The Culinary Institute of America

Chef Randy Leon Makes Root Vegetables with Green Goddess Dressing

Randy Leon was the Head Chef at Little Pine Restaurant in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. Here he demonstrates a dish with aromatic root vegetables with green goddess dressing and pickled red onion, garnished with fennel pollen and chervil. He calls the dish Umbellifers, which is a family of plants that make umbrella-shaped flowers, and includes carrots, celery and parsley.
Watch the full documentary and find plant-forward recipes here!

Chef Randy Leon Makes Vegan Cabbage Stuffed with Apple “Sausage”

Randy Leon was the Head Chef at Little Pine Restaurant in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. Here he demonstrates how he makes cabbage rolls stuffed with apple “sausage,” with a parsnip purée, three-bean salad, and garnish of crispy parsnip chips. The vegan sausage is made with jackfruit, caramelized apple, caramelized fennel and fennel pollen. When ground up, the jackfruit’s texture closely resembles ground pork.
Watch the full documentary and find plant-forward recipes here!

Chef Randy Leon Makes Pasta with Oyster Mushrooms

Randy Leon was the Head Chef at Little Pine Restaurant in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. Here he demonstrates a fresh pasta with wild oyster mushrooms, tomato confit, and white wine butter sauce, garnished with chives and fresh parmesan.
Watch the full documentary and find plant-forward recipes here!

Chef Randy Leon Makes Sunchokes with Citrus Crème Fraîche

Randy Leon was the head chef at Little Pine Restaurant in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. He demonstrates his signature dish of Jerusalem artichokes that are roasted and fried, coated with white sage powder, and served with citrus crème fraîche, agave and a garnish of pomegranate arils. Chef Randy loves the potato-like texture and artichoke flavor of the Jerusalem artichokes, also known as sunchokes. 
Watch the full documentary and find plant-forward recipes here!

Veggie Sushi with Wolfgang Puck and Hiroyuki Fujino at Merois

Chef Wolfgang Puck and Chef Hiroyuki Fujino demonstrate some vegetarian sushi from the menu at his newest restaurant, Merois in West Hollywood. This vegetable sushi is no cucumber roll! Chef Hiroyuki Fujino shows us how he makes crispy sushi rice topped with braised eggplant, shiitake, carrots and beets brushed with a sweet soy miso sauce. This unique offering has become a popular dish at Merois. 
Watch the full documentary and find plant-forward recipes here!

Veggie Sushi with Wolfgang Puck and Tetsu Yahagi at Merois

Wolfgang Puck and Chef Tetsu Yahagi demonstrate some playful and beautiful vegetarian sushi from the menu at his newest restaurant, Merois. Chef Tetsu Yahagi prepares the sushi “omakase style,” meaning that the guests are in the hands of the chef and receive a seasonal, elegant, and artistically crafted meal using the best ingredients available. All of his vegetable sushi preparations are a play on traditional sushi. He makes sashimi with slow-roasted red pepper to resemble tuna, as well as avocado made into pearls and soaked in basil oil to resemble fish eggs. For a vegan twist on uni, he roasts butternut squash in miso and adds a scoop to the top of a ribbon of cucumber.
Watch the full documentary and find plant-forward recipes here!

Wolfgang Puck Talks Plant-Forward Cuisine at Merois Restaurant

Wolfgang Puck talks about what inspired the vegetarian sushi on the menu at his newest restaurant, Merois in West Hollywood. He also talks about the first time he tried the produce at Chino Farms, the importance of supporting local farmers, and how there’s nothing better than fresh, local vegetables. His restaurant, Merois, sits perched atop Pendry West Hollywood, and features a sophisticated menu of global flavors with a decidedly plant-forward point of view.
Watch the full documentary and find plant-forward recipes here!

Introduction to Inside the Plant-Forward Kitchen: LA and Bay Area

Inside the Plant-Forward Kitchen: LA and Bay Area is the first edition of a new video education series from The Culinary Institute of America and Unilever Food Solutions, a first-of-its-kind video reference library documenting the best of plant-forward cuisine.
In this volume, we explore the markets and farms, kitchens and restaurants of Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. We talk to Wolfgang Puck, Chef Suzanne Goin of A.O.C., Kismet, Cafe Gratitude, Malibu Farm Restaurant, three-Michelin-star Chef Kyle Connaughton of SingleThread Farm and Chef Heena Patel of Besharam in San Francisco.
Watch the full documentary and find plant-forward recipes here!