My training as a chef began in modern American and classical French kitchens. I was fortunate to be mentored by some of the most talented chefs, Alfred Portale, David Burke and Alain Passard. Some of my key positions included tournant (roundsperson) at The River Café in Brooklyn and executive pastry chef at Gotham Bar and Grill in New York. I traveled abroad to further my training with restaurant stages in Paris at L’Arpege and Maison Blanche and at Patisserie Mandion in Biarritz.
I cooked for about ten years before opening my first restaurant, Verbena, in Gramercy Park on Irving Place, conveniently located down the street from the Union Square Greenmarket. I worked with many farmers and planned my menu with their growing season. Though I wasn't vegetarian at the time, veggies, grains and greens always played a central role in all of my dishes and I always offered vegetable tasting menu. My focus on recipe development took on a botanical approach. When I discovered that plant families can be sorted according to flavor, I wrote a cookbook, Anatomy of a Dish (2002) using the plant kingdom as a guide for organizing my recipes.
Family life and two kids later, I decided to shift from restaurants to baking. I wanted to take a more sustainable approach to my work. The time seemed right for a vegan bakery and I opened Flourish Baking Company. I set out to rework my recipes and teach myself a new way to bake.
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More details about my culinary journey...
I am often asked - Why open a vegan bakery? Why nut-free?
At the time I began training in restaurants, it was customary for plants to play a secondary role as a side dish or accompaniment to meat or fish. Yet, the techniques I learned in the kitchen when moving from station to station were in fact all plant based - garde manger (salads and knife skills), entremetier (vegetable cookery), saucier (stocks and sauce making), and patissier (sweets and bread baking). When I decided to open my restaurant, fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes took the starring role on my menus.
Years later, when I decided to open a bakery, I wanted to take a similar approach. It was time to rethink ingredients and their impact on the environment. I felt that it was my role as a chef to figure out a way to bake without eggs, dairy and butter and still create a delicious product. I was also frequently asked for nut-free options; my new baking style offered a natural solution for both those observing a vegan lifestyle, as well as for those with dietary restrictions.
I implemented the classical techniques that I had learned, but this time, with plants out front. While savory cooking was more forgiving, baking without eggs, milk and butter was a little more difficult. It was a challenge that I was eager to take. Little by little, as I recreated all of my recipes, I realized that baking did not require eggs or milk; baked products tasted cleaner and less processed.
As I began to convert my recipes, the timing couldn't be better. New ingredients began to emerge in the marketplace in response to a growing demand for more vegan and sustainable products. Ancient grains were available as flours - millet, oats, quinoa. Oats, coconut and lentil proteins were transforming the dairy case. Delicious plant-based milks, butter, cream and cheese could now step in as replacements for creating my new vegan recipes.
Adopting a vegan approach in my kitchen, it turns out, was not sacrificing anything in terms of taste, flavor, or performance; but acquiring a deeper understanding of ingredients and how to use them.
---Diane
