Nouveau vegan

Top chefs always have their eyes open. They know a trend when they see one. They know when to hop on the bandwagon while there’s still room. And the latest one trundling through town carries the awareness that chefs have to find a way to appeal to the impressively large tribe of vegans.

Vegans! These people -- a meat-eating, dairy-slurping eater might think -- are the antithesis of the food lovers who fill the tables at top dining spots. They hardly eat anything. Well, yes and no. In fact, that’s the challenge.

The trick is to take the ingredients vegans do eat and bring to them the same intensity, innovation and affection for the beautiful dish that prevails in more conventional approaches, and in the process change dutiful eating into joyful dining.

Over the last few months, a handful of Los Angeles chefs have expanded their vegan repertoires in earnest. They have maintained their creativity and style, even as they’ve eliminated many of the basic materials that define them: butter and cream, fish and meat, even eggs and cheese.

It’s all proof that serious vegan cooking isn’t some passing fad, such as raw food and its gimmicky imitations. (Pizza with a “living buckwheat crust�? Get real.)

At Grace on Beverly Boulevard, chef Neal Fraser has featured a vegan appetizer, entree and dessert every night since the restaurant opened about five months ago. He has served a pumpkin soup with a soy-tofu foam and now offers a corn soup with squash blossoms. The main dish is a basmati-stuffed pepper with diced vegetables, dried fruits and pecans. For dessert: a rich chocolate ganache tart made with maple syrup and presented with sour cherry compote and roasted Spanish almonds.

“It’s shortsighted to think that everyone eats meat and fish,� said Fraser. Tellingly, the vegan rice-stuffed pepper outsells the chicken, said Richard Drapkin, managing partner.

With a gilded edge

While it doesn’t seem like such a leap for a chef like Fraser, cooking in an ambitious modern style, it’s something of a surprise to find an extensive vegan menu at a formal French restaurant.

But that’s exactly what Jean Francois Meteigner is doing at La Cachette in Century City. It started last year, with an episode of “Dinner for Five,� an Independent Film Channel series with actor Jon Favreau and four guests.

An episode was being shot at the restaurant. “Two days before, they tell me one guy is vegan,� Meteigner said. “That is when I started seriously panicking. I didn’t know what vegan food was, frankly. Then I did a lot of research on the computer. I found that we had a lot of stuff that worked.�

That guest, actor Ed Begley Jr., became a regular at La Cachette, and Meteigner started cooking monthly vegan dinners. Now Begley has spread the word to fellow vegans, such as actor James Cromwell, and Meteigner has expanded his repertoire with $50 vegan tasting menus on Friday nights. On Aug. 10, he’ll do seven courses, pairing each one with either fresh-squeezed juices or wine. He’s even offering a $25 vegan picnic basket.

As Meteigner presented a beautifully composed terrine of beets, avocado and heirloom tomatoes, he couldn’t contain a bit of pride.

“If vegan could be like this all the time, I’d eat it all the time,� he said. His family is eating more vegan meals partly to avoid his toddler daughter’s egg and dairy-product allergies and because his wife, Allie Ko, grew up on Korean cooking that’s often all-vegetable. Ko introduced her husband to ingredients as she shopped for soy milks, rice ice creams and the like for their daughter.

It’s not without some sacrifice that these chefs give up their traditional ways of cooking. Yet as demand grows for vegan food, many have adjusted.

Six weeks ago, Miro, the restaurant at Santa Barbara’s Bacara spa and resort, added a four-course, prix-fixe menu for vegans and vegetarians.

“When we’d get a vegan request, it always seemed like it was during a rush,� said sous-chef Joe Anguiano. “It was like we turned into Iron Chef and had to do something spur-of-the moment.�

Chefs these days also have to consider nutrition as much as they do taste and presentation, said John Rucci, an executive food and beverage manager at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. Chef Bill Bracken of the hotel’s Belvedere restaurant has adapted many recipes to appeal to vegans.

