Rooting of plant-forward menus
Many people are motivated by aspirations to embrace both their own and the planet’s health and welfare when they adopt a plant-based diet. Plant-forward menuing is becoming popular among diners, but it’s also a big megatrend for chefs. It’s also about allowing diners to experiment with less meat-based meals and allowing chefs to express their creativity with inventive center-of-the-plate dishes.
Gourmet atmosphere
James Truman, a veteran editorial director at Condé Nast, views eating vegetarian or vegan food as a “celebration not a sacrifice.” Many people who knew Mr. Truman well from the publishing industry were surprised when he left it all to become the owner of Nix, an elite vegetarian restaurant in New York with Michelin-starred chef John Fraser.
Chef Fraser and I set out to prove two things at first, according to Mr. Truman: first, that you don’t have to leave a vegetarian or vegan restaurant empty-handed; and second, that the flavors, textures, and variety of the meatless food we served should be so good that carnivores dining with us would not even realize that there was no meat.
Consumers who occasionally consume meat—possibly once a day as opposed to twice or three times a week as opposed to seven times—are known as flexitarians, and their numbers are steadily but significantly increasing. However, Mr. Truman and Chef Fraser projected that approximately half of the visitors at Nix would not be solely plant-based eaters.
“This shift doesn’t grab headlines because it’s a quieter, non-political movement, but it is of great consequence and was very much in our thoughts when we discussed the philosophy of Nix,” said Trumain. “Our central belief was that not eating meat should never feel like abstaining from something; rather, it should feel like a celebration of something else, which in this case is the delicious ways we prepare vegetables.”
The cooks at Nix have started “playing around” with maize, experimenting with squash and peaches, and “lots of mushrooms, both cultivated and foraged,” in anticipation of the fall harvest, Mr. Truman said.
The menu has recently expanded to include items like crispy pasta cake with lime mayonnaise, grilled corn, and truffles; griddled squash on a bed of macadamia nut cream with macerated cherries and bitter greens; and a Mexican-style shakshuka with cactus and tomatillos for brunch.
At Nix, two tandoor ovens are always in use because the “high and dry” heat they produce works perfectly for cooking veggies.
“We use the ovens not just for making bread, but also for roasting and grilling,” he stated.In the meantime, a lot of raw materials are used while brining and fermentation experiments continue in an attempt to produce yet another amazing and distinctive vegetarian delicacy. Mushrooms are slow-poached for shiitake cacio e pepe.
savory astuteness
As more than 50 restaurants are expected to debut by 2020, the name Chef Matthew Kenney—a twice-nominated James Beard Award Rising Star Chef—is starting to appear everywhere. The chef switched from serving mostly meat and butter to a plant-based diet about 17 years ago. Plant City, Providence, Rhode Island, his most recent venture, is a food hall with four vegan restaurant concepts. It demonstrates his belief that “everything else about our health and leading [our] best life is impacted by the food choices we make,” he stated.
“Activists aim to influence people’s decisions; as a chef, I want to demonstrate that there is an alternative by using organic ingredients and promoting health and wellness, hopefully encouraging others to follow suit,” Chef Kenney stated.
Chef Kenney has four restaurant concepts in Plant City: the Michelin-starred Double Zero Pizzeria; the fast-casual Make Out—a place where you can create your own bowls—and the New Burger—think fish topped with beet ketchup or carrot mustard.
One of Chef Kenney’s most savory (and possibly most gorgeous) meals is his heirloom tomato and zucchini lasagna with macadamia ricotta, sundried tomato marinara, and pistachio pesto.He said, “We serve it in ten or twelve of our restaurants, including in Providence.” It has been served elsewhere on the menu.
He particularly enjoys the meaty-textured farro “sausage” tacos at this place, which are paired with cashew crème, salsa verde, and guacamole-seasoned jackfruit tacos.”We like how it absorbs different flavors because it’s very porous and has a meaty texture; it’s not sugary,” he said.You can probably expect to see a Kenney favorite on Double Zero’s menu come fall: truffled potato pizza with cashew or garlic cream, mushrooms, and rosemary.
Chef Kenney persists in pushing the boundaries with his use of various preparation and flavoring methods, such as fermentation, heat immersion, dehydration, and smoking guns—which he mostly uses to smoke roasted mushrooms.
mother spoon
You’ve entered the world of a chef who uses a cucharamama, also known as a “mother spoon,” with wisdom, creativity, and a little bit of daring, if you visit the restaurants Zafra or Cucharamama in Hoboken, New Jersey. These eateries were founded by chef Maricel Presilla and her business partner Clara Chaumont. A connoisseur of Spanish and Latin American cooking, she is also the author of Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America. Creating dishes “that make vegetables stars through rich seasoning and [placing] animal protein as supporting characters” is a philosophy that Chef Presilla champions. She serves, for instance, a white bean soup (sofrito) loaded with tomatoes, roasted peppers, cabbage, squash, and greens.
