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GOURMET Goes Green

AS VEGETARIAN FOOD GOES FROM HEALTHY TO HAUTE, HERE’S OUR LIST OF THE TOP SEVEN GOURMET VEGETARIAN MEALS ACROSS THE GLOBE

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top press. The holy of holies, the sanctum sanctorum, the temples to non-vegetarian haute cuisine are beginning to pay homage to the vegetarian Gods. Just saying the words “Michelin-starred French gastronomique restaurants” will prompt your bubbling champagne flute to runneth over and piano music to crescendo to a climactic finale. And now you can expect vegetarian wows on your plate too. All over the world. It’s my favorite kind of delicious revolution and I like to call it vegelution. I’ve been tracking its rise and spread for the past two decades in my books (“Around The World in 80 Plates” and the World’s First Vegetarian Guide to Paris) columns and TV shows. No. Im not a fanatic vegetarian. It’s the thrill of going into uncharted territories that gives me the discoverer’s high. I’ve dined at over a century-old pure vegetarian restaurant in Zurich (Hiltl) to a pure vegetarian Korean restaurant in New York, a Vegan Chinese place in Sydney. The only difference, vegetarian has gone gourmet now. My top five choices for gourmet vegetarian from sublime to the simply divine.

L‘ARPEGE Paris

RASHMI UDAY SINGH Food Writer

48 INDIA TODAY SPICE u JUNE, 2016

He’s gutsy. He’s a trailblazer. For the past thirty years, Alain Passard, the good looking, cigar-totting French chef has been digging his heels and creating vegetarian masterpieces in the heart of the gourmet non-vegetarian capital of the world. And he’s been showered with three Michelin stars ever since. I interviewed him for my TV show a decade ago, tripped out on many a mind-blowing vegetarian meal, met him last month and discovered that the talented chef has added even more brilliance to his vegetarian repertoire.

He deeply values simplicity that’s reflected not only in the cuisine here, but also in the uncluttered environment, which keeps the focus on the food. It’s a simple, small, thirty-seater pearwood paneled restaurant. The degustation menu engineers discrete

moments of pure elation that few restaurants can match. His classics include onion gratinée with the sweet tart notes of pear and the amazingly simple, yet sublime egg with maple syrup cream is the stuff that dreams are made of. The turnip tart tartin surprises and delights.

Internationally-famous (and patented) quintessentially French, apple tarte is brilliantly rendered as a tarte bouquet de roses with tiny roses, which one devours with one’s eyes as well.

Dinner for two Upwards of $360 Address 84 Rue de Varenne, 75007 Paris, Phone:+33 1 47 05 09 06; http://www.alainpassard.com/en/

lemon crème millefeuille at Arpege

ELEVEN MADISON PARK New York Theatrical, inspired, wildly inventive, deliciously different each time; a whimsical feast of nostalgic tastes and the absolute finest regional ingredients available. Enter the handsome, high ceilinged cathedral-like hall and get ready to be blown away by the never-ending show. Servers explain the dishes and make you an active collaborator in the fun. Its not about gimmickry (even though fresh carrots are ground on the table) but about teasing and revealing as the 16-course meal progresses.

There are card tricks on the table, but the real magic is in the food; Chefs Daniel Humm and Will Guidara deliver an ace.

I’ve dined here often and left dazed and dazzled, having been through not just dinner, but a full-fledged production.

Dinner Upwards of $295 per head Address Metropolitan Life North Building, 11 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10010, United States www.elevenmadisonpark.com, Tel +1 212-889-0905 JUNE, 2016 u INDIA TODAY SPICE 49

FOOD I TOP SEVEN

Dinner for two Upwards of $238 Address 630 Bedford Rd, Pocantico Hills, NY 10591, United States Phone:+1 914-366-9600 https://www.bluehillfarm.com

FRENCH LAUNDRY Napa, US BLUE HILLS AT STONE BARNES New York

OSTERIA FRANCESCANA, Modena, Italy Evocative, provocative and memorable. Through my fivehour, 15-course, mind-blowing vegetarian meal, passionate, inspired, philosopher genius, chef Massimo Bottura’s thoughts become edible. Three Michelin stars, the world’s second best, Italy’s best, globally celebrated and heavily awarded, the 50-seater restaurant sits in a nondescript quiet back street of Modena.

Renowned for challenging the traditions of cuisine, using parody and ironic interpretations of food, Bottura keeps evolving Italian food. Let’s begin with the world-famous theatrical dessert called ‘Oops! A broken lemon tart’. Not only does the

top left: eleven madison park; above: sunflowers with quinoa and sorrel

bottom left: spin painted beet from osteria; bottom right: oops! a broken lemon tart

specially designed plate look like its broken but even the pieces of the tart are carefully placed to look as though they are broken, cubes of lemon, bergamot jelly, a few drops of chilli and lemon oil and more.

