VUE

Today's headlines will tell you that eating more vegetables and less meat is not only better for our health, but it's also the most sustainable option looking towards the future. Chefs like Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns or Alain Passard have made careers out of elevating the vegetable, and I myself have I've bared witness to this subtle shi in restaurants across the tri-state whose mission it is to make vegetables more desirable. Before opening Le Jardinier, Michelin-starred Chef Alain Verzeroli acted as protégé for 21 years to the late, famed French chef Joël Robuchon. Robuchon was a man whose own culinary ethos was to make the simplest ingredients exciting, turning dishes such as mashed potatoes or "pommes purée" into an art form. Most recently, Chef Verzeroli was the Director of Culinary Operations at Château Restaurant Joël Robuchon in Japan—a country that would later hold significance in the lives of both men and inspire the hyperseasonal culinary aspirations behind Chef Verzeroli's newly-opened restaurant, Le Jardinier. e restaurant's interior, designed by award-winning Parisian architect Joseph Dirand, takes cues from Chef Verzeroli's vegetable-forward vision with an abundance of plant life and floor-to-ceiling windows to mimic the workings of a greenhouse. Nearly everything from the marble walls to the floors, tables and chair cushions are brushed with a mossy hue. "By definition, Le Jardinier means 'the gardener,' or the one who's tending the garden—the crop you yield is a direct result of the care and love you've given it," Chef Verzeroli explained. "We use the same level of care and attention to select, transform and serve the ingredients to our guests." e menu he's created is a culmination of those very sentiments, plus philosophies passed down by Robuchon and principles of Japanese cooking where dishes are oen built around seasonality and extract the very essence of an ingredient. V U E N J . C O M 112

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