Rich Landau & Kate Jacoby

“Is Vedge the best vegan restaurant in America? It might be one of the best restaurants, period.”

–Philadelphia magazine

Award-winning chef/owners of Vedge restaurant

vedge 100 Plates Large and Small That Redefine Vegetable Cooking

Vedge is a modern vegetable restaurant that veteran Philadelphia chefs Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby, formerly of the acclaimed and award-winning vegan restaurant Horizons, opened in Fall 2011. In a historic Center City Philadelphia building, Landau and Jacoby offer a progressive, bold approach to vegetable cooking in a classically elegant dining room.

The menus at Vedge are truly inspired by their ingredients. Patrons savor plates large and small, all of which showcase vegetables as they’ve rarely been prepared before, including a daily “Dirt List” of innovative specials made with just-reaped ingredients, desserts so creamy they have been known to fool nonvegans, and perfectly paired cocktails using homemade syrups and bitters. No animal products are used in the Vedge kitchen.

Vedge prides itself on being an epicurean’s restaurant—for omnivores, vegetarians, vegans, and carnivores alike. Patrons and critics agree. In 2012, Vedge was named Restaurant of the Year by both VegNews and Eater.com (Philly edition).

Husband and wife Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby are the chefs/owners of Vedge. Landau has been at the forefront of vegetarian dining since 1994, when he opened his first restaurant, Horizons Café, with locations in Philadelphia and Willow Grove, which was named VegNews’s restaurant of the year in 2006. In 2009, Landau served the first-ever vegan dinner at the James Beard House in New York City. In 2012, he received Cooking Light’s Trailblazing Chef Award. Jacoby is Vedge’s pastry chef and manages the restaurant’s cocktail program. Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby not only work but also live in their native Philadelphia.

Introduction   

Techniques and Tips   

small bites

saladsplatesthe dirt listdessertscocktailsspecial menus

With its bold, sophisticated, and delectable dishes, Vedge puts vegetables in the spotlight, taking readers inside its namesake kitchen with 100 recipes that allow home cooks to recreate this award-winning restaurant’s distinctive—and deceptively vegan—fare at home.

Here are recipes for Small Bites (French Breakfast Radishes with Nori, Smoked Tamari and Avocado), Plates (Porcini and Celery Root Shepherd’s Pie), and special dishes featured on the restaurant’s popular “Dirt List,” which highlights just-reaped ingredients (Charred Shishito Peppers and Korean Eggplant Tacos with Kimchi).

Here, too, are tips and techniques from Chef Landau (such as how to make mushrooms the main event in BLT Sliders), luscious desserts from Chef Jacoby (such as Chocolate Stuffed Beignets), and house recipes for spice blends and sauces.

Gorgeous photographs showcase the book’s recipes and capture the spirit of the restaurant. Vedge also features plate and wine pairing suggestions and sidebars on themed dinners, including Chef Landau’s menu for the first vegan meal ever served at the James Beard House.

Vedge is a modern vegetable cookbook like no other—one that will inspire you to prepare your own delicious vedge!

4 T H E D I R T L I S T

PReP time: 15 minuteS

CooK time: 10 minuteS

SeRVeS 2 to 3

2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard

½ cup vegan mayo

1 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black

pepper

1 pound Brussels sprouts, 2 to 3

layers of outer leaves removed and

bottom core cut off

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons minced garlic

shaved brussels sprouts with whole-grain mustard sauce

Brussels sprouts were one of my personal challenges when we opened Vedge; I was never very fond of them. But as we prepared to open a vegetable restaurant, I vowed to prepare any vegetable, even ones I didn’t like very much, in ways everyone could enjoy. This recipe is a result of that effort, and I can honestly say that I now love Brussels sprouts. It has everything to do with the way we shave them. That texture, mingling with the creamy, tangy mustard sauce, recalls a warm Caesar salad to me. On our menu since we opened, this dish is one of our most popular.

1. Begin by making the sauce, whisking together the mustard,

vegan mayo, and water with ½ teaspoon of the salt and ½ teaspoon

of the pepper in a small bowl. Set aside.

2. Run Brussels sprouts through the slicer blade of a food

processor or carefully shave on a mandoline.

3. Heat a large sauté pan on high. Add the olive oil. Just as the

oil starts to ripple, add the garlic, then immediately add the shaved

Brussels sprouts. Sear for 30 seconds, then stir to prevent the garlic

from burning.

4. Add the remaining salt and remaining pepper, then allow the

Brussels sprouts to sear for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally so

they brown evenly. Transfer to serving dish.

5. Drizzle sauce directly on top of the Brussels sprouts.

100 Plates Large and Small   That Redefine Vegetable Cooking

100 Plates Large and Small   That Redefine Vegetable Cooking

Publication Date

July 2013

Marketing & Publicity

• 5-city author tour: Philadelphia, New York, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco

• National print features and review attention

• National radio campaign• Campaign to vegetarian/vegan,

food, and wellness bloggers• Advertising on food websites and

blogs, including SeriousEats.com

Specifications

Paper Over Boards ISBN 978-1-61519-085-0No. 779085Full-page color photographs throughout7¼” x 91/8” | 224 pages$24.95 US | $28.95 Can.

Media, Events, & Bookstores

Jack Palmer212.889.1659 ext. 14jack@theexperimentpublishing.com

Librarians & Teachers 

Michael Rockliff212.614.7572mrockliff@workman.com

Ordering Information 

The Experiment’s books are distributed in the United States by Workman Publishing Company: 800.722.7202and in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Ltd.: 800.387.4333

vedgerestaurant.com

The experimenT ▪ new YorkBecause everY Book is a TesT of new ideastheexperimentpublishing.com

From the kitchen of America’s most inventive vegetable restaurant, one-of-a-kind recipes that adventuresome home 

cooks will delight in trying for themselves

Produce Innovation Award/ Trailblazing Chef 2012

—Cooking Light

Restaurant of the Year,  Philadelphia, 2012 

—Eater.com

Restaurant of the Year, 2012 —VegNews

Top Newcomer, 2012 —Zagat

Top 10 Upscale Vegan  Restaurants in America 

—Shape

“There may be no better example of the elevation of humble produce to sexy star of the culinary world than the food at Vedge.”

—Cooking Light

“It’s the food itself that takes the experience over the top . . . Vedge stands unparalleled.”

—VegNews

“Vegan cooking to please the omnivorous. Chef Rich Landau has a way of making rutabagas sexy.”

—Philadelphia Inquirer

“Landau and Jacoby make you ‘forget . . . heavy-handed meat substitutes’ with ‘inventive, delectable’ . . . small plates, the ‘extraordinary’ fare makes even ‘hard-core carnivores’ ‘consider giving up meat.’”—Zagat

AWARDS AND PRAISE FOR VEDgE ThE RESTAURANT

All photos © Michael Spain-Smith