For chefs throughout the western U.S., “vegetables seem to be displacing pork and foie gras as a proving ground for culinary magic,” writes Sara Dickerman in Sunset. By embracing “the intensive techniques” of modernist cuisine, restaurants like the three below are pushing vegetarian cooking in new directions and “wowing even proud carnivores.”
Natural Selection Portland, Ore. Chef Aaron Woo “approaches every ingredient with a sense of adventure”—and none of those ingredients include meat. In this tiny restaurant, he makes gnocchi from powdered kale and onions, roasts fava leaves into “flavorful ashes,” and turns dehydrated sauerkraut into a “kraut dust” to give potatoes a “sour-umami touch.” 3033 NE Alberta St., (503) 288-5883
Gather Restaurant Berkeley, Calif. Executive chef Sean Baker cooked for years at the “groundbreaking” vegan restaurant Millennium in San Francisco, so “it’s no wonder he has a knack for meatless delights.” Half his menu items are vegetarian, and “few diners can resist the head-turning ‘vegan charcuterie,’ a quartet of vegetable, fruit, and nut preparations.” 2200 Oxford St., (510) 809-0400
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N/Naka Los Angeles. Chef Niki Nakayama “ambitiously charts the seasons” with her Japanese-influenced menu. Every night a vegetarian menu is offered, enriched with produce from Nakayama’s garden. Her meat-free “tweaks to tradition” include a sashimi course made with Bull’s Blood beets. 3455 S. Overland Ave., (310) 836-6252
