What better way to honor your health and Mother
Nature’s seasonal bounties than cooking up vegetarian fare? Think beyond
tofu and nuts, and you’ll find a world of exciting, palate-pleasing
comestibles that fit into the vegetarian lexicon. New York chef Viviane
Bauquet Farre, who is a lifelong vegetarian, promotes a creative,
plant-based diet by preparing refined vegetarian dishes that please even
her carnivorous customers.
It is not for philosophical
or political reasons
that Farre is a vegetarian; since childhood, she has always been drawn to
a vegetable-based diet. Today, she parlays this love of vegetables, along
with her passion for Italian and southern French cuisines, into a dining
experience she calls the no bones!
dinner club, in which she prepares intimate dinner parties for private
groups in her home. Clients take delight in this healthy break from normal
restaurant fare.
Farre says, “I find that most restaurant food is
simply too rich for me—too much fat, too much sugar, and too much salt.
Why? Most people expect it, or have gotten use to it. But is that the way
I want to eat every day of the week? In my cooking, I strive to create
recipes that are extremely flavorful, but also healthy. I use butter,
fats, sugar and salt with some restraint.”
Inspirations for elegant vegetarian recipes come to
Farre through observations when traveling and from reading cookbooks from
the 17th and 18th centuries. “I like to see the way they prepared foods
[during those eras], which is much more sophisticated than we would think.
I take the way they combined ingredients and interpret it in a modern way:
The classic combination of grilled eggplant served with a drizzle of olive
oil and a sprinkle of fresh mint become the inspiration for a pasta sauce
with pan-roasted eggplant, capers, olives, a little lemon zest and lots of
fresh mint thrown in, or it can become a flatbread pizza with grilled
eggplant, smoked mozzarella and fresh mint thrown on top as it comes out
of the oven. The possibilities seem endless and so very exciting to me!”
she says.
Farre believes that any meal, meatless or
otherwise, should be a time of leisure, in which the cook can facilitate a
loving moment with friends and family.
She sets her stage by considering
diners’ food preferences when planning her menu, primping the table with
fresh flowers and filling the airwaves with delightful music.
For home cooks inspired to expand their repertoire
of vegetarian recipes, Farre has one piece of advice: “Learn how to cook
vegetables perfectly and make them as delicious and exciting as they can
be.”
Visit
Viviane Bauquet Farre’s website for more recipes, online
cooking-class videos, and information about her hands-on classes and the no bones! dinner club at
FoodAndStyle.com
