By Joe Hadsall
jhadsall@joplinglobe.com
Steak lovers know that the most tender, flavorful, desirable cut isn’t the filet mignon. It’s the chateaubriand.
Named after a diplomat who served Napoleon, the cut is the best part of the tenderloin. Because there is only enough for two portions, it is usually served as a meal for two.
The chateaubriand is served exactly as intended at John Henry’s, a new upscale restaurant in the Jenkins Creek Resort. Brian Ward, manager and executive chef, said the inclusion of a 24-ounce portion was one of the requirements from resort co-owner Greg Fauvergue.
“That’s his favorite thing to get when he goes out to dinner with his family,” Ward said. “But ours can serve about three or four.”
The chateaubriand is the highlight of an eclectic, gourmet menu, Ward said. Served with golden Yukon fingerling potatoes, actual baby carrots (not the ground-down types), haricot verts and a few roasted mushrooms in a classic hollandaise sauce, Ward asks that interested diners call ahead to reserve the $90 dish.
“We ask for advance notice, because we can get only one out of each beef tenderloin,” Ward said. “This is a USDA prime cut, and it’s worth every penny.”
Little bit of everything
About that eclectic menu: It also includes presentations of ahi tuna, lamb, trout and duck entrees. It includes appetizers as standard as fried mushrooms and as unique as frog legs.
Ward, 46, said the menu is filled with things he enjoys to cook. He describes it as “a little bit fine French, a little bit Southwest Missouri, a little bit of what the owner likes and I like.”
After working for Leggett & Platt for about 20 years, he decided to start his next career preparing some of the delicacies he enjoyed around the world.
“I managed manufacturing projects for the company, and the job sent me around the world,” Ward said. “When I was traveling, I would eat out three times a day, and as a consequence, I got to eat a lot of good food all around the world.”
That, combined with his mother’s instruction in cooking at an early age, fueled his desire to learn. He completed the Le Cordon Bleu program in Chicago and learned classic French cuisine preparation.
Before attending the program, his mother said he could learn what she had been doing wrong all these years. Upon graduation, Ward had some interesting news for his mother:
“She wasn’t doing anything wrong,” he said. “She did everything right, but she didn’t know why she did what she did. She was just following the instructions passed on to her.”
After returning to the area, he prepared food for the 311 Cafe in Carthage and also did upscale catering. A night before the cafe closed, he got a call from Fauvergue about the new venture.
The love of food has translated directly to the menu of the restaurant. The menu will change somewhat often — Ward already has ideas for future entrees, including a presentation for stuffed trout.
Two restaurants
It’s hard enough to open one restaurant, let alone two.
But enough people visiting the resort during lunch hours said they would gladly sit down for lunch — if only there were a place to eat. No problem: Ward uses his kitchen staff to prepare lunches for the Pro Shop Grill.
“We were originally going to do just dinner,” Ward said. “But as a startup, that’s not the best thing to do.”
The restaurant has a separate seating area in a space that was intended to be a pro shop for trout anglers. It offers standard casual fare, including hot and cold sandwiches, salads and pizza.
Because the two restaurants use the same kitchen, that means the same USDA prime meat offered by John Henry’s gets used in the Pro Shop Grill’s steak sandwiches.
Both restaurants fit nicely within the resort, which opened up earlier this year. The resort is located on a limestone bluff that overlooks a spring-fed pond, which is where Jenkins Creek begins.
The resort belongs to Fauvergue, John Henry Fauvergue and Simone Dowl — three siblings whose parents used to live there. Instead of selling the property, they opened it up for the public to enjoy, Ward said.
The restaurant, named after the brother, is fashioned like a cozy European country estate. Ward said that as the restaurant grows, he hopes it offers diners an upscale, gourmet option for those who have been mourning the close of Givone’s Old Miners Inn.
“If that’s what our customers like, then we’ll scale up,” Ward said. “We’ll serve food of that caliber, with the foodside presentations.”
Want to go?
John Henry’s and the Pro Shop Grill are located inside the Jenkins Creek Resort, which is a half-mile east of County Road 100 on Blackberry Road, between Sarcoxie and Carthage.
John Henry’s serves dinner from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. The Pro Shop Grill is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
Details: 417-548-3181 or www.jenkinscreekresort.com.
