- [Jim Kirchherr] Missouri's bicentennial year is a good time to explore our state, and we start close to home.

- [Bernie] There's so many people in St. Louis who doesn't know there's treasures here.

- [Jim Kirchherr] Ernest Hemingway didn't spend much time in St. Louis, but it was time well spent.

- [Theising] Courting his first wife, Hadley Richardson.

(upbeat music) - [Jim Kirchherr] We sat down with Lasse Sorensen, whose Food Is Love program explores the rich and diverse St. Louis food scene.

What he's learned about food and people.

- [Lasse] It doesn't matter how different we are, we still really all want the same things in life.

- [Jim Kirchherr] While we try to score a COVID shot, the scientists are looking at what the virus, is going to do next.

- [Dr. Sharon] That's the million dollar question.

- [Jim Kirchherr] It's all next on Living St. Louis.

(mellow upbeat music) - I'm Jim Kirchherr and I think we live in a pretty interesting place.

With this being Missouri's bicentennial year, I think it's an interesting time to get out and do some exploring.

That's exactly what Brooke Butler decided to do and that's how we're going to kick things off.

(soft calm music) - [Lady Narrator] Missouri might not be the first state that comes to mind when thinking of unique attractions.

There's no doubt that St. Louis takes a lot of pride in our city, but maybe we tend to overlook just how much our state has to offer.

From foodies, adventure seekers, history buffs and architectural explorers looking beyond the arch.

There's something to do for everyone and little time to experience it all, even for lifelong natives.

- [Amanda] The idea I always take is that there is something to be found everywhere.

- [Lady Narrator] Author Amanda Doyle decided to make it a little easier for us to check these adventures off of our bucket list with her book, 100 Things To Do In Missouri Before You Die.

- [Amanda] You can drive to the Bootheel, you can drive to Neosho, you can drive to Sedalia or Springfield or Poplar Bluff, any of these places and there're going to be cool things.

- [Lady Narrator] Having written a series of similar books including 100 Things To Do In St. Louis Before You Die, Amanda, along with her co-author John Brown, thought this year of Missouri's bicentennial would be perfect timing for the book's release.

- [Amanda] So I partnered with John Brown, who is a Missouri native and he's lived in a whole bunch of towns all across Missouri.

Between us, with his kind of "hometown man" aspect and my curiosity of being a newcomer when I came here and having never been to Missouri or St. Louis before, I think we managed to come up with a pretty interesting list for people to explore the state with.

- The book includes the obvious attractions that put on the map: Mark Twain's childhood home, the Kansas City Chiefs Arrowhead stadium, but one place that maybe doesn't blow its own horn quite loud enough, The National Blues Museum.

(upbeat music) - [Lady Narrator] Opened in 2016, The National Blues Museum not only tells the story of historic contributions St. Louis and all of Missouri have made to the genre, but it also shows the deep roots of how The Blues grew all the way from the cotton fields, to the modern music we hear today.

(upbeat music) Local media icon Bernie Hayes has been with the museum from the planning stages.

He says the museum was a long time dream and one that just made sense to come true in St. Louis.

- [Bernie] There are so many different people that came through here, that were born here and raised here.

Others that even moved here, contributed so much to the music.

You're talking about Little Milton Campbell, Oliver Sain.

You talking about Ike Turner, he lived here for a while.

So many, Chuck Berry an internationally known name.

- [Brooke] What about St. Louis sticks out to you, for blues music?

- It's the people, the people are beautiful here.

Even during the days of hard segregation, the musicians never segregated themselves.

They always worked together, both sides of the river, but the people in St. Louis are really gracious, and they appreciate good music, which is good.

I'm not saying that Memphis, Chicago and Detroit does not, but St. Louis has a special brand of people and love that special brand of music.

(bright music) - [Brooke] While St. Louis may appreciate the musical impact our city has made, they may not be the obvious visitors of the museum.

People from all over the world have come to see what the museum has to offer.

It includes more than just looking at the extensive collection of memorabilia.

- [Erin] The player piano, they were introduced about the 1900s, they made it possible so that you could hear and even see the music being played that was popular of the day.

You didn't actually have to know how to play the piano.

- [Brooke] If you're not able to see the player piano in action, you can still play this virtual keyboard, along with several other interactive ways to learn about the Blues.

This station lets visitors take control of the music, by mixing tracks and then they'll email you the final version of your creation.

You can get the feel of what it's like to be in a jug band.

Even though to me, it felt a bit silly.

What sticks out to you, that's in the museum that you hope for visitors to take away?

