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Mastering the Art of...
Mastering the Art of…
VELOUTÉ PUTS STOCK IN MODERN FRENCH STREET FOOD
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By Lindsey Weishar
It’s just after 9 a.m. on a spring Saturday at the Overland Park Farmers’ Market. Small business owners Bri and Pascal Larcher can be found under an awning sporting French flag pennant banners, which today are flapping in the wind. A wooden sign with the words “Beignets, Pommes Frites” announces their most popular offerings. Over the past few years, their business, Velouté, has gained quite a following.
Part of the fun is the surprise of the menu. Besides their signature classic beignets, today’s menu also includes stuffed beignets (banana and Nutella), their ever-popular pommes frites with sea salt (or a delightful combination of truffle oil, parmesan, and garlic aioli), baguettes, chocolate tarts, quiche, gluten-free chai scones, and Lorraines (a savory beignet with cream cheese, bacon, Swiss cheese, and caramelized onion). Certain items, like the scones and the stuffed beignets, change weekly, while others change seasonally. Some—like the classic beignets— are mainstays.
The line of patrons doesn’t let up until 11 a.m. It’s a good sign.
“The farmers’ market is where we really grew Velouté,” Bri says as she dusts the last of the classic beignets with powdered sugar.
Bri and Pascal have been regular vendors at the Overland Park Farmers’ Market for the past five years. Their goal is to make French food accessible through casual yet elevated street fare.
“The type of food we serve at the farmers’ market gives people a very realistic taste of French food in a non-intimidating way,” says Bri.
Becoming a brick-and-mortar
Velouté’s food repertoire goes far beyond potatoes and dough. Pascal went to French culinary school and has worked as a chef for several years. Bri met Pascal while she was working as a barista at Aixois. A true hospitality romance.
Named for one of the “mother sauces of French cooking,” Velouté began as a creative way for Bri and Pascal to spend more time together and eventually grew into their primary career focus. They have their sights on opening a brick-and-mortar in downtown Shawnee this fall, where they hope to expand their French cuisine offerings.
What sets Velouté apart is the fusion of flavors born of Pascal’s heritage. He grew up in Toulon in the Provence region in Southern France. His dad came from Martinique, and his mom came from Réunion Island off the coast of Madagascar. He grew up eating food that incorporated Creole flavors—French, Chinese, Indian, and African cuisines. On the menu, he hopes to include a Cornish hen stuffed with mushroom risotto and velouté sauce on a bed of leeks, as well as steak frites with “an amazing green peppercorn sauce”—dishes inspired by his childhood.
Velouté offers French fare at the Overland Park Farmers’ Market.
Kathleen Straub Photography
Farmers’ Market Roots
Visitors to the Velouté storefront will be treated to a sensory feast.
“The French are really the people who have paved the way for celebrating food in general,” Bri says. “We do the same thing by celebrating ingredients and quality.”
Part of this celebration is found in the synergy of the farmers’ market scene. Here, the Larchers source many of the ingredients that go into their dishes. Vendors and products include Hughes Family Farm (Jordy’s Honey), The Tasteful Olive (olive oil), Hemme Brothers Creamery (fresh mozzarella), Dragonfly Farms (mushrooms), and numerous local farmers for seasonal produce, including Pearl Family Farm, Green Thumbs Up, Sunny Speciality Farm, Yoder Farm, Sunflower Orchards, and Trails West Farm.
Sarah Hornung has been on the farmers’ market scene for the past few years. She teamed up with Velouté in the fall of 2020 and has been helping ever since with the Saturday market. She sees Velouté as an integral part of the “incredibly diverse vendor pool” that is the Overland Park Farmers’ Market, but also as a culinary way to introduce locals to another culture and create connection.
“In my mind, the market is not a grocery store, which is where you go to find precisely what you need and then get out as quickly as possible,” says Hornung. “The market is for community—for building relationships with the individuals who grow the food you’re buying. We don’t supply fresh produce like many of our fellow vendors, but we do take feedback and recommendations for what people hope for in our product. For example, we started making a mushroom croque monsieur for folks who don’t eat meat. We have a solid base of customers who come every week. I don’t know the deep personal histories of the people who regularly come to our booth, but I often know their names and even more often know what they will order. It’s a delight to greet people by name or have their treat already in a bag, and I hope it’s a pleasant experience for them as well.”
The Pitch spent time with Velouté during market and found this to be the case. The Larchers made an effort to chat with passersby. Upon hearing that Luca Bagels, one of the neighboring vendors, was almost out of bagels, Bri went over to say hello and buy them out.
“We started as a catering company,” says Bri. “When we decided to do the farmers’ market, we weren’t planning on doing anything but selling pastries, but the director gave us some suggestions—like that we should make beignets. We learned to be flexible and to shift our plans to meet our customers’ desires. Putting in those extra hours that allowed us to both listen to what clients wanted while still staying true to ourselves was key to our success.”
