A Vegetable-Centric Cookbook for Seasonal Produce- The Broad Fork by Hugh Acheson

Hugh Acheson is a James Beard award winning chef/author and a judge on Bravo's Top Chef. The Broad Fork is his third cookbook and the focus is on seasonal vegetables and fruits. I think Acheson described his book best on his introduction- "The recipes here are all about vegetables- what to do with them, ideas to get you excited to cook and eat them. It's not  manual to a vegetarian lifestyle, but rather a compendium of seasonal recipes to help you bring vegetables to the center of your plate."

Prior to reading this book I could count with both hands the amount of vegetarian main dishes that I could make. I like vegetables but I guess my brain was wired to treat them as side dishes and companion to whatever protein I'm eating. Yet, some of my favorite all-time comfort food are vegetable based such as ratatouille and eggplant parmigiana. I'm a huge fan of my local farmer's market and vegetable stands. I have access to great varieties of seasonal fresh veggies and fruits in Philadelphia but I usually buy the same exact vegetables year-round because let's be honest some veggies just looks intimidating.

This book is divided into the four seasons starting with fall, winter, spring and the summer offerings. Since I rarely read cookbooks cover to cover I decided to browse the book, mark down recipes that I would like to make and dived into the summer recipes. There's usually between 2-4 recipes per vegetable/fruit and what I like about this book is that Acheson goes from something basic and simple to something fancy. Beans for example- the first recipe introduced is a fried green beans with yogurt sauce. Second recipe? Green beans with tarragon-lemon sabayon. Now, yes if you are chefy a sabayon may not be something that's totally 'fancy' but I can count the number of episodes where chefs go home on a cooking competition because their custard falls apart. Another example is sweet potatoes which I love. This time three recipes on one page: first- simple sweet potatoes, second- sweet potato gratin and finally glazed sweet potatoes with maple gastrique. What's great about this book is that he introduced me to a new way of thinking about vegetables and fruits. Who knew that blackberry goes well with red meat? And now I know what to do when I see a salsify or a kohlrabi. I also thoroughly appreciate all of Acheson's cooking tips and personal commentary in this book such as "Is there a really a backlash against kale?"

I enjoy reading cookbooks where the chef is clearly passionate about food and even though his book is vegetable-centric it never came off as patronizing. You can see how much his southern roots plays off in his recipes and it's fantastic. The Broad Fork is truly a great addition to any home cook's library but instead of going to my bookshelf, this book is staying in the kitchen where it belongs.

Until next time,


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