On Vegetables, Jeremy Fox

Price: $49.95

Flip open Jeremy Fox’s On Vegetables, and David Chang has a bold proclamation right out of the gate. “It’s not an understatement to say Jeremy Fox makes the best tasting vegetables on the planet,” the chef at the head of the Momofuku empire writes in the forward. Fox, who now runs a trio of restaurants in Santa Monica (Rustic Canyon, Tallula’s, and Esters), originally made his name in the Bay Area, first working under David Kinch at Manresa, then opening Ubuntu in Napa, where he became known for how he could make vegetables, not meat, the star of any plate. It’s at Ubuntu that he became the first chef in America to win a Michelin star for a vegetarian restaurant.

While Fox is up front about the fact that he’s not a vegetarian himself, he has an affection for challenging himself to get the most out of vegetable-driven cuisine. With this book you’ll learn how to make dishes including his yellow bean stew with torn bread, and savory application of fruit, like with the strawberry sofrito that tops his corn polenta. For people living near a good farmer’s market, On Vegetables will become your guide to cooking your way through the fresh and unique produce you’ll find there.

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On Vegetables by Jeremy Fox

Photo: Courtesy Phaidon