“In this day and age,� said Rucci, “if you can’t vary from macrobiotic to vegan and everything in between, you are not going to survive.�

In fact, vegan dining has become a sort of draw for some restaurants. In June, Hugo’s in Studio City hosted a “Mindful Dining� evening of mostly vegan courses accompanied by meditations on the food. Its 40 seats sold out in a week.

When he moved from Atlanta three years ago to Jer-ne at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey, chef Troy N. Thompson offered many vegan menu items in anticipation of dozens of requests. The response wasn’t overwhelming, but he’s still pushing toward a more haute vegan menu. He’s done vegan meals with wine tastings and is redesigning the restaurant’s menu to include a “veggie menu� that will appeal to vegans, vegetarians and omnivores alike.

At Hamasaku, a Westside Japanese restaurant, owner Toshi Kihara has his chefs turn tomatoes and a sushi rice risotto into objects of art. Beneath the pickled eggplant and snow-pea garnish is a tasty and satisfying dish. For three years, he’s offered a vegan menu, mainly because he’s noticed diners from the entertainment industry are increasingly avoiding meat and dairy products.

Until recently, vegan cuisine was perhaps accurately perceived as an austere way of eating that was more heavily infused with philosophy than with flavor. In the nearly 60 years since the British Vegan Society coined the term vegan for nondairy vegetarians, the concept has become more mainstream. Locally, restaurants such as Real Food Daily have grown as they’ve cast off their grubby, extreme-cuisine image in favor of a good-for-you gourmet label.

Eddie Caraeff, chef of the Newsroom Cafe in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, is one of the city’s pioneers in restaurant vegan cooking. His Santa Monica cafe opened 13 years ago with a menu minus red meat and fried food. It’s the same today, but his vegan customers make up nearly 20% of the patrons, who frequently include some of the city’s top chefs.

“It is harder to cook vegan,� said Caraeff, who is glad to see haute cuisine embrace the animal-free ideal. “Usually vegan food is so bland. Why is that? Do they think that vegans won’t take anything with a little zip?�

Beyond tofurkey

Vegan cuisine itself has adopted a more progressive attitude. Making pretend “lamb chops� or using vegetable ingredients to mimic other animal-based foods is passe. Chefs are maximizing fresh produce with simple dressings and purees, and creating beautiful plates of artfully combined ingredients. Eric Tucker at Millennium in San Francisco has helped make vegan home cooking more interesting too.

“A lot of people think of it as for ex-hippies who are eating granola and brown rice and overcooked vegetables somewhere. We are showing that you can do a lot of different textures and flavor combinations,� Tucker said.

The success of vegan cuisine has spread awareness of the diet’s vast potential, not just its limitations.

Tucker recently moved the Millennium restaurant just blocks from Union Square in San Francisco -- a move that’s symbolic of veganism’s encroachment upon mainstream culture. In November, Tucker’s new cookbook, “The Artful Vegan� (Ten Speed Press), will show home cooks how to put a gourmet spin on vegan cuisine with the restaurant’s recipes. A new everyday vegan cookbook, “Vegan Planet,� by Robin Robertson (Harvard Common Press), puts 400 vegan recipes in paperback.

Still, this cuisine can be tricky for chefs used to consuming the world’s bounty.

“As a French chef,� said Meteigner, “it’s very difficult to use no eggs or butter.�

Fraser, meanwhile, continues to explore. Right now, he’s working on an entree composed of stuffed vegetables: an heirloom tomato with couscous and hemp seed; a fried squash blossom with potato stuffing; a poblano chile filled with rice; and maybe even some new twists on squash.

Um, hemp seed?

