Rich Landau - Vedge: 100 plates large and small that redefine vegetable cooking

advance praise for vedge

Is Vedge the best vegan restaurant in America? It might be one of the best restaurants, period.

Philadelphia magazine

Vegetables are thriving. Theyre no longer thought of as secondary to the magnificence of meat. They get equal billing, sometimes the entire marquee. Never have they seemed so visionary as at Vedge.

Alan Richman, GQ

[A] Best New Vegetable Cookbook. Philadelphia chefs Richard Landau and Kate Jacoby simplify the stunning dishes at their restaurant.

Food & Wine

Chefs Richard Landau and Kate Jacoby are veggie virtuosos. Expect every recipe in Vedge to be a mouthwatering celebration that will dazzle your senses and taste buds.

Kris Carr, New York Timesbestselling author of Crazy Sexy Kitchen

Rich Landau is a highly skilled, inspirational chef who always makes me happy with his food and his energy. He and his wife Kate have created an incredible restaurant in Philadelphia and a work of art in this book. Vegan? Yes! Magic, no... this is pure passion at work!

Amanda Freitag, Executive Chef and Chopped Judge

Rich and Kates thoughtful, ingredient-driven cooking at Vedge enriches Philadelphias already vibrant restaurant culture, and this book makes their techniques accessible to home cooks. Vedge is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in elevating their cooking skills, vegan or not, and a solid introduction to the value of seasonal eating.

Chef Jose Garces

Landau and Jacoby have the gift of making global vegan cuisine sexy and delicious.

Joy Pierson, Nutritionist, Restaurateur, Candle Cafe and Candle 79

BECAUSE EVERY BOOK IS A TEST OF NEW IDEAS

also by Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby

Horizons: The Cookbook

Horizons: New Vegan Cuisine

vedge

100 PLATES LARGE AND SMALL THAT REDEFINE VEGETABLE COOKING

RICH LANDAU & KATE JACOBY
Foreword by Joe Yonan

NEW YORK

Vedge: 100 Plates Large and Small That Redefine Vegetable Cooking

Copyright 2013 Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby

Foreword copyright 2013 Joe Yonan

Cover, interior, and author photographs copyright 2013 Michael Spain-Smith

All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or online reviews, no portion of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and The Experiment was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been capitalized.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Landau, Rich, 1967

Vedge : 100 plates, large and small, that place vegetables in the

spotlight / Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-61519-085-0 (cloth) -- ISBN 978-1-61519-177-2 (ebook)

1. Cooking (Vegetables) 2. Cooking (Fruit) 3. Vegan cooking. 4.

Vedge (Restaurant : Philadelphia, Pa.) I. Jacoby, Kate, 1980- II. Title.

TX801.L297 2013

641.6'5--dc23

2013012098

ISBN 978-1-61519-085-0

Ebook ISBN 978-1-61519-177-2

Cover design by Susi Oberhelman

Text design by Pauline Neuwirth, Neuwirth & Associates, Inc.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Distributed by Workman Publishing Company, Inc.

Distributed simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen and Son Ltd.

First printing August 2013

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Our son Rio Jacoby-Landau is a self-proclaimed vegetarian. He travels with us and never fails to impress us with his approach to food and capacity for joy.

This book is for him.

foreword

MY FRIEND DANIEL is scraping clean a plate of salt-roasted golden beets. Actually, three of us are all clinking forks, battling like musketeers for the last bites of this terrine-style dish, in which the beets are layered amid chunks of smoked tofu and avocado. The flavors and textures seem so made for one another that they must be part of some traditional dish, but of course they arent. Rich Landau has married them.

How does he do it? Daniel mutters, to himself as much as to anyone else.

That pretty much sums up the vibe at my table whenever Ive eaten at Vedge, my favorite restaurant in Philly. People make involuntary noises of approval midbite; they push plates around with a spoon as they try to get those last few droplets of sauce; they close their eyes as they swallow, then open them and chuckle out loud; they make exclamations and proclamations, ask questions and fumble for answers.

Our server calls Rich a magic man, but his brand of prestidigitation isnt categorically different from the creative, difficult work that any great chef undertakes to transform ingredients into beautiful, satisfying, sometimes even exciting dishes. Except, of course, for the fact that Rich isnt using every trick in the book. By avoiding all animal products, he challenges himself to think of the purest way to express the character of his favorite vegetables, while still making food that appeals even to the omnivores in the room, of which there are plenty. But these arent dishes that rely on mock-this or faux-that sleights of hand. Its not that kind of magic. The result of Richs legerdemain are plates on which the starring ingredients natural flavors shine, where sparks of heat or salt or spice work as punctuation but arent the ultimate point. The ultimate point is the showcased flavor of something that was recently pulled from the dirt.

Im not the only one who enjoys bringing carnivores to Vedge, in a sort of Can you believe its vegan? game. Its just too much fun to see the same kinds of reactions as the ones I had the first time I ate there. When I ate that meal, I wasnt quite ready to declare myself a vegetarian but I was finding myself drawn ever more exclusively to vegetables. Simultaneously, I was skeptical of vegetarian and vegan restaurants, because, like so many people, I had eaten far too many mushy veggie burgers and tempeh chilis and sandwiches on leaden bread overstuffed with sprouts. Even the upscale places often disappointed me, as if they held themselves to an altogether different (that is, lower) standard from that of the omnivorous ones.