Can you imagine cauliflower and carrots qualifying as the next hot products to take over that mantle from kale?  

Their staple status and long tradition on the American dinner plate would seem to make both of them ineligible for the “next hot thing” moniker, but these two items were center stage and center plate during two different chef presentations at the PMA Foodservice Conference, held in Monterey, CA, July 24-27.

Chef Hugh Acheson, a judge on 'Top Chef.'Two chefs talking about “What’s Hot?” took the audience on a visual tour of some vegetable-centric dinner entrees featuring various restaurants in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.  While many obscure vegetables were also featured, mainline items, such as cauliflower, carrots and cabbage received great kudos from restauranteur Chef Jet Tila and Gordon Food Service Corporate Chef Gerry Ludwig.  The fast-paced, hour-long presentation featured a score of vegetable dishes being served as entrees.  The two chefs discussed the dishes, how they were prepared and the emerging trend of vegetables in center plate.

The discussion was fueled by an annual Gordon Food Service exercise that has the culinary team from that company visiting many restaurants in those three progressive culinary environments to see what trends are on the cusp of going viral, so to speak.  Over a 15-day period earlier this year, Chef Ludwig and his colleagues visited 108 restaurants and sampled 1,151 dishes.Chef Jet Tila  Each was photographed, deconstructed and cataloged to gauge trends in products, preparation and presentation.  Ludwig said vegetables in the center of the plate as the main entrée is gaining much traction in Los Angeles and New York, though lagging behind in Chicago.  It is his contention that restaurant trends matriculate on the coasts and do go nationwide.  “Veg-centric meals is a macro trend for the next decade,” he said.

Chef Jet, as he is called on his website, agreed.  “Vegetable centric cuisine is a movement not a fad,” he said.  

The chefs give credit to Chef Travis Lett of Gjelina’s in Los Angeles, who began featuring vegetable entrees in his trendy restaurant six years ago.  Today, they dominate the menu with 12-15 main dishes on a nightly basis.  “He has definitely brought about a change in the mindset of chefs.”

Chef Gerry LudwigThe two presenters were quick to differentiate between vegetarian fare and vegetable-centric dishes.  The latter are not necessarily vegetarian or vegan, and, in fact, in almost all of the dishes there is some type of meat or protein component.  But that component is not the star of the plate, just as in more traditional restaurants, vegetables are a side dish.  “Garnish with meat,” said Chef Jet, “to kick up the dish.”

He added that a great way to increase the flavor of the vegetable is to cook it in a meat sauce.  “Embolden the flavor with beef broth,” he said.  In fact, one of the dishes featured was a root vegetable entrée that was poached in meat sauce before being roasted.  Another featured fennel poached in chicken broth.  Still another dish had sautéed kale as the main ingredient but a house-made chorizo incorporated to provide a little zip.  

Ludwig said these chefs are creating these vegetable-centric dishes by applying similar cooking methods to vegetables that used to be the domain of meat.  They are spit roasting, charring and grilling cauliflower, carrots and cabbage.  One dish featured a roasted head of cauliflower that has been pre-poached in chicken stock and then topped with a crispy bread crust. “Chefs are elevating produce to a level we haven’t seen before,” Ludwig said, speaking of the results of this year’s research.”

He noted that on the trip to New York, he tasted the “most flavorful cabbage I’d ever had” and then it was topped the next day by another cabbage dish at a different restaurant.  

Ludwig said there is a great opportunity to add vegetable as entrees and encouraged suppliers to bring these ideas to their foodservice customers.  Chef Jet advised cooks to “torture” these vegetables into submission through grilling, roasting or sautéing.  He said the caramelization brings out the flavor and warrants the center plate spot.  Chef Jet encouraged chefs new to the concept to start by preparing the familiar vegetables with a different method and build the plate around that vegetable.

When pushed, Ludwig said rutabaga is an underused vegetable that could move into limelight in the near future.

The two chefs also talked about root to stem cooking, which is the concept of using the entire vegetable in the dish, including its trimmings.  This is the vegetable equivalent to the “nose to tail” trend popular in meat cooking.

In a session later in the day, Chef Hugh Acheson, who owns four restaurants in Georgia and is a judge for the "Top Chef" television show, expanded on the whole vegetable cooking theme, which he called “leaf to root.”  He told the grower-shippers in the crowd not to trim vegetables when sending them to foodservice.  “The chef will figure out what to do with the trimmings.”  He also noted that there was no reason for a carrot to ever be peeled again, as in its gnarly state with hairs hanging off is the best plate presentation.

He freely admits that the fast-rising prices of protein caused him to give vegetables as an entrée a chance.  Because the protein portions on his plate were declining because of input costs, he began paying more attention to the side dishes.  Now the side dish has taken over.

Acheson agreed that cauliflower is a rising star.  He noted that vegetables taste a lot better because we have learned how to cook them.  “Our mothers did a horrible job,” he said, talking at this point specifically about the fact that cauliflower was almost exclusively served as the result of boiling, which does nothing more than boils the flavor out of it.  He also called steaming a bad cooking idea for vegetables.

The Canadian native, who also worked as a chef in San Francisco for awhile, clearly believes we are in the golden age of cooking — especially vegetable cooking.  He opined that the history of cooking includes a very short time of doing it right…”like 15 years ago,” he quipped.

Talking about trends. He believes the local movement is here to stay but noted it doesn’t have to actually be local to catch the consumer’s fancy.  “What people are looking for is authenticity and a sense of place.”

He urged growers to tell their story to the consumer.  “Start with where you come from and why you do this,” he advised.

Passionate about cooking, Acheson bragged that his two daughters learned how to cook at a very young age, which has led him to form a foundation to transform home economics classes in school.  He believes all students should have basic cooking skills, knowing how to caramelize vegetables and make a vinaigrette before graduating from high school.  He said time spent learning how to cook will never be lamented on the death bed, and it is also a great way to spend family time.  “Every American,” he said, “should have a core skill set,” which includes cooking from scratch.