Compendium Volume 8

THE GREENEST THUMBS

THE GREENEST THUMBS FARM-TO-FORK DINING AT ITS FINEST 1 1 VILLA AIDA, WAKAYAMA, JAPAN Because it’s difficult to time the 70km journey from Osaka to Kanji Kobayashi’s restaurant, guests sometimes arrive at still-closed doors. No problem – they’ll quickly be able to find the chef in his garden, among his vegetables or in the greenhouse, where, scissors in hand, he’s harvesting a few fragrant herbs or colourful edible flowers with which to garnish his creations before dinner service. Villa Aida, in the middle of rural Wakayama, is not a place where you just drop by, hoping to get lucky without a reservation. That wouldn’t be a good idea anyway, because there is only one table, for six people. Kobayashi, who cooked in Italy for years before opening his restaurant on his parents’ farm, serves an omakase menu he calls Wakayama Flavour. It’s about 80 per cent plant-based (some 100 different vegetables are grown in the garden), occasionally combined with local seafood. The menu is worth even the most gruelling of journeys, opening as it does a gateway to the world of Japanese cooking with rare flavours and insights. Butterbur, for example, is a herb also used in medicine, whose slightly bitter shoots are traditionally prepared as a vegetable in Wakayama. Kobayashi combines it with watercress and a caramelly sauce, bringing a never-before-tasted flavour to the palate. 58

2 3 4 PHOTOS CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: JOHN TROXELL, MARCUS ZUMBANSEN, © LA CHASSAGNETTE, ELENA WOLFE, DOOK; OPPOSITE PAGE: © VILLA AIDA 2 SINGLE THREAD, HEALDSBURG, CALIFORNIA Kyle Connaughton is a chef, and his wife, Katina, a farmer – which is a match made in heaven for their guests. Countless vegetable varieties grow at their nearby farm, including 30 types of tomatoes; there are also fruit trees, chickens, bees and cattle – around 70 per cent of the restaurant’s ingredients come from here. Connaughton’s eleven-course tasting menu, inspired by the kaiseki concept, depicts up to 72 micro-seasons. You can’t get any more locavore than that. 3 COOKIES CREAM, BERLIN Germany’s best vegetarian restaurant boasts a delightfully offbeat vibe that extends to the kitchens. Chef Stephan Hentschel reaps his ingredients from a 1.5ha garden just outside the city. Among them are rare lettuces such as devil’s ear; unusual vegetables like icicles, a white radish, and forgotten herbs such as pineapple mint, oxalis and sweet umbel. Hentschel uses the latter in an unmissable ice cream that he serves with “fake” rhubarb cake. 5 4 LA CHASSAGNETTE, ARLES “Our garden dictates the menu,” says chef Armand Arnal. The organic garden from which the restaurant obtains around 80 per cent of its ingredients covers three hectares. The innovative Ducasse protégé has already earned a Michelin star, and he is increasingly focusing on vegetables: beetroot gazpacho is served with coriander blossoms and redcurrants, tomato hearts with hummus and garden lettuce. The best time to dine here is in the summer and the best place to sit is on the terrace with a garden view. 6 5 BABYLONSTOREN, PAARL, SOUTH AFRICA Set on a 330-year-old estate in the Winelands, this organic vineyard and farm boasts a garden of quintessential South African plants roughly the size of three rugby fields, along with the glassed-in Babel restaurant and a design hotel. Farm-to-fork isn’t just a cliche here – which guests quickly understand on a walk around the grounds. The focus is on vegetable preparations such as slow-cooked carrots with herb cream and a unique dukkah spice mix. Meat can be ordered on request. 6 FAMILY MEAL AT BLUE HILL, NEW YORK CITY Regional and sustainably produced products are all the rage in the Big Apple, but hardly anyone in the city embodies the principle as credibly as this small eatery in Greenwich Village, an offshoot of Blue Hill, Dan Barber’s quintessential farm-to-table concept. Here, too, much of the produce comes from the restaurant’s farm in upstate New York, especially the fresh vegetables, herbs and flowers. A must-try: delicately crafted chard tortellini with kale and ricotta. 59