In this episode, Robert is heading to the St. Louis area to help a restaurant owner whose family has a long history of success in the area (under the name Luigi’s). He has struggled to be as successful even though he used their pizza recipe. The show originally aired on Wednesday, February 16, 2011.
Meglio’s Italian Grill & Bar | Click here for restaurant’s website
The food in this place can be summed up in one word – frozen. Pretty much everything that comes out of the kitchen was frozen at some people. Their Italian place and they can’t even make their own ravioli. People think that frozen food is a better value. Quality is an issue as well as time. It takes time to defrost the food properly. That slows things down in the kitchen, eventually hurting business. Robert shows them with a little prep work and knowing how to cook fresh food, they can turn food out of their kitchen at a much faster rate.
Other problems include a large menu, that needed to be simplified, a boring decor, and a location that is hard to find. So the menu was shrunk down, the decor was freshened up, and a sign was placed in a spot that could be seen from the road.
The Recipes
Cowboy Stromboli | Click here for the recipe
This is a huge Stromboli that contains both beef and chicken as well as mushroom as cheese. I would prefer to just stick to a single meat.
Toasted Ravioli and Basic Ravioli Dough | Click here for the recipe
Your basic ravioli recipe that you really could fill with whatever you like. Robert uses ground beef, cheese, garlic, and herbs in this version.
Follow-Up
This restaurant is still alive and kicking. I read a lot of positive reviews about it on Yelp. It seems that the makeover has giving the restaurant a good kick in the pants and they seem to be delivering good food. Most people tend to only comment when they have a bad experience so to see a lot of 5 star comments is encouraging.
The recipes shown in the show appear to still be on the menu. A menu that remains a lot smaller than the one they had at the start of the show.
If you want more Robert Irvine recipes, here are some of his available cookbooks:
Impossible to Easy: 111 Delicious Recipes to Help You Put Great Meals on the Table Every Day
Mission: Cook!: My Life, My Recipes, and Making the Impossible Easy
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