Don Morris Design - V is for vegetables: inspired recipes & techniques for home cooks from artichokes to zucchini

FIRST ID LIKE TO THANK our team who cooked, photographed, ate (and debated) our way through producing this book: To Dorothy Kalins, my partner on this project, for her guidance, humor, expertise, and love of food. To the diligent eyes of Maura McEvoy, whos always looking to tell a wonderful story through her pictures. To Don Morris and his unrelenting search for clarity and beauty, to our recipe editor, Kathy Brennan, for standing up for practical home cooks everywhere, and to Sue Li, our acting sous chef, who embraced my approach to cooking and remained loyally connected. To Mindy Dubin who, as our illustrator, animated practically every page of this book with her fine vegetable drawings, and who, as my wife, brings to life all of my hopes and dreams for our family.

To Danny Meyer and Jeff Flug, my partners at Union Square Hospitality Group: Thanks for your heartfelt support of this book and, as a matter of fact, of everything else that I do.

To David Black, our most extraordinary agent. And friend.

At Little, Brown, were grateful to Michael Sand, now at Abrams, for sharing our passion for this book. And great big thanks to executive editor Michael Szczerban for staying true to our vision and stewarding the book through to publication. Were grateful as well to Garrett McGrath, production editor Ben Allen, copyeditor Valerie Cimino, production manager Lisa Ferris, and art director Julianna Lee.

To Zaid and Haifa Kurdieh of Norwich Meadows Farm for letting us into their world: for planting, growing, and harvesting the most wonderful-tasting vegetables, and for planning the timing of each seasons bounty to coincide with our photography sessions. Thanks, too, to Rod Lamborn, for celebrating his father Calvins work on pea research and for hand carrying the delicate specimens to us. To the Union Square Greenmarket managers and farmers, organized by GrowNYC, who tend our most precious resource in New York City and provide vision for the future of fresh food. Especially Cayuga Organics, Wild Hive Farm, and Alex Paffenroth, Tim Stark, and Bill Maxwell. Also Tony Gibbons of Radical Farm, Jeffrey Frank, Steve Yoo, Tama Matsuoka, Franca Tantillo, Rick Bishop, and John Schmidt.

To Patty Gentry of Early Girl Farm and all the other Long Island farmers who inspire our team every day.

To the potter Nancy Horwich, whose beautiful and soulful American plates, bowls, and platters we used throughout in the photography of this book; find her at nancyhorwich@me.com. To Saori Kawano of Korin (korin.com) for Japanese kitchenwares.

At Gramercy Tavern, special thanks to Jenny Jones (you know what you did!), Catherine Hines, and Beth Wisniewski, as well as chef de cuisine Howard Kalachnikoff and sous chefs Suzanne Cupps, Duncan Grant, Tracy Malechek, Rafiq Salim, and Paul Wetzel.

Dorothy and I both send our gratitude and admiration to our kindred spirits, the writers whose good words appear on each chapter opener. We are grateful, too, to Betsey Buddy for her ferocious research in Paris. And to the loyal and diligent Peter Rohowsky of Art Resource in New York, and Jennifer Belt, too. Thanks to Randy Smith at the Peter H. Raven Library, Missouri Botanical Garden; Stephen Sinon and Marie Long at the New York Botanical Garden; and Sandra Powlette at The British Library.