“It’s got the same texture as couscous,� he said, not to mention essential fatty acids. “And if you’re not going to eat meat, it’s a good thing to consider.�

*

Sushi-rice risotto in tomato cups with black olive soy sauce

Total time: 1 hour and 30 minutes, plus overnight marinating

Servings: 4

Note: From owner Toshi Kihara and chef Hiro Fujita of Hamasaku. Look for ingredients in Asian markets and food sections of well-stocked groceries. Tokyo green onions are larger than regular green onions but smaller than leeks. Oba leaves are large shiso leaves. Both are available in Japanese markets. Start the pickled eggplant the day before.

Pickled eggplant

1 cup rice vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

1 (2-inch) piece ginger, thinly sliced

1 (2-inch square piece) kombu (dried seaweed)

2 Japanese eggplants

1. In a nonreactive bowl, combine the vinegar, sugar, ginger and kombu. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Cut the eggplant into 2-inch rounds, then cut the rounds in half and add to the vinegar mixture. Marinate at least overnight for a sweet taste and up 24 hours for more of a sour flavor.

Black olive soy sauce

1/4 cup Kalamata olives, pitted

1 small garlic clove

1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1. Place the olives, garlic, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar in food processor. Puree until thoroughly combined. Set aside.

Sushi-rice risotto

2 tablespoons sugar

1 (2-inch square piece) kombu seaweed

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1/3 cup sushi rice or short-grained rice

16 snow peas

1/4 cup fresh yellow corn kernels

1/2 medium avocado, peeled, pitted and diced small

4 red ripe medium tomatoes

8 oba leaves

1 Japanese cucumber, peeled and cut into very fine strips

8 pieces pickled Japanese eggplant

Black olive soy sauce

Italian parsley for garnish

1 Tokyo green onion, cut into very fine strips

1. Combine the sugar, seaweed and vinegar and stir to dissolve sugar. Place the rice in a small saucepan with two-thirds cup water. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer for 10 minutes to make 1 cup of cooked rice. Stir 3 tablespoons of the sugar-seaweed-vinegar mixture into the rice and set aside.

2. Cut both ends of each snow pea to make decorative V-shaped notches. Blanch the peas for 2 minutes in boiling water, remove and place in an ice-water bath, then drain. Blanch the corn kernels in boiling water for 2 minutes, remove and place in an ice-water bath, then drain.

3. Combine the rice, corn and avocado and set aside.

4. Peel the tomatoes by cutting an X in the bottom of each and then plunging them into boiling water for 30 seconds and then into an ice bath before peeling. Cut off the top of each tomato and dice for garnish. Carefully scoop out the seeds to form a cup.

5. To assemble, place 2 oba leaves on each of four plates. Pile a small handful of Japanese cucumber strips in the center of plate and place a tomato on top. Divide the risotto-corn mixture between the 4 tomato cups and fill. Place 4 snow peas into each cup fanning out like a flower. Put 2 pickled eggplant pieces on top of each tomato. Drizzle black olive soy sauce over the filled tomatoes and around the plate. Garnish the top of the tomato with Italian parsley. Sprinkle the diced tomato and Tokyo green onion strips around the plate.

Each serving: 228 calories; 6 grams protein; 42 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams fiber; 6 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 cholesterol; 1,162 mg. sodium.

*

Caramelized fig cake with lemon anglaise

Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Servings: 8

Note: Adapted from the upcoming cookbook “The Artful Vegan: Fresh Flavors From the Millennium Restaurant,� by Eric Tucker with Bruce Enloe, desserts by Amy Pearce (Ten Speed Press, November 2003). Agave nectar is available at Whole Foods markets. Sucanat is a brand-name, unrefined, granulated sugar, and a powdered egg substitute is used instead of eggs; both, along with almond milk, are available in natural foods stores.

Lemon anglaise

1 cup soy milk

7/8 cup coconut milk

1/4 cup light agave nectar

Grated zest of 1 lemon

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon lemon extract

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoons arrowroot

Pinch of turmeric

Pinch of salt

1. Whisk all of the ingredients together in a small saucepan until the arrowroot is dissolved. Place over medium heat and simmer until slightly thickened, about 7 minutes. The mixture does not need to boil.

