went to the Muni.

Oh, dude, is that place, bro?

It's so cool.

Yeah, the Zoo, the art museum, the history museum, everything.

The skating rink, the golf courses are incredible.

This is actually harder than it looks.

But I'm not too worried because my chefly figure makes me naturally buoyant.

It's beautiful.

I come out here and walk around the park all the time.

I think it's, like, 6 miles.

How your legs?

Are they tired yet?

No.

You look like you're struggling a little bit No, I'm just messing with you bro.

No, it's fine.

We're at the point of forging day.

I'm thinking about low value and high value and the team's picking paw paw blossoms, which are nice, but they're more garnish than substance.

So I'm trying to go places that are a little harder to access, that may actually have something worth eating.

This is unfriendly territory.

You can see why a lonely teenage boy might enjoy this spot in the woods.

Okay, we're going to be going left, so you don't need to follow.

I feel the need to check.

And we know what happened last time I did that.

Oh, see, you got to follow your gut!

I love this!

What did I just say?

You remember what happened last time I felt the being compelled to go in a certain direction.

Oh, my.

Yeah, there's a bunch of them.

You guys morels!

Look at that huge one.

Look at the base.

Off to the right.

Even further.

Yeah.

Suddenly, as if we were guided here, we hit the motherload of wild morel mushrooms.

A hard earned delicacy, to be sure.

By all accounts, it's far too late in the season to find anything like this.

But despite the heat and very little rain, here we are.

Maybe there is something to what Rob said about following your intuition.

Now, I can see that Cherokee Street isn't one particular thing, but the sum of all of it is what has created the culture here.

And at the heart of it are people like Ron and Amanda and places like the Golden Record.

Yaki on Cherokee.

B-sides and Elaines, just to skim the surface, it speaks to the fact that the framework of a healthy food scene isn't only made of white tablecloths and dinner reservations, but that sometimes a burger made behind the bar or frito pie is exactly what you were looking for.

I'm just overwhelmed on how grateful people are, seeing a smile on their face.

Bowl of soup and a corn muffin.

That's all it takes to make their day.

And there is a little corn muffin there with roasted onions and thyme.

Okay.

I've never experienced anything like this before.

Being out here and giving food away to people that experience food insecurity every day.

Been through about 100 bowls of soup right now.

Food is love.

This is what it's all about right here.

Giving back to the community.

The gumbo was the big winner, I think.

So I'm trying to get everybody to taste the New England clam chowder, which is a classic soup its delicious.

Lot of love in here.

And it's an awesome feeling when you help other people.

New England clam chowder, it has fresh clams, bacon, and it comes with a corn muffin with roasted onions and thyme.

There you go.

Thank you.

What a satisfying evening.

I would say.

I mean, from the minute we got here, you saw they were in anticipation and then when are you guys going to open?

And the surprise and the excitement about what are you serving?

And then you saw nonstop.

It was nothing but joy.

At the end of this trip, I feel good about the work we did.

The mission of Love Thy neighbor and the currency of caring.

There is way more good in the world than sometimes we're led to believe.

And we're going to change that, right?

Yeah, absolutely, man.

We're going to change that together.

One food truck at a time.

One food truck window at a time.

I agree.

And a little orange token.. but at the same time, it's just hard to walk away and wrap the episode with a flowery finish and a feel good hug.

For me, the Love Thy Neighbor trip really drove home the reality of how great the need is for what John is doing.

When you see how much a warm meal and a little of your time can mean to someone, you start to understand how much most of us take for granted in our lives and how valuable a good idea can be.

The ultimate goal of this mission is to get food trucks everywhere to accept the currency of caring.

Think of the impact this could have on food insecurity.

The first time I met John Michelle, I knew there was something special about him.

Was it his background in organization and strategy?

His cool ideas?

His charisma?

Or maybe it's his perfect hair.

I couldn't put my finger on it until today.

When I saw his ideas in action, I experienced the selfishness and the thought behind it, and I witnessed the effect on real people in real time.

That's when I realized it wasn't any of the other things that made John special.

His innovation of the idea of how food trucks work and the way he's using them to serve others in need just serves as more proof to me that food is love.

And remember, food is love.

I love you.

You felt it?

You felt it?

We both believe, Holly and I believe, you certainly very much believe that food is love.

In the end, the answers to the deep questions are all there, and in finding them, I've been the lucky one.

The memories I made and the experiences I've had the pleasure of sharing over these past several years were moments in time that I will never forget, forever frozen in my memory and memorialized in each episode of these series.

While menu and food can change over time, the connections I've made with the people I met will always hold true in my heart.

Making friends have never been so rewarding.

And while I've had my own selfish reasons to do this show, my intent has always been to inspire you, the viewer, to explore the other countless stories that deserves to be heard.

This is the passing of the Torch.

Find other places and try new things wherever you are.

Seek out the deeper flavor and meaning of it all and reflect on what it took to bring it to the table.

Do all of this in an effort to see the bigger picture.

I want to thank you so much for taking me on this journey and to never forget that food is love.

Here's to the local restaurants, to the chefs, owner, operators, the staff the ones who love being in the weeds night after night when we go to work each morning.

That's who we have in mind.

From where we source our food to how we deliver it.

Here's to them, the ones who are out there cooking for us every day.

Restaurants are the heart of everything we do.

We are Performance Food Service.

Proudly supporting Food Is Love.

Support for Food Is Love comes from Natural Tableware, supplier of sustainable green alternatives to plastic tableware.

Support also comes from Moonrise Hotel, a boutique hotel located on the Delmar Loop in St. Louis.