The Chef's Garden: A Modern Guide to Common and Unusual Vegetables--with Recipes: A Cookbook

by Lee Jones, Kristin Donnelly, José Andrés (foreword)

An approachable, comprehensive guide to the modern world of vegetables, from the leading grower of specialty vegetables in the country

Near the shores of Lake Erie is a family-owned farm with a humble origin story that has become the most renowned specialty vegetable grower in America. After losing their farm in the early 1980s, a chance encounter with a French-trained chef at their farmers' market stand led the Jones family to remake their business and learn to grow unique ingredients that were considered exotic at the time, like microgreens and squash blossoms. They soon discovered chefs across the country were hungry for these prized ingredients, from Thomas Keller in Napa Valley to Daniel Boulud in New York City. Today, they provide exquisite vegetables for restaurants and home cooks across the country.

The Chef's Garden grows and harvests with the notion that every part of the plant offers something unique for the plate. From a perfect-tasting carrot, to a tiny red royal turnip, to a pencil lead-thin cucumber still attached to its blossom, The Chef's Garden is constantly innovating to grow vegetables sustainably and with maximum flavor. It's a Willy Wonka factory for vegetables.

In this guide and cookbook, The Chef's Garden, led by Farmer Lee Jones, shares with readers the wealth of knowledge they've amassed on how to select, prepare, and cook vegetables. Featuring more than 500 entries, from herbs, to edible flowers, to varieties of commonly known and not-so-common produce, this book will be a new bible for farmers' market shoppers and home cooks. With 100 recipes created by the head chef at The Chef's Garden Culinary Vegetable Institute, readers will learn innovative techniques to transform vegetables in their kitchens with dishes such as Ramp Top Pasta, Seared Rack of Brussels Sprouts, and Cornbread-Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms, and even sweet concoctions like Onion Caramel and Beet Marshmallows.

The future of cuisine is vegetables, and Jones and The Chef's Garden are on the forefront of this revolution.

Genres: Cookbooks, Gardening, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction

640 pages, Hardcover

Published April 27, 2021

About the author

Lee Jones has a family farm along Lake Erie in Ohio.

Reviews

[Deborah Cleaves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where has this book been all of my life? The most informative book I’ve read on a wide range of vegetables. It addresses veg from the store, exotics from the garden, and foraged produce as well. Not strictly a cooking book although there are recipes, it’s more of an encyclopedic source of information on growth, taste, nutritional value. It includes information on choosing the freshest and tastiest produce and, where needed, warnings against ingesting too much of some veg that can harm. I particularly liked the information on bitter melons which included how to choose less bitter melons and how to further prep them so they aren’t as bitter. Highly recommend especially if you want to add more veg to your table.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this one up because I recognized Farmer Lee Jones from his judging on Iron Chef America. I knew from the show that he was a farmer and often when he was judging the secret ingredient would be a vegetable that he had grown. In this massive cookbook he shares the origins of his family farm, how they went from conventional to specialty catering to chefs across the country. He also explains why he wears overalls all the time (I'm not going to tell you, pick up the book to see why). He also shares how because of their work with chefs they decided to create the Culinary Vegetable Institute, which is basically a building with a huge commercial kitchen and bedrooms for chefs to come visit the farm and stay on site and cook with all the varieties of vegetables they are growing. The book is organized by type of vegetable - alliums, stems and stalks, roots, etc. Each section features several varieties of vegetable in that family and explains how to select, store, clean, and use. There aren't as many actual recipes as you would expect for this size cookbook and most of the recipes are pretty fancy in my opinion. There weren't many recipes I wanted to try, but I really appreciated the story of the Jones family farm and how they are focusing on heirloom vegetables and regenerative farming. I love that they started out in conventional farming and when that wasn't making them any money they tried something new (catering to chefs and heirloom vegetables) and it paid off in a big way.

[Jennifer Rockwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful celebration of vegetables, and an inspiring tale of the glorious re-invention and rejuvenation of a family farm. The vegetables in this tome range from common to the obscure, and several of the recipes are unusual showstoppers rather than quickies for your everyday meals, but the book is jam-packed with information that any veggie lover won't want to miss. From tips on how to pick your produce, to how to prepare and cook almost any vegetable imaginable in wonderful ways!

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a book that will expand your knowledge of plants of a wide variety. I read quite a few cookbooks and have not found one with this much information on the plants available for cooking. Covers the regulars - spinach. onions, brocolli etc but also the lesser known turnips, kholrabi, purslane etc as well as the unknown (at least to me) kalettes, choy sum, yau choy, komatsuna and many more. very worthy compendium. With quite a few recipes of note.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, this book was too much about vegetables and not enough recipes. It's an interesting story however, and shows the complexity of the food and farming issues we face as large farms replace small ones, as the "local" and "organic" movement shape eating and purchasing. It's also refreshing to read a cookbook that comes from a farm in a small town in Ohio and not from a major chef.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the catalog of vegetables is interesting and very thorough I don't think any home cook will want to use the recipes. I also feel that Lee Jones farm is a mega farm. local food cant be flown to Chicago overnight from Cleveland. it just doesn't work that way.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pictures were beautiful and the story of the farm’s evolution is inspiring. I am already familiar with all of these vegetables and so I wish there had been recipes that were more geared towards home cooks utilizing and enjoying them.

[mommawahine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loving this so far! Fun, well written and very practical. From someone who is afraid to shop and cook this book is helping me feel more confident in my veggie life.

[Pinky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extensive reference book for veggies and how to prepare them. Excited to try the Blooming Onions, Radish Butter Terrine, and the Carrot Pot Roast recipes.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for gardeners & veggie lovers! The book shared some of the best varieties of each type of vegetable to grow in addition to some recipes. I enjoyed the personal stories the author shared.

[Debbie Gascoyne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this from the library, but it's so comprehensive and potentially useful that I may have to get a copy for myself. Luckily, it's available on Kindle.

[Pat Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A huge amount of info, easy to find, along with some yummy recipes. If you're a fresh food lover, this book is essential.

[Shannon Okey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectacular.

A truly encyclopedic (in the best sense of the word), mouthwatering book that made me want to immediately plan a bigger garden AND cook everything in it. I’m so glad Farmer Lee Jones has made such a mark on the culinary community from here in northeast Ohio; his family’s story, spread throughout the book, is inspiring.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful book. All about buying and using fresh vegetables. I mistakenly thought this would be about planting vegetables, but loved it nonetheless.