- Well, if they wanna know if they like music not just blues music, they like any genre of music, this was the background of it.

This was the rock bed.

This is the place where it all started, and The Blues Museum it shows those roots.

- [Brooke] Is blues music history or is it present?

- Blues music It's always been sustaining.

It's still here.

It hasn't gone any place.

It doesn't get enough attention perhaps in some areas of some circles, but it's never gone any place that there's so many people in St. Louis who doesn't know this treasure is here.

I see us expanding and presenting more exhibits, more displays and the musicians will have a place to play.

In this wonderful Lumiere room here and the sound is fantastic.

The interaction with the people is fantastic.

- [Brooke] It sounds like the common thing that you're talking about is the people, music connects people, - Precisely - [Brooke] music brings out certain feelings.

- That's what The National Blues Museum is all about.

- [Brooke] Yes.

- Yeah.

(soft music) - [Lady Narrator] Maybe that's what makes The National Blues Museum fit so well into the Missouri bucket list.

Amanda also claims the people are what make exploring our state so meaningful.

- [Amanda] No, we tried to fit as many places in the book as we could around the state, but there's always gonna be some good restaurants.

There's always gonna be a quirky little historical society or something like that.

Not being afraid to get off the highway, (giggles) go and really look around.

Ask people, what makes this town special?

(soft calming music) - I don't know if Ernest Hemingway ever spent much time downtown, but we know he came to St. Louis a hundred years ago, to visit the woman he was about to marry, the first of his three St. Louis wives and with Ken Burns' Hemingway Documentary airing in April, we thought it was time for us to take a literary tour.

If we're doing the "Am I in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway?

", (Theising laughing) we're in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway and almost exactly a hundred years ago on this block, on this street, is that right?

- That's correct.

Ernest makes two trips to St. Louis while he's courting his first wife Hadley Richardson.

He comes right here, right here on this street.

- [Jim Kirchherr] Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville Professor Andrew Theising has been digging into what in some Hemingway biographies are a chapter or maybe even only footnotes.

His book, Hemingway St. Louis is subtitled, How St. Louisans Shaped His Life and Legacy.

Let's start with his first three wives: Hadley Richardson, born and raised in St. Louis.

Pauline Pfeiffer, whose family spent years here she graduated from visitation Academy and Martha Gellhorn also born and raised, but Theising says the other key figure, the other St. Louis woman, the first really, is one who didn't marry, Katie Smith.

That story doesn't start on this block in the central West end, but much further North.

(train honking) Every summer before the First World War, trains were filled with people from Chicago and St. Louis, heading towards the resort area of Michigan's Lake Charlevoix.

- [Theising] Hemingway goes to Michigan every summer, with his family and the Smith family and St. Louis is also going to Michigan at this same time.

- [Jim Kirchherr] That's where Ernest met Bill Smith and his sister Katie, Ernest was just 17 when they met, Katie was 25.

They were attracted to each other, but exactly what their relationship was, is still open to speculation.

Bill and Katie would remain his friends for years.

Hemingway would go off to serve in World War I as an ambulance driver.

When he came home, he went back to Chicago to look for work.

- [Theising] Katie was living with her brother in Chicago and there was a space for Ernest.

Ernest was living with the brother in Chicago, Hadley was invited up for a party, and that's where they met.

It was all because of Katie Smith.

- They didn't spend a a lot-- - [Jim Kirchherr] Which brings us to why we're on this street in front of this house.

When Ernest came to visit Hadley, the woman he would marry this is where he stayed a hundred years ago.

- [Theising] Hadley really didn't have any family left in St. Louis, her parents were gone, she was living with her sister.

It was his friend, Bill Smith who lived right on this block with Auntie Laura.

Auntie Laura is the matriarch of the family and she's really a mother figure to Hadley at this time as well.

- [Jim Kirchherr] This picture of Ernest and Hadley is from another Hemingway visit.

It's at her sister's house on Kate's Avenue, it's no longer there.

Their wedding was not in Chicago or St. Louis, but in Michigan and then the Hemingway's headed for Paris.

They left St. Louis behind, but the connection remained.

Pauline Pfeiffer the visitation grad came to Paris.

She and Hadley had mutual friends from St. Louis and Pauline became part of the Paris crowd and eventually, Hemingway's St. Louis wife number two.

This is not new information, but the authors of other Hemingway books probably did not dig as deep, into the Pfeiffer family as Theising did and he's almost certainly the only one who tracked down a package of flypaper.

