Culinology - September 2019 - 12

PLANT-BASED trends

a garden!" He also loves the location's farro
"sausage" taco with its meaty texture, as
well as jackfruit tacos seasoned with
guacamole, plus cashew crème and
salsa verde.
"Jackfruit has a meaty texture;
it's not sugary and, since it's very
porous, we like the way it absorbs
various flavors." It's a good bet
that, come fall, Double Zero's
menu will feature a Kenney
favorite: truffled potato pizza
with garlic or cashew cream,
rosemary and mushrooms.
He continues pushing the
envelope by using different prep
and flavoring techniques including
dehydration, thermal immersion,
fermentation and a smoking gun,
used primarily to smoke roasted
mushrooms.

Mother spoon

Chef Matthew
Kenney, Plant City,
Providence, R.I.
Photo courtesy of:
Matthew Kenney

12 |

butter- and meat-centric style toward plantbased cuisine. His latest enterprise, Plant
City, Providence, R.I., features four vegan
restaurant concepts in a food hall setting.
It is a testament to his conviction that "our
food choices impact everything else about
our health and leading [our] best life," he
said. "Activists want to make people change
choices; I want to show there's another way
to be a chef by utilizing organic ingredients,
by nurturing health and wellness to inspire
others to do the same."
Chef Kenney's four Plant City restaurant
concepts include: Double Zero Pizzeria, a
Michelin-rated pizzeria, New Burger (think
salmon served with carrot mustard or beet
ketchup), Bar Verde serving Latin cuisine, and
Make Out, a fast casual location featuring
make-your-own bowls.
Chef Kenney ranks his heirloom tomato
and zucchini lasagna with macadamia
ricotta, sundried tomato marinara, and
pistachio pesto as among his most flavorful
(and perhaps beautiful) dishes. "We serve
it in 10 or 12 of our restaurants, including in
Providence," he said. "It's been on the menu
[elsewhere] about 15 years - it tastes like

Culinology | SEPTEMBER 2019

Enter restaurants Zafra or Cucharamama
in Hoboken, N.J., created by chef Maricel
Presilla and her business partner Clara
Chaumont, and you've entered the realm of
a chef who wields a cucharamama, a.k.a. a
"mother spoon," with knowledge, creativity
and a bit of audacity. A Latin American and
Spanish cuisine aficionado, she is also author
of the book Gran Cocina Latina: The Food
of Latin America. Chef Presilla is a champion
of designing menus "that make vegetables
stars through rich seasoning and [placing]
animal protein as supporting characters." For
example, she menus a white bean soup with
a garlicky sauce (sofrito), full of tomatoes,
roasted peppers, cabbage, squash and
greens. "A bit of pork or a few boneless
chicken thighs cut into small pieces will give it
richness, but will not dominate the dish," she
said. "That's a complete one-pot meal to eat
with crusty whole grain bread."
Currently, guests enjoy her play on large
"sculptural" vegetables like cauliflower stuffed
with bread and a sofrito stuffing straight from
the wood-burning oven. The menu will feature
a rich, slow-cooked bean soup she dubs
"wood-burning oven fabada" this fall. The
oven is also used for roasting a whole ripe
plantain - as it is done in Manabi, Ecuador
- then served charred on a wooden board
to season at the table with sides of grated
Culinology - September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Culinology - September 2019