“A small amount of boneless chicken thighs or some pork will add richness to the dish without taking center stage,” the speaker stated. “You can eat that as a full one-pot meal with some crusty whole grain bread.”
Her experiment with huge “sculptural” vegetables, such as bread-stuffed cauliflower and sofrito stuffing fresh out of the wood-burning oven, is currently enjoyed by guests. This autumn, there will be a thick, slow-cooked bean soup on the menu that she calls “wood-burning oven fabada.” A entire ripe plantain can also be roasted in the oven, just like they do in Manabi, Ecuador. It is then presented scorched on a wooden board and accompanied at the table by sides of grated queso blanco, ripened cream, and a paste made of peanuts and achiote.
Seasoning is the key to making delicious foods that feature vegetables. In addition to a variety of spices like cumin, allspice, oregano, and bay leaf, Chef Presilla also enjoys dried pepper powders, hot peppers, and even freshly chopped peppers. She also enjoys olives and herbs like epazote, huacatay, and fresh mint. “Cacao nibs and a smoky cacao and chile powder mix, and fine chocolates of varying cacao contents, which I add to food — even pizza — in discreet amounts to give it backbone,” she stated, are the main ingredients of her “secret weapon.”
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wholesome plus
Chef Bill Billenstein, senior director of culinary and nutrition planning at ISS Guckenheimer, understands the difficulty of trying to please everyone. Guckenheimer is a corporate food service firm established in San Mateo, California. It is well-known for offering wholesome, premium, and nutrient-dense meals in the on-site staff cafes of its clients, which include, among others, technology and pharmaceutical companies. The business was acquired by Copenhagen-based ISS in 2017.
“The West Coast has a distinct diet than other parts of the nation. However, the Midwest is now witnessing this plant-based movement in various forms, and people are curious to learn more,” he remarked. We refer to them as ‘common sense plant-forward’ recipes at Guckenheimer. Visitors ought to have options.”
The chef and his crew launched “Power Plant” in early July in a few California accounts, emphasizing seasonal plant-forward cuisine that use animal protein as a condiment and realizing that “there are lots of ‘flexitarians’ out there.” As one of the Power Plant ideas, you can create your own bowl.
“You can select from pork, flank steak, or chicken (roughly 2-1/2 oz of protein), and you can have one complimentary add-on skewer (like glazed jackfruit),” the chef said.
Chef Billenstein is particularly happy with the new Ahi Beet Poke Bowl’s taste profile and aesthetic outcomes.
“We take half the tuna and replace it with marinated pink beets in the same dressing, so it’s not 100% animal protein (tuna). Not only are the appearance and texture nearly same, but we’re also cutting back on our consumption of animal protein, saving money on the meal, and improving the health of the ocean.”
Growing at the C.I.A.
Chef Billenstein worked with Guckenheimer at Google for a number of years before accepting his current role, contributing to the creation of the Google Food brand. Along with Chef Presilla, he presented at the Culinary Institute of America’s (C.I.A.) May Global Plant-Forward Culinary Summit in Napa Valley, where a new educational track centered around the plant-forward trend is being established.
Greg Drescher, vice-president of strategic initiatives and industry leadership at the C.I.A. in Napa, California, said, “We’re in very early stages of developing a Plant-Forward Culinary Arts Education and Certification Initiative (fall 2020) for those seeking a deep dive into nutrition, sustainability, flavor development strategies, world flavors, etc.” According to him, the endeavor is primarily in collaboration with Google, and as such, it is in collaboration with vendors Compass Group and Guckenheimer.
It is evident from Mr. Drescher’s description of “plant-forward” food that the main emphasis is flexitarian, meaning that meat is used as a condiment and occasionally consumed, possibly as a celebratory treat. He points to the sharing plate at Chicago’s The Bad Hunter as an example of how the structure of how you offer plant-forward is crucial to the success of such a menu:
He declared, “The main menu is entirely vegetarian.” “After that, I checked the main menu and saw that there were four or five animal alternatives—one dish each for beef, hog, and lamb—as well as an overwhelming amount of plant-based selections and a lot of flexitarian sharing at the tables. The idea is to “eat meat, but not too much,” and the format is sharing platters.