2. Remove from heat and let the lemon zest steep for 10 minutes. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer. Let it cool, uncovered, in the refrigerator. ( You can store it, covered, in the refrigerator for up to one week. Makes about 1 1/2 cups.)

Fig cake

3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon canola oil

1 1/2 teaspoons Sucanat

3 cups fresh black Mission figs (about 18 figs), thinly sliced

1/4 cup blanched, sliced almonds

1 cup unbleached white flour

1/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon egg replacer

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup almond milk

5 tablespoons light agave nectar

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 1/2 tablespoons dry sherry

Finely chopped zest of 1 lemon

Lemon anglaise

1. Brush a 9-inch round cake pan with 1 teaspoon of the canola oil, and line it with parchment paper. Sprinkle the Sucanat onto the parchment and top with the sliced figs, fanning them out decoratively.

2. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Using a spice grinder or food processor, grind the almonds to a meal. Place in a bowl. Sift the white flour, pastry flour, baking powder, baking soda, egg replacer and salt into the bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the almond milk, agave, remaining 3 tablespoons of canola oil, vanilla extract, almond extract, lemon juice, sherry and lemon zest. Pour the wet ingredients into the almond mixture and whisk just until smooth.

4. Pour the mixture on top of the figs in the prepared pan. Carefully smooth out the batter with a spatula (being careful not to disturb the fan of figs on the bottom of the pan). Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the top is lightly browned and a toothpick or small knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then invert it onto a serving plate. Remove parchment paper. (You can store, wrapped tightly, in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. After 2 days, you will need to rewarm it for the best flavor.)

5. To serve, cut the cake into 8 pieces. Spoon some of the lemon sauce on each plate and place a slice of warm cake on top.

Each serving: 467 calories; 7 grams protein; 85 grams carbohydrates; 11 grams fiber; 14 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 1 mg. cholesterol; 268 mg. sodium.

*

Roasted beets napoleon with cumin, heirloom tomatoes and avocado

Total time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Servings: 4

Note: This recipe is adapted from one by chef Jean Francois Meteigner at La Cachette.

Whole-grain mustard dressing

1 1/2 tablespoons French whole-grain mustard

1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard, extra strong

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/3 cup grape seed or canola oil

1 tablespoon water

1. In a bowl, combine the mustards, one-fourth teaspoon salt, one-eighth teaspoon pepper and the vinegars.

2. In a measuring cup with a lip, combine the grape seed oil and the water. Whisk the mustard-vinegar mixture until smooth, and then, while adding the oil-water mixture in a thin stream, continue to whisk. Continue whisking and pouring slowly until all the oil has been emulsified into the dressing. Use the dressing as needed. Keep it in a squeeze bottle, or small water bottle fitted with a squirt top, in your refrigerator. (Makes about three-fourths cup.)

Assembly

3 large beets, peeled and sliced into 1/4--inch thick rounds

1 1/2 cups vegetable stock

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion

1 large heirloom tomato, seeded and diced

1/2 medium avocado, peeled, pitted and diced small

Whole grain mustard dressing

Dash cumin

Salt to taste

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place sliced beets in one layer in a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Pour the vegetable stock and the oil evenly on top. Cover the pan and roast until the beets are tender, about 40-45 minutes. Remove the beets from the pan and let them cool for 20 minutes. Reserve the pan juices.

2. Mix the red onion, diced tomato and avocado together with 1 tablespoon of the whole-grain mustard dressing. Add the cumin and salt, then stir.

3. Place one slice of beet on each plate and add one-half tablespoon of the tomato-avocado mixture, then another beet, then mixture, then beet, creating layers. Spoon one-half tablespoon of the reserved beet juice over each stack. Drizzle additional dressing over the top and around each napoleon.

Each serving: 400 calories; 3 grams protein; 18 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams fiber; 37 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 0 cholesterol; 653 mg. sodium.