Missouri roots, French cuisine make the menu at The Bistro, located in Rocheport

Gaze upon the Missouri River, and you notice natural features welcoming each other, nourishing each other, shaping each other.

When plate meets table, staff at The Bistro, located on The Blufftop at Rocheport, want patrons to know a similar sensation; to take it all in as styles of cooking embrace what they have in common, then elevate one another.

"It’s about mixing the world of food that raised us — which was that traditional French cooking — with the world of food that we live in, which is the state of Missouri," executive chef John Klingele said.

The restaurant's menu, located at the intersection of Midwestern, Southern and French peasant cooking, has come into its own since last summer, Klingele said. Here, simple ingredients form the basis of an elegant and satisfying meal.

A progressive 'aha' moment

Klingele and his wife Emilee, the restaurant's Chef de Cuisine, came to The Bistro in spring 2022. Entering the restaurant, part of the Les Bourgeois Vineyards household, they encountered a setting unlike any they could call home, Klingele said.

They wanted to create food worthy of the building itself, with its lovely river vistas and warm, unique architecture, he added.

Like the meals they serve, the Klingeles embody a marriage of approaches, of experiences. A Kansas City native, John Klingele took his first job at 13, an "under-the-table pay" gig with a local butcher. The work didn't form an "aha" moment, he said, but it set a progressive realization in motion.

Observing as the butcher worked with the whole animal, Klingele saw how "very humble ingredients can turn into something that is greater than the sum of its parts."

By age 15, and a few restaurant apprenticeships later, Klingele grew smitten with French cooking, a fulfillment of all he was learning and loving. A world-class cuisine started with peasant dishes, he realized, as "lesser" cuts of meat and vegetable scraps became five-star meals.

Emilee Klingele comes to the kitchen through the renowned Le Cordon Bleu culinary school. She represents the sweet while John Klingele represents the savory, he said with a smile in his voice. "Hands-down" the best pastry chef he knows, she is able to create the right bread for a restaurant special on the first try.

As Emilee applies technical know-how and John exercises those early kitchen experiences, they come to similar conclusions in a way that somehow preserves the best of both worlds, he said.

Making a menu

During the Klingeles' earliest days, The Bistro's lunch menu skewed Cajun with the dinner menu taking on a more classical French personality. A balanced perspective on excellence animated their work of refining and recreating.

A chef will never be perfect, John Klingele said, but should reach for perfection each day.

"It’s that hunt and that push that makes us better," he said.

Glancing back, he sees merits to their first-year approach, but the kitchen had yet to discover a voice that was unique and really reverberated within the building.

Revamping their service last summer, they added a wine bar and lounge with elevated tapas and converted the menu to dinner-only. Long nights and early mornings of conservation yielded a now-unified approach, Klingele said.

The core creative concept is "taking ideas that are very central to French cuisine, and seeing how we can make them more Missourian. And even vice-versa," he said.

For the vegetarian or vegan diner, Klingele commends stuffed peppers made with mushroom sausage and a grain risotto. The dish twines a Midwestern home-cooked feeling with the elegance The Bistro's setting demands, he said.

The Bistro's aesthetic is made manifest in its beef stew, prepared much in the manner of a bourguignon minus the Burgundy, Klingele said. Served with corn fritters, once again elemental ingredients — beef and vegetables, beer and coffee, stock and herbs — create a greater whole, he said.

"Not only does it feel like you’re tasting every hour that pot is on the stove simmering, but it equally feels like the beef stew that your grandmother would have pulled out of the crockpot," Klingele said. "It’s the roots of Missouri prepared in that French form."

He feels particular joy in serving the Bavette steak, a recent addition to the menu. Here, an eight-ounce steak is prepared alongside the same creamed spinach Klingele learned to make in a rural Kansas steakhouse, he said. Duck fat potato pave and a French winemaker's, or wine merchant's, sauce coax the refined end of the palate.

"Every time I make one of those, there’s a little smile in me," Klingele said.

Savoring life in Rocheport

In conversation, Klingele's reverence and readiness come through: he and Emilee are both deeply respectful of The Bistro and their cooking heritage yet feel equal to this moment and the next.

A quote that recurs at culinary school graduations rises to the level of a creed Klingele will eventually have tattooed on himself: "Food is life. Create and savor yours." That sounds both like an aspiration and an everyday reality.

"When you come out to The Bistro, that’s what you’re witnessing. You’re seeing us putting our life experiences onto a plate," he said.

The Bistro currently is closed for winter maintenance and will reopen Jan. 25 with some updates to the menu. Learn more about the dining experience at https://missouriwine.com/wine-dine/the-bistro/.

Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. He's on Twitter/X @aarikdanielsen.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Here's how Missouri, French cooking meet at The Bistro at Rocheport