Nature has given us everything. Products that grow at the same time of year also harmonise on the plate. In the garden, 20 to 30 different flavours thrive each season – that’s enough for exciting cuisine — Alain Passard urge: “I was looking for new fragrances, new textures, new flavours,” he says. Passard was also the first globally renowned chef to have his own garden, southwest of Paris (today he has three, in different regions). “My gardens are my playground,” he says. “I have everything in my own hands. With my gardeners, I decide which seeds to use; we follow the flavour development of a plant through the different stages of ripeness. And we use fewer spices in the kitchen – we have herbs.” Passard is convinced that it is only through the diversity that a garden offers that one can achieve true seasonality in the kitchen: “Nature has given us everything. Products that grow at the same time of year also harmonise on the plate. In the garden, 20 to 30 different flavours thrive each season – that’s enough for exciting cuisine.” Meatless cuisine – still a novelty in the West – has a long tradition in other parts of the world, notably the Middle East or Asia. It’s not just those who’ve travelled to India who’ve caught on. Millions of Netflix viewers were treated to a glimpse inside the kitchen of Buddhist nun Jeong Kwan in the series Chef’s Table. She cooks high-end vegetarian fare for nuns and monks in a South Korean temple, and her philosophy has inspired colleagues around the world: “Food should calm the mind and body, give energy, and not be heavy.” And, importantly: “Food is for sharing.” At the Michelin-starred Fu He Hui (Mandarin for “blessing, harmony and wisdom”) in Shanghai, the cuisine is likewise inspired by a tradition of meatless food in the Buddhist monasteries. Dishes are served in minimalist private dining rooms and have names like “lotus pond”, a preparation with lily bulbs, Guanyin leaves (commonly used in oolong tea) and goji berries arranged in the shape of a lagoon. “We want to turn back time,” says restaurateur Tony Lu. “With us, the guest feels as if they are invited to dine in a private house with a large garden.” Shanghai’s foodies have been swearing by this experience for years. Regardless of whether it’s the continued cultivation of millennia-old traditions or contemporary hype, one thing is certain: with the turn towards all things plantbased, the culinary scene is experiencing a change that is comparable in its depth to the nouvelle cuisine that revolutionised French cooking in the 1970s. Unlike then, however, the plant-based movement is seeing an evenmore pervasive worldwide spread thanks to the global immediacy of our digital age. And diners who are served poached, shelled peas, glazed with brown rice on a sauce of coconut, petals and nepitella mint at Eleven Madison Park can actually taste the future of top cuisine. Or, as Daniel Humm says: “To develop a dish from a vegetable that you will never forget, that is the true magic of our craft.” 48
