Vegan Tasting Menu...

If there is one thing that I can and have come to appreciate about something Charlie Trotter has said, it is about the appreciation and excitement about vegetables. In a typical line-up of ingredients on a plate, there is protein or two(sometimes more), a starch and a magnitude of vegetables(unless you are a Japanese minimalist), and even then, you probably would omit the protein. He had written that the excitement lie within all the wonderful, amazing, colorful, complex, intricate, tasty and vegetables, in which there are hundreds. Not just a smattering to choose from whereas to get bored, but a never-ending array of edible counterparts to really construct the most ethereal a dish. I don't buy into everything he has said or written about, and my only time dining there was slightly hindered by his rudeness, but that aside, I think he is a smart chef and an amazing intelligent craftsman, businessman and restaurateur. I have been inspired many times by his cooking and that and of his team. So why am I giving all this praise to one who was so rude you might ask? Well...it is his love of vegetable cookery and even vegan that has inspired many chefs tables here as well as this post and set of humble photos. I hope you enjoy the dishes as we all did, both cooking them and eating them. It is a passion that I will continue to foster within my cooking and ideas.

apricot-tomato salad, frozen avocado, tomatocello gelee, heart of palm
lemon verbena, tomato jus

tasting of beets...
roasted baby red, sous vide gold, beet granite, beet paint, pickled beets, walnuts
walnut powder, arugula, scarlett runner buds

olive oil braised baby white asparagus, zucchini puree, peas
shaved French breakfast radishes, borage blossoms, apple-rhubarb-olive oil nage

roasted cauliflower, cauliflower cous cous, cauliflower puree, truffles
roasted lobster mushrooms, chervil, artichoke chips, romanesco

seared yellow wax beans, roasted Yukon gold potatoes, tomato-nectarine stuffed squash blossoms
chard, smoked olive oil, red pepper juice, poblano coulis

alias craig onions, eggplant caviar, eggplant pave, root beer-thyme glaze, black garlic paint,
nasturtium petals and flowers, chanterelles, saba

beet cous cous, grilled king trumpet mushrooms, fava bean puree, green garbanzo beans
salsify chips, onion jus

coconut chocolate, corn, cherries, nectarines, nectarine sorbet
cacao nib-cashew nut gelato