Meet Chef Gerard Craft, a four-time James Beard Award finalist and standard-setting star chef working in St. Louis. Gerard is serving some of the best food in the Midwest, including contemporary American cuisine at Niche, classic French food at Brasserie, casual plates at Taste and classic Italian cuisine at the brand-new Pastaria. Tune in to this special interview as he explains how he found his way to culinary greatness and what advantages and challenges come along with cooking in the region around St. Louis, MO. This program was sponsored by Paradise Locker Meats.

"St Louis has harsh climates. I think that lifestyle makes for humble ingredients, because you can't grow little precious things all the time." [10:00]

"All this niche stuff and fancy food comes with pressure to be the best. We're just making good food that makes people happy at Pastaria."[23:00]

--chef Gerard Craft on HeritageRadioNetwork.org

Chef Kevin Nashan joins HRN's Sari Kamin in the studio to talk about his upcoming event at City Grit with fellow St. Louis chef, Gerard Craft. Tune into this HRN Community Session to hear how Kevin turned Sidney Street Cafe into a a restaurant with high-end taste that still appeals to the neighborhood restaurant crowd. Learn about Kevin's training in the French tradition and his time in New York City at Daniel. How does Kevin capture 'The Spirit of St. Louis' in his dishes at Sidney Street Cafe, and why did he fall in love with the city? Find out more about the St. Louis food scene, and learn how the Midwest is holding their own in the culinary landscape. This program has been sponsored by Route 11 Potato Chips. Thanks to Four Lincolns for today's music.

"It's all about making it an experience. Going from New York to St. Louis, you have to gain trust, and the people of St. Louis didn't know who I was, even though I went to college there." [20:15]

-- Chef Kevin Nashan of Sidney Street Cafe

This week on Let's Eat In host Cathy Erway goes for the gold with Dan Rollman the co-founder of RecordSetter.com and the author of The Record Setter Book of World Records. Dan is a lifelong world-record fanatic who tried in college, unsuccessfully, to set a Guinness World Record for eating ravioli. A former advertising executive, he set five RecordSetter records, and saw them all get crushed. Tune in to hear about some of the crazier records from the worlds longest head-spin to the most herring eaten in one sitting. This episode is sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.

"One of my favorite records is the longest straw used to drink a Coca Cola. It's actually a competitive category!"

--Dan Rollman on Let's Eat In