- [Theising] This is a product that came from the Pfeiffer chemical company in St. Louis.

- [Jim] Pfeiffer, explain to me, this is Pauline Pfeiffer's family.

She's the second - Right - [Jim] St. Louis wife.

You've done some digging on this.

- [Theising] It's never enough for me to simply study something, I have to experience it.

So I like the memorabilia, I like to track down documents and such.

- [Jim Kirchherr] Theising's book happily goes off on such St. Louis tangents, but the book is about Ernest Hemingway and so much has already been written about him.

Why write another Hemingway book?

- It is a challenge to find new things and usually things start with a correction.

- [Jim Kirchherr] Including some of Hadley Richardson's own recollections, that came later in life.

- [Theising] She actually has some mistakes in her biography but they came directly from Hadley, so people are believing 'em.

My goal was to, Hadley would say something and I'd think, that just doesn't sound right for that part of St. Louis.

I would investigate a little bit and "Oh, you know what?

She's actually a block off in her description".

- [Jim Kirchherr] You'd think that this wedding party photo, every male member of the wedding party would have been identified by now, but Theising saw discrepancies from book to book and he believes he now has positively identified St. Louis and George Breaker.

He gave Hadley away at the wedding.

He also later embezzled much of her trust fund.

- [Jim] You have added to the-- - I like to think that I have added to our knowledge about Hemingway.

(soft music) - [Jim Kirchherr] Hemingway's third wife, Martha Gellhorn was an established writer, when she and her mother went to Key West in 1936 and ran into the now famous Hemingway.

In what else?

A bar For St. Louisans, Martha's mother Edna deserves a much deeper dive; social activist, suffragist.

She helped start up the league of women voters and her relationship with Hemingway is an interesting one as well.

(soft jazzy music) - [Theising] She was the loving mother figure that Ernest didn't have and that he wanted in his life.

- [Jim] And yet she tried to stop the marriage?

- [Theising] She tried to stop the marriage.

She was one of the people who could see through the facade, that Ernest had and said she felt sorry for him.

- [Jim Kirchherr] His short book is more than a Hemingway slept here guidebook, although it is that, but it's about St. Louis at that time and that place and those people and their families, their stories, their houses.

Finally, we turn back to the woman who sort of started it all, Katie Smith.

She never became a Hemingway wife, but Hemingway introduced her to a fellow writer.

She married John Dos Passos like Hemingway and Fitzgerald, one of the most celebrated of the so-called "lost generation" writers.

- [Theising] We're not talking just three St. Louis women, we're really talking four St. Louis women.

- [Jim] We're really talking about four.

- [Theising] That's right.

(soft jazz music) - During this pandemic year, I haven't been to a lot of restaurants except for pickup.

But the list of places I wanna go is growing, thanks in large part to Lasse Sorensen, the host of the Nine PBS program, Food Is Love.

His (indistinct) shows us in this profile, he's an interesting guy.

By the way, much of the video you'll see, was shot before social distancing.

(salsa music) - These are called salsa de molcajete.

- I think we all as people, we kinda fear the unknown a little bit and we don't wanna take any chances.

So we end up doing the same thing over and over again.

- So now we're gonna make a green salsa.

You need water,(laughing) it's right behind you.

- It's hot (lady laughing) but it's really refreshing to try something new.

(salsa music) - [Lady Narrator] Which is exactly what Master Chef Lasse Sorensen, gets to do on every episode of Food Is Love.

(lady laughing) - This thing right here is five water glasses hot.

Every great city has great food, I'm going on a journey around the world right here in St. Louis to find good food and experience other cultures.

I'm on a quest to find passionate chefs who cooks from the heart, because Food Is Love.

- [Lady Narrator] Lasse Sorensen is renowned chef with a highly regarded restaurant, but the show isn't about him cooking, it's about him learning.

- [Lasse] The star of the show is not me.

The star of the show is who we are visiting that week.

We are making macaroons.

(paper rustling) - We are making macaron.

- Yeah, in Danish it's makroner.

- Say that again?

(soft music) - [Lady Narrator] Food Is Love shines a spotlight on innovative chefs and restaurants that aren't always on the radar for many living in the St. Louis region: Korean Fried Chicken at Laclede's landing, Traditional Mexican in Cottleville and Caribbean Soul Food on Cherokee street, to name just a few.

When hunger strikes or a date night looms, habit or familiarity is the default setting for a lot of us.

- I'm gonna kinda bridge the gap between a person that eats in the same restaurant all the time and don't wanna try something new because it's unfamiliar to them.

