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For Stephan Ledbetter, Re-Voaked Sandwiches Is a Dream Come True Written by
CHERYL BAEHR
S
tephan Ledbetter does not hesitate when asked about the spark that ignited his passion for cooking. “It was my great-grandma,” Ledbetter says. “I spent a lot of time with her as a young kid, and she was always cooking for us. Thanksgivings were always our favorite holidays because she’d cook for ten hours, and then when everyone was sitting down to eat, she’d be sitting off to the side cleaning the carcass to make jus, using up every part. I’d watch her, and I just fell in love with it all.” His love of food established at an early age, Ledbetter naturally gravitated to the food business when he needed a part-time job while in school. He got hired as a dishwasher at a Country Kitchen in his rural Illinois hometown, and he was instantly drawn to the line, at first more for the mysti ue that surrounded the cooks than for the actual cooking. “I’d watch the cooks eat their food and hand me their plates — they were living the cook’s life in our town,” Ledbetter recalls. “I thought, ‘Oh man. I need to get out from behind this dish pit and start cooking.’” It didn’t take long for Ledbetter to get that opportunity uic ly, he moved up to a cook’s position and worked at Country Kitchen until it closed about a year later. In need of another job, he found position with a new restaurant that was
Stephan Ledbetter is chef-owner of Re-Voaked Sandwiches. | ANDY PAULISSEN getting ready to open in his hometown, Robert Scott’s Grill & Cafe. The owner, Robert Scott Tedesco, had been the executive chef at Kemoll’s for several years and was loo ing to bring that fine dining touch to the town where he grew up. He hired Ledbetter as a cook, but their relationship deepened into one of mentor and mentee. It would change the course of Ledbetter’s life. “I was only sixteen or seventeen, but he showed me how to do everything like orders and costing things out, Ledbetter explains. “We cut our own steaks and made everything in-house. He kept asking me if I wanted to do this for a living or do something else, and I kept telling him something else. But I think he knew.” That “something else” was a degree in psychology and sociology. After graduating from high school, Ledbetter entered college to pursue those specialties while he continued to work for Tedes-
co at the restaurant. However, it wasn’t long before he saw in himself what Tedesco had seen in him all along: He was meant to be a chef. He left college and promptly enrolled in culinary school, determined to follow what he realized was his true path. While at L’Ecole Culinaire, Ledbetter was hired on at the Scottish Arms and worked under a few different chefs, an experience he credits with expanding his cooking and kitchen management skills. He went on to help open Layla in the Grove, then worked at the Union Station Hotel, Central Table Food Hall and with the Gamlin Restaurant Group. “I remember when I was younger, a chef told me, ‘Take some time and learn from every chef that you can,’” Ledbetter says. “That’s what I did. I learned as much as I could — everything from cooking techni ues to business s ills to planning menus. It was a great thing.”
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While he was working for Gamlin Restaurant Group, Ledbetter was presented with the opportunity to help open the now-shuttered Oaked in Soulard, and he eagerly accepted. He brought on his colleague from the Scottish Arms, Carl Hazel, in the role as his co-chef, and together, the two executed a menu of thoughtful cuisine driven by their commitment to bring out the best in each other. It was a wonderful run, but it was much shorter lived than anyone expected. The restaurant closed in just eight months, leaving Ledbetter both disappointed and unsure of his next step. “When Oaked closed, I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Ledbetter says. “I’m usually really picky about what I do and take a decent amount of time figuring it out. Then one morning, I was walking through the Central West End, drinking some coffee, and saw a ‘For Lease’ sign on a building. I
MARCH 4-10, 2020
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