On Vegetables: Modern Recipes for the Home Kitchen

by Jeremy Fox, David Chang (Foreword), Rick Poon (Photographer)

The highly anticipated cookbook from Jeremy Fox, the California chef who is redefining vegetable-based cuisine with global appeal

Known for his game-changing approach to cooking with vegetables, Jeremy Fox first made his name at the Michelin-starred restaurant Ubuntu in Napa Valley. Today he is one of America's most talked-about chefs, celebrated for the ingredient-focused cuisine he serves at the Los Angeles restaurant, Rustic Canyon Wine Bar and Seasonal Kitchen. In his first book, Fox presents his food philosophy in the form of 160 approachable recipes for the home cook. On Vegetables elevates vegetarian cooking, using creative methods and ingredient combinations to highlight the textures, flavours, and varieties of seasonal produce and including basic recipes for the larder.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Health, Culinary, Cuisine

320 pages, Hardcover

First published April 17, 2017

Reviews

[Ilene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting ideas to showcase just about every vegetable there is but many of the recipes were highly stylized and not something that I as a home cook am likely to tackle.

[Maryalene · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the rare cookbook I am reviewing without actually having cooked from it. That's because I could find precisely one recipe (Lentils, Garlic & Parmesan) that I felt confident in locating the ingredients locally and that wouldn't take all day to make. Even a seemingly simple recipe for corn polenta called for making corn cob stock and yellow corn pudding beforehand.

By the time I found a recipe that seemed doable for me, I wasn't all that interested in trying it. I found the author's tone a bit off-putting, and while I don't have a problem trying new ingredients and techniques, I found the recipes to be highly stylized and overly complex. Pretentious is the word that comes to mind. Maybe California cooks would have better luck, but many of the vegetables used aren't things we have readily available in Midwest stores.

Here's the thing. I don't know Jeremy Fox. I've never heard about him prior to picking up this book. Apparently, he's a big deal, and he seems to know he's a big deal. However, I was mildly embarrassed for him when he detailed at length the ups and downs of his career. It struck me as the book-version of asking someone in the store how their day was and hearing the TMI version of their life.

Now, if you are interested in reading about Jeremy Fox, I think this book would be interesting to you. If you like seeing how restaurant recipes are put together, I think this might work for you too. However, I just wanted to find some new veggie recipes for my family to try, and this book missed the mark in that regard.

[Paris Harper-Hardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I made 25 recipes from On Vegetables. Picking these recipes was a bit of a challenge because many are largely inaccessible to a home cook. Ingredients like nasturtium capers, wood sorrel flowers, and baby pattypan squash are regularly employed, and although Fox notes in the beginning that we're welcome to make substitutions, suggestions as to what those might be aren't included in the recipes themselves.

That being said, some of the "larder" recipes will probably become part of my regular rotation. The horsey goat, green goddess dressing, and curry cashews were wonderful and came together quickly. And overall, the photos were lovely and the recipes were aspirational if not actionable.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the Introduction Jeremy Fox talks about his success with Ubuntu, the first vegetarian restaurant to earn a Michelin star. He was seen as a brilliant chef who followed a "seed-to-stalk" philosophy with using every part of the plant in his cooking. But, Fox was miserable and on several medications for anxiety and stress. After walking away from Ubuntu and taking some time to figure things out Fox ended up working as the chef at Rustic Canyon. This cookbook showcases the food Fox cooks at Rustic Canyon - still highlighting every part of the vegetables, but not as pretentious as what he was known for at Ubuntu. His story is sad and compelling and definitely gave me more insight into the author than many cookbooks, but overall the recipes are still too fancy for the average home cook. I did like that he highlighted several of the farms Rustic Canyon buys from and gives several pages of tips for buying the best quality produce yourself. But, overall there weren't any recipes I wanted to try from this one.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The recipes in here aren't terribly useful as the produce necessary aren't readily available or in the quality needed. However the really interesting part of the book is at the end (which should have been put at the beginning) which gives you recipes for a number of base items and ingredients. These are fascinating and put forward the goal of Fox's philosophy of using all aspects of the veg.

[Cherie · Rating 2 out of 5]

With a deceiving title, this book provides very complicated vegetable recipes - far from the simplicity you might initially expect.

[Juli Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely a restaurant cookbook, with recipes that require labor and quite a few obscure ingredients. That said, many of these recipes are still accessible to the inspired home cook, and the flavor combinations are outstanding: inventive and a bit haute cuisine without being too fussy or contrived. This is an absolute joy for those looking for vegetable inspiration.

[Joan]

Borrowed from the library. This is a beautiful book. The writing is really lovely, but I found the recipes rather inaccessible, even though they sound and look delicious. I would not likely make most of them even once, let alone regularly. Maybe that’s not what books like these are about though.

In terms of getting the reader to embrace or even fall in love with vegetable forward cooking, I think I might prefer Six Seasons. All the same, I’d love to own this book if only because it is a gorgeous object.

[Cait · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read cookbooks for recipes and not for stories, so I am not the target audience for a lot of the modern cookbook boom.
That said, this has a lot of lovely pictures, some vulnerable storytelling, and all the seasonal California recipes you can shake a stick at. I bookmarked two recipes, but returned the book to the library without taking any steps to make them

[elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, the food styling and photography is absolutely stunning .. but as a home cook, I am not likely to make any of these recipes at all.

[Harmen Janssen · Rating 4 out of 5]

You'll need some elbow grease for most of the recipes in the book. I've made some of the simpler stews, but especially enjoyed the later Larder chapter in the book.
Very inspiring!

[Brad Theado · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy mackerel this is an incredible book. I want to make everything in it if each one didn’t have so many layers of cooking to it.

[Aasinathena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind bogging vegetable dishes !

[Vladimir Semenov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Especially noteworthy are the larder recipes.

[O L · Rating 1 out of 5]

Looks good on a shelf. But good luck trying to cook anything in here. You have to jump around to other recipes in the book that are dependencies. It’s exhausting to even try one meal from this.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Way too fancy for my kitchen!

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book for the cover art, the weight and feel of the paper between my fingertips and the inaccessibility of the recipes which makes me want to frequent a vegetable-forward restaurant in the hands of an imaginative chef capable of converting carnivores to the joys of a mostly plant-based meal.

[Vuk Trifkovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully brief explanations, excellent dishes!

[Dominika · Rating 4 out of 5]

The recipes in here are creative, colorful, and inspired. I would recommend at least flipping thr8this because while the cover exudes a minimalist aestetic, the photography is stunning.

[Kate]

I skimmed this book more than read it, and I didn’t try a single recipe, but any cookbook who’s forward begins with an explanation of how the author isn’t a vegetarian but loves vegetables is a book I’m going to enjoy. If I’m honest I’m not enough of a foodie for it, but it was beautiful, and made me happy.