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32 • FOODSERVICE EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES • MAY 2015 chef's corner Gerard Craft, Chef/Owner, Niche Food Group, St. Louis, Mo. By Amelia Levin, Contributing Editor C hef Gerard Craft, a fve-time James Beard Foundation Best Chef Midwest nominee, is the executive chef and owner of Niche Food Group in St. Louis, Mo., the parent company of the original Niche (open since 2005) as well as Taste by Niche, Bras- serie by Niche and casual Italian concept Pastaria. Porano Pasta + Gelato, opening mid-summer, will be Craft's ffth concept and frst foray into the fast-casual segment. FE&S;: What is the Porano Pasta + Gelato concept? GC: The concept is fast food pasta and more, with "choose your own adventure," customizable options. You can start with a pasta — we're making our own Stroz- zapreti, which is a basic extruded pasta that is similar to cavatelli or gluten-free pasta. Or, you can choose farro (which is an Italian grain), focaccia or lettuce to form a sandwich or salad. Then from there, you can layer pro- tein or vegetables — all of our proteins are naturally raised, meaning no hormones or antibiotics. We're serving braised beef brisket, slow-roasted pork shoulder, pork meatballs, grilled free-range chicken or Calabrian- spiced, non-GMO tofu for vegetarians and roasted seasonal vegetables. We will have different sauces, starting with oils — olive oil, chile oil, garlic oil — or butter. We also have a pomodoro, with tomato, basil, garlic and white wine, a roasted sweet red pepper sauce, a Sunday sugo with smoked pork simmered in a tomato sauce for a few hours to develop that rich, smoky favor, and then we have an herb pesto and three vinaigrettes, red wine, creamy anchovy and spicy Italian vinaigrette. Toppings will include everything from dif- ferent cheeses like Parmesan, mozzarella and pecorino to chopped pistachios, pickled golden raisins, fresh herbs, green olives and breadcrumbs. We're also considering offering combo options. FE&S;: What about the gelato? GC: We'll have a selection of different gelatos in portable cups made fresh daily by our pastry chef, Anne Croy, along with some gelato sandwiches. We already do 12 different favors at night at Pastaria — crowd pleasers are birthday cake and salted caramel — and we've also had some more unique and seasonal favors like candy cane in the winter, honey-caramel and cannel- loni with chocolate, candied orange zest and mascarpone. FE&S;: Where did the name Porano Pasta + Gelato come from? GC: Porano is a tiny town in Umbria. Although I'd been fortunate to travel to Italy several times, my perspective of true Italian hospitality changed forever after this trip. The second that you sit down for a meal, you are part of the community. Just like that, you're laughing and joking with