“I think there are more vegetarians today than in the past, but I wonder if they’re not just more visible. Before, vegetarians probably got tired of asking for something they weren’t going to get, so they stopped asking. Now that most good restaurants have vegetarian entrées that aren’t just steamed vegetables or pasta, more vegetarian dishes are ordered, by both vegetarian and non-vegetarian diners. I recently created a ‘Gardens of the World’ menu, which is an all-vegetarian, four-course menu that can be adapted for a vegan. We change the menu weekly and offer a daily special. I have local vegetarians who hadn’t dined here in quite a while now coming back regularly. Having grown up on the French Riviera, I love to create vegetarian dishes, mixing colors and textures. For example, we do a white canellini bean soup and blend in a roasted tomato, so the color turns pink. We serve it at the table, pouring it into the diner’s soup bowl, where more color awaits—three leaves of a bright-red confit tomato and one black Oregon truffle. Imagine the visual impact. This is the kind of exciting dish we offer guests.”

“When I came to Los Angeles, I assumed that vegetarian cooking was going to be a large part of our cuisine, and so I placed things on the menu Californians can relate to. Right now, we’re focusing on raw foods and trying to make them into something more substantive and approachable than a novelty. For example, for a raw salad, we use thinly sliced Brussels sprouts, celery leaves, radicchio, avocado, raw nuts, and root vegetables and mix it with a good olive oil and lemon juice. The raw pasta entrée is popular, and even the meat eaters, once they try it, love it. For that dish, we take zucchini and slice it so that it looks like pasta and then we take daikon—or any raw vegetable—and add orange juice, olive oil, and fresh herbs and almonds. As for presentation, it’s important—and fun—to play around with the dishes and ingredients; vegetables are far from boring and [are] easy to work with.”

“I’ve noticed an increase in those ordering vegetarian and vegan food over the past three or four years. The majority are female, between the ages of 30 and 45. Recently I’ve seen an increase in the younger generation— teenagers and college-age—ordering it as well. The boomers still seem to like their steaks and potatoes. We offer a daily vegetarian appetizer, but we tailor the entrée to each guest. For example, one customer came in to celebrate an anniversary and wanted vegetarian, but not pasta, so we prepared a Mediterranean vegetable and couscous dish wrapped in filo and served with saffron/basmati rice. We think there should be more than just a pasta option, and we want that offering to be tasty and unusual. We strive to put the same effort into vegetarian entrées that we do for meat and fish entrées. We have company-approved vendors we work with, and it’s amazing what you can get locally now, such as Asian pears, grown in southern Virginia. Vegetable entrées are just as costly as their meat and seafood counterparts—especially with wellthought- out, sophisticated dishes using fresh, organic ingredients. What’s fun in designing a vegetarian dish is working with all the textures and colors that are available. Even the type of couscous used—from Israel to the Near East— can alter the look of a dish.”

“Even though this is Southern California, we don’t get a lot of vegetarian requests here at Jerne, and we’ve cooked for only two vegans this past year. We offer lots of seafood options, a vegetarian pasta dish, and a few vegetarian appetizers. Even though we don’t have a lot of vegetarian choices on the menu, we can always create something for vegetarian guests. The fun is in designing the plate. Even simple items, like a shaved vegetable salad or grilled vegetable plate, can be as interesting as you want them to be; they don’t have to dull. On our tasting menu, for example, we offer a deconstructed lasagna, which is a free-form lasagna with stacks of pasta with mushroom ragout and melted tomatoes, topped with a parmesan foam. We get occasional requests from clients who want more vegetarian options on their banquet menus; we did an all-organic, green-friendly party just a few weeks ago. The key to preparing vegetarian is to keep it as fresh and interesting as possible—and stretch yourself beyond the typical vegetable plate.”