Profile

Steven Cameron -Executive Chef at The Elms Resort & Spa www.elmshotelandspa.com

Steven Cameron’s cooking career was set in motion when he studied aerospace engineering.  “I quickly discovered that Calculus 2 wasn’t for me!” he says.  At Kansas State University he realized how much more he enjoyed preparing meals for the fraternity, his way of paying for board and lodging.

Steven is the new Executive Chef at The Elms Resort & Spa, in Excelsior Springs, the iconic hotel that counts Al Capone and Harry Truman among its former guests.  Originally from Lancaster, Missouri, where his parents still live, Steven spent much of the last decade chefing in restaurants out-of-state and overseas.  In New Jersey, he was named a semi-finalist for a James Beard Award.  He spent a year in Barcelona, a city at the forefront of contemporary cuisine, where he expanded his memory bank of recipes.  “I went there because I wanted to see how Catalans, the people who live there, ate.”   He enjoyed watching them feast on lightly grilled chanterelle mushrooms, plates piled high with giant prawns, and tasty cured hams and salamis.  Before moving back to Kansas City, he ran Noble American Cookery, in Philadelphia, a restaurant he designed from scratch, right up to the roof garden.  “I felt like I wanted to take the experience I’ve gotten, come back here and do it here because I know that Kansas City is burgeoning,” he says.

The Elms reopened in April after a multi-million dollar renovation. Steven’s organized mathematical mind came in handy because apart from deciding the menu and wine list, he was involved in the rebuilding of the kitchen and dining areas, choosing appliances and selecting china and tableware. The biggest change he implemented was adapting the kitchen facilities to serve freshly prepared food for up to a thousand customers.   

 The spring menu at the hotel’s restaurant, Eighty-Eight at The Elms, showcases Steven’s specialty: seasonal ingredients inspired by international recipes.  He describes it as “rustic, American contemporary cuisine with a lot of Mediterranean influence.” On the list of starters, bacon-wrapped quail and lobster soufflé.  Entrees include pan-roasted, cage-free, Missouri chicken breast and dry-aged, Midwestern beef rib-eye.  “I build a menu around the produce first.” Steven says he uses the freshest possible produce, much of it locally sourced.