- [Lady Narrator] To do this Lasse steps out of the comfort zone of his own kitchen, to experience new types of cuisine, cooking techniques and the personal stories behind them, to show viewers the fantastic variety that exists in our city.

- [Lasse] I can see in the 20 years I've been in the Midwest, how St. Louis had grown as a city, as a food city.

Coming from Los Angeles, where I did all the cutting edge cuisine and when I came to the Midwest, nobody wanted to eat my crudo or any raw fish dishes.

In the last five years, it's just exploded where I think we're just as good as San Francisco or Los Angeles.

- [Lady Narrator] Lasse credits the influence of the immigrant community and the way it is received by the St. Louis region, with refining and expanding the city's palette.

- [Lasse] If you are an immigrant, the chances you're getting in St.Louis are a lot better than in some other cities.

People embrace immigrants here, people in St. Louis are looking for different things, different restaurants, a different culture.

- [Guy With Dark Hair] Growing up when I was little, I used to be kind of a little bit ashamed of the food because it looks weird, it sounds weird and now the fact that half, if not more of our clientele are non Filipinos, that blows a lot of people's minds because that wasn't, 10, 15 years ago, that was never a thing.

- But I think you were right about... - [Lady Narrator] As an immigrant himself, Lasse understands the satisfaction and opportunities that come from replicating and sharing a taste of home with a new community.

- I wish my dad was still alive and he was with me today.

He would love you.

He was thinking about cakes, 24/7.

- [Lady Narrator] Son of famous Danish Pastry Chef Gert Sorensen, Lasse began his career by following in his father's footsteps.

His skill and artistry landed him a job, as one of the creators of the unforgettable title meal, in the Academy Award-winning film Babette's Feast and led to culinary opportunities in the United States.

- [Lasse] For a European guy, America is California because that's what we've seen on TV.

- [Lady Narrator] It was there, that Lasse met his future wife, Mary Jane.

What had started as a few exciting months working in Los Angeles, turned into years.

- [Lasse] My wife's family is originally from the Southern Illinois area.

I went on a fishing trip out here, with Mary Jane's brother and Southern Illinois kind of reminded me a little bit about Denmark.

It was small towns, rolling hills, a lot of agriculture.

I thought, that would be a nice place to live.

- [Lady Narrator] It didn't hurt that there was a well-established restaurant for sale in the area.

- [Lasse] I went back to California and I said to my wife "We should open a restaurant in Southern Illinois".

She told me, "Nope, absolutely not".

- [Lady Narrator] But eventually Los Angeles began to lose its shine and their thoughts returned to that quietly rolling landscape and charming restaurant called Tom's place in De Soto, Illinois.

- It was still for sale and I just said, "Okay".

- [Lady Narrator] The couple revitalized the historic but declining Tom's place in 1998 and transformed it into a five-star fine dining landmark.

Over the years, Lasse has demonstrated his cooking skills from time to time on television.

For Food Is Love, he partnered with writer, producer, Jason Pinkston to celebrate how the sharing of a meal, is just as important as the creation of it.

- Did you teach him how to cook?

- Yeah - Now he teaches me.

- And now he teaches you, how awesome is that?

- [Lady Narrator] A deep appreciation for the chef's creativity, life experiences and hard work is the hoped for takeaway of Food Is Love.

Helping viewers who visit their featured restaurants, to really savor their experience there.

- [Lady In Black Chef Uniform] And this is what we use.

In Mexico when we were babies and we suck our thumb, they would pepper on our thumb, so we don't suck our thumbs.

- [Man In White Apron] A lot of us who came here with barely anything, to achieve something, to build something, it takes a lot of hard work, Bosnian people are hard working people everywhere.

- [Lady In Black Chef Uniform] It's an old made tradition.

They say our hearts are kitchens, we feed everybody from our hearts - [Lasse] Take your time, sit down, really enjoy the food, love the experience of eating something new and appreciate the people that went through all this stuff to give you, whatever meal you're enjoying.

We don't do that enough, we just think, "Okay, I gotta, I'm hungry.

I gotta have something.".

It's not an event.

It's just something that you gotta get over with.

That's not good.

- [Man In Green And White Cap] This is actually Korean garlic, 'cause he actually got the garlic from Korea and then he planted them.

- [Lady Narrator] After visiting a restaurant, Lasse shares a meal with the chef and their loved ones.

- [Man In Green And White Cap] My mom's been an inspiration for sure.

She's been a really good home cook.

She's always cooking Korean food, which I always crave.

