By Mike Kostyo
Marcel Heiduk
Sometimes a classic earns the designation for a reason, warranting a place on the menu to give customers an opportunity to try a timeless culinary creation. That’s the case with the Moules Frites at Venteux, which menus classic French cuisine with a contemporary twist. To start, Marcel Heiduk, Executive Chef, turns to traditional French flavors and ingredients, reducing Pernod, white wine, star anise, fennel, celery and parsley for hours to create a rich and robust broth. To further deepen the flavor profile, he adds maître d’hôtel butter, while fresh-chopped parsley and grilled lemon brighten the final build. The mussels themselves are sustainably farmed, which he prefers for their smaller but noticeably sweeter morsels of meat.
“The dish has been extremely well received by guests who often remark on its clean and sophisticated flavor profile and the frites we include to dip in the broth,” says Heiduk. “Additionally, the cast iron pot presentation is always a hit.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mike Kostyo is the VP of Menu Matters, a private consultancy that works with foodservice professionals to analyze, understand and leverage food and beverage, industry and consumer trends. Kostyo has been a recurring guest on Fusion TV’s “The A.V. Club” show; has been featured on NBC News, CBS Radio and Gimlet Media’s “Why We Eat What We Eat” podcast; is regularly featured in newspapers and magazines; speaks at numerous conferences across the country; and was a judge on Food Network’s “Eating America.” For over a decade, he was the resident Trendologist and an Associate Director at Datassential, one of the food industry's leading insights companies. Kostyo has a master’s in Gastronomy from Boston University, plus certificates in the culinary arts, baking arts, wine and artisan cheese production. He is a regular contributor to Flavor & The Menu and can be reached at [email protected].
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