Vedge. 100 Plates Large and Small that Redefine Vegetable Cooking. / by Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby. Foreword by Joe Yonan. Published by The Experiment, 2013.
“Vedge…” is a beautiful book, with a smartly designed text that compliments its message: that vegetables can be prepared quite elegantly with just a little effort. Author Landau almost preaches this litany of success: that if you select fresh vegetables from local sources, add spice and a sauce, you’ll impress your guests with an undeniably seasonal sensation.
The book is based on recipes offered at the restaurant in Philadelphia, Vedge, where the mood is pure elegance, without meat or animal products lurking on the menu. Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby, proprieters, propose a simplified version of restaurant-style preparation that nonetheless retains a gourmet approach to cooking and presents 100 recipes in 240 pages for the home cook.
Right off as the Pantry List and Basics are introduced, you get a sense of the sophistication which I think of as urban and international, that borrows from various cultures (Jamaican, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, or at least Middle Eastern, Italian, Vietnamese, the list goes on…) but results in a distinctly American fusion of ingredients and methods. Then the next chapters are filled with appetizers, soups and stews, single vegetable dishes they call “the dirt list”!, main dishes, including tarts, then desserts and baked goods, and finally, cocktails. Prevalent for the vegetables is a method any cook can achieve with the authors’ inspiration here, but without any special equipment beyond an oven and blender. It calls for roasting a vegetable in seasoned olive oil, then layering the intensely flavored result with a strongly piquant sauce, at last serving a dish that could only come from a talented and experienced cook—you! This cookbook divulges unique flavor and texture combinations, and provides the variety of tastes that can be paired with their drinks and desserts.
For some recipes the title gives a hint as to the final texture, with recipe biography filling in background data. The recipe “Figgy Toffee Pudding with Madeira-quince Ice Cream” calls for dried figs, and makes up a baked cake with figs in a sauce to serve spooned over the top. The couple created this dessert at “Cooking Light” magazine’s Light Up the Night event in NYC in September 2012 (see page 187) and describe its taste as complex, with “floral honey notes” layered with toffee and the figs for sweetness and texture. Their biographies always include suggestions for replacing unavailable ingredients, or for using a short-cut. Here they say to use pears for the quince, or to save time, you can purchase vegan ice cream; and the after-recipe “tip” contains more on Madeira wine.
Vedge rates very well in my list of the 10 attributes of a great cookbook for vegetarians. with a score of 8.5. But more about that later.
A remark about the photography accompanying the text: it’s very realistic but at the same time, mood-oriented. This characterizes the book, does not match every recipe and so is missed where there is less of it. Some of the images are from the restaurant, colors are golden tones, exuding warmth and a kind of relaxed sophistication.
Readers contribute much to a cookbook’s success, whether by intent or not. As I described in a former post, someone reading a cookbook is probably interacting with the recipes, imagining how they might turn out, all before they pick up a cutting knife or a bowl or pan. And likely the existence of photographs will contribute to the reverie.
My rating system has less to do with content and more to do with how the book was put together, with the team of editors and publisher’s wishes added into the mix of parts that goes into a finished book. In my assessment of a good book there are certain considerations that if given full expression by the publisher, tend to interpret the book’s contents in an unmistakable way.
10 Attributes of a Great Cookbook. The presence of a single attribute from my list nets one, or a fraction of one, point out of ten.
“Artful presentation for the cover” is number one on my list. The cover is attention-getting, especially for the title, “Vedge” which is taken to mean ‘fully engrossed in’, completely obsessed by, or engaged in contemplating the qualities, in this case of cooking, serving, and eating vegetables.
“Truthful author biography…” is number twothe authors’ notes are well-represented thought the text, and portraits of them count here.
“Lovely, focused color photography…” is number three. See notes above. Vedge gets only a half point here.
Number four is “Noted variations… with other possibilities…”
Number five, “Recipe biographies, or the back story…” are provided for each recipe.
Number six, “Index, complete and really thorough.” is covered.
Number seven is “Clarity… simplicity…”.
“Thematic interpretation of the food being featured, focus on types of food… cultures…” is number eight. Between the names of dishes and the recipe biographies, this attribute is represented. However the lack of image for each dish, and in one case an image of “fresh chickpea ‘bourdetto’ ”, p. 62 is printed to mirror the recipe for “pozole with chayote and poblano peppers”, p. 59. I wish there were enough images to supply each recipe with one, as sometimes its hard to know what the dish will look like without it. Vedge gets a 3/4 point here.
Number nine, “Nutritional information…” is not given in this cookbook. Actually I don’t mind this omission since the emphasis is on quality and freshly available, in-season, fruits and vegetables.
And the last attribute, number ten, “Menus, additional methods…” is represented to some degree in the text of some recipe bios.
With a an 8.5, “Vedge” scores very high on my list of 10 attributes for a great vegan or vegetarian cookbook. Lacking only 1½ points for a perfect ten, the cookbook is certainly strong on method and new ways to intensify flavor, featuring select vegetables and fruits for their mouth-wateringly fresh and delicious tastes and textures. And arguably, the presentation and intent of the authors outweigh the distractions that reduced the book’s score, and even these would hardly deter me from trying out their recipes. In fact, if their instructions had been less substantial, I would be forced to fly off to Philadelphia just to satisfy my curiosity in person, at Vedge, vegetable restaurant.
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