- [Man Wearing Denim Jacket] A little bit of Israel a little bit of Italy, a little bit of homage to you.

- [Lady With Sunglasses In Hair] When you go to bite it and you feel a little crunch, it's usually the cartilage from pig's ear.

- Okay.

- [Blonde Haired Lady] Most of the desserts that you'll see are like saturated in this like sweet syrup, because of when they were created it was a way of preserving things.

- [Lady Narrator] The conversations that happen at this much more intimate table are the heart of what the show is really trying to explore.

- [Lasse] As human beings, when we sit down and we break bread together, it opens people up, it opens your mind, it opens your spirit to new things, it doesn't matter how different we are, we still really all want the same things in life.

- [Long Blonde Hair Lady] Somebody from a culture, like something happens, a war and they immigrate to a city.

They're trying to figure out how to find work and make a life for themselves and trying to make everyone else within that community feel at home.

Somebody always steps up and opens a restaurant.

This is becoming an American staple, because they are now American.

That's what American food is.

- [Lasse] I've been a chef all my life.

I'm 52 years old and it's the first time I've had that, that, that, (laughing) that, that, that, it's absolutely delicious.

- [Man In Green And White Cap] Well, it's exciting that I'm sharing your first Korean meal in my mom's home.

- [Lady Narrator] Each episode of Food Is Love, wraps up with Lasse in his own kitchen, where he experiments with a new ingredient, technique or flavor he's just seen in action.

- [Lasse] Now, since my mind has been opened up to so many new cuisines, that I didn't even know was out there.

When I'm home cooking, I'm like, I need to try this.

Even though I'm getting fatter, I'm getting smarter and I learned so much.

It's been an incredible journey.

(soft upbeat music) - Finally, a year into the pandemic we thought we would check back with our go-to virus expert, Immunologist Dr. Sharon Fries at St. Louis University and she helped oversee some of the testing of the Moderna vaccine.

While many of us are getting or trying to get those shots, the scientists, they still have their work cut out for them.

- [Dr. Sharon] My suspicion right now and this is my own personal suspicion, is that this virus is going to be around for a really long time.

It will because it's an mRNA virus, it will continue to mutate.

We will have to continue to be extremely vigilant, about the vaccines that we're using and keeping track of whether the new mutations can evade those vaccines or not, and how serious is the disease, that is caused by those viruses.

- Congratulations, we should all be very happy that these vaccines are out there.

The studies actually continue, the scientists have not put all of their Moderna stuff into a drawer and moved on to other things.

- [Dr. Sharon] That's right Jim.

Basically, what's happening right now is that some of the companies are looking at pediatrics, the pediatric population and children.

Do these vaccines work in children?

The answer's most likely, yes.

The question really is, what dose do we need to use for children?

What age groups?

What brackets do we have to consider changing that dose?

We will be looking at whether these vaccines are the best vaccines in pregnant women, for example, or immunized or immunocompromised hosts and those kinds of studies.

Those studies will keep going on.

Other studies that will continue, will be looking at whether or not these vaccines in their current state are effective, against these constantly changing mutated viruses.

Like flu, for example we need to figure out next year, which will be the most significant circulating strains.

It may come to that with Corona Virus.

I will not be surprised if it does.

- [Jim] Originally, when this was first being talked about, people were saying 30,000 people or whatever the number is, die from flu or flu related issues every year, do you think that's kind of where we might be with COVID and I don't mean 30,000 is anything to ignore, but it's not, it's not a half a million.

- Right.

That's the million dollar question.

We would hope that as Corona virus is around longer and longer, that it will become less virulent or cause less disease in humans, as we are exposed to it more, we are vaccinated against, become vaccinated every year, we'll build more and more diverse antibody responses and that the virus itself will become less virulent.

It doesn't do the virus any good to kill people because when you kill somebody, you no longer have feed or fodder.

It would benefit the virus not to kill humans or have a high mortality rate so that it possibly could mutate in such a way that it does become less virulent.

Of course, that's everyone's hope.

As more and more people become vaccinated, our life will start to return to normal, and it will be hopefully similar to flu, every year you'll go get your Corona Virus vaccine if that's gonna be the case.

We will be able to carry on just like we did with influenza.

(soft music) - That's Living St. Louis, thanks for joining us.

I'm Jim Kirchherr and we'll see you next time.

(upbeat music) - [Lady Narrator] Living St. Louis is made possible by the support of the Mary Ranken Jordan and Ettie A. Jordan Charitable Foundation, and by the members of Nine PBS.

(upbeat music)