From the “beautiful spin painted beet” to the “lentil better than beluga caviar”, flavours explode. Textures are balanced. The iconic “five ages of parmigiano regianno cheese” is the stuff legends are made of. Contrasting temperatures, textures, ageing from 24 months to 40 months, all topped off by “breath of air” deriving from a broth of Parmigiano rind from cheese aged for 50 months.

PS, I arrive by train from Milano at noon, eat for so long that I miss my train three times and finally get onto the 6 pm train to Florence.

Dinner for two Upwards of $191 Address 8 Via Stella, 22, 41121 Modena MO, Italy; Phone::+39 059 223912; www.osteriafrancescana.it/

Can an intensely pleasurable meal also cause a shift in perspective? Can it make you think differently about what you eat, not only in terms of taste and aesthetics but also the larger picture?

This is what Blue Hill, a farm-cum-restaurant with research and education programmes, does. I had a memorable fivehour vegetarian, multi-course (lost count, was it 22 or 42 or more?) meal here. An exhilarating tour around the eight-acre farm sets the tone. The restaurant itself is set in the old dairy barn—renovated with lofty metal rafters and windows taking in the countryside. It’s not just about amazing conservation and experimentation but also fascinating flavours and stories that are brought to the table. The brilliant chef-owner Dan Barber intensifies ingredients and showcases them instead of obliterating them with heat and sauce. Powerful flavours and textures, where the unfamiliar becomes familiar, and each flavour comes into white hot focus; for example, celtuce eaten from root to leaves, also served cooked with almond sesame and then as a cold broth in a wine glass.

There is also a literal shifting of perspective, as mid-meal, the server escorts you to the kitchen. Dan Barber’s book The Third Plate: Field Notes On The Future of Food, focuses on this new way of thinking and Blue Hill serves it up. Deliciously.

the rustic facade of blue hills at stone barnes

Ricotta basil anolini with sugar snap peas and gremolata sauce at Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry

The pampering of the senses begins the moment you enter the fragrant flower-filled garden of the rustic, turn-of-the century cottage, which used to be a steam laundry and then housed a brothel. Elaborate, refined, sensuous multiple course dining in Thomas Keller’s destination, French Laundry Napa Valley is an experience I will treasure. The tall and dapper Chef Keller has been showered with countless stars and awards and hailed

by Time magazine as America’s Best Chef. His candle-lit small and intimate dining rooms serve up seriously sensational fare. I get intoxicated as the memorable 16-course meal winds its way, with outstanding wines. The buttermilk sorbet, the maple glazed eggplant with carrots, cilantro and sultana-curry sauce, all delight.

Each dish is a masterpiece, be it the gems of wizardry of braised radish, basil and coconut foam or the warm salad of cauliflower sparkled with candied pinenuts; tamarind-glazed eggplant sorbets punctuates my meal and an amazing flourish of sweetness ends it. The ‘coffee and doughnuts’ dessert is unique.

Dinner for two Upwards of $300 Address 6640 Washington St, Yountville, CA 94599, United States Phone:+1707-944-2380 www. thomaskeller.com/tfl JUNE, 2016 u INDIA TODAY SPICE 51

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JOIA Milano Here it is. The world’s very first pure vegetarian restaurant to be awarded a Michelin star. The food distils the essence of nature in a teasingly playful way. In the simply done up restaurant, I trip out on the tasting menu of the Swiss born chef Pietro Leeman. It truly is a stroll through an imaginary landscape:metaphysical, surreal, hyper-realistic, but real.

Dinner Upwards of $85 per head Address Via Panfilo Castaldi, 18, 20124 Milano, Italy Phone::+39 02 204 9244 www.joia.it/en/

NOMA Copenhagen Noma is a global phenomenon.

Rene Redzepi, who’s Noma has been named world’s best, four years in a row has the following of an international pop star; his pop-ups in Tokyo and Sydney had waitlists running into thousands. Four years ago, his Copenhagen flagship served me a handful of vegetarian dishes.

Recently, at their Sydney popup I feasted on a pure vegetarian 12-course menu with its delicious new vocabulary of Australian ingredients and flavours. The most exciting news? Redzepi will reopen in 2017 and during summer months, Noma will be—hold your breath—strictly vegetarian.

Dinner Upwards of $296 per head Address Strandgade 93, 1401 København K, Denmark; Phone:+45 32 96 32 97 noma. dk/ 52 INDIA TODAY SPICE u JUNE, 2016

JOIA distills nature on a plate

a new lexicon of Australian vegetarian deliciousness