The Culinary Institute of America

Chef Alex Ong is director of culinary excellence at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Dining Services, and brings the principles of plant-forward cooking to a high volume setting. He serves more than 50,000 meals a day at four dining halls. While 6% of the students are vegan and 70% are omnivores, Chef Alex Ong strives to serve all students with sustainable meals full of colorful vegetables. His plant-forward menus are performing well, and Princeton Review has awarded University of Massachusetts-Amherst “best campus dining in the United States” seven years in a row. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Gonzalo Gout, Chief Operating Officer at Casamata, and Gustavo Garnica, Chef de Cuisine at Cosme, tour the Union Square greenmarket. Casamata and Cosme are Chef Enrique Olvera’s two New York City-based restaurants that serve modern Mexican cuisine. They have developed relationships with farmers from the Hudson Valley and search for seasonally available produce to inspire the menus at Casamata and Cosme. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Gustavo Garnica is chef de cuisine at Cosme, Enrique Olvera’s plant-forward Mexican restaurant in New York City. Here he shows us how he makes tlayudas, a traditional Oaxacan dish comprised of a fresh corn tortilla with all sorts of delicious toppings. Chef Gustavo tops the tlayuda with a puree of caramelized onions, cherry tomatoes tossed in charred habañero vinaigrette, onion escabeche, and greens. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Gustavo Garnica is chef de cuisine at Cosme, an Enrique Olvera restaurant in New York City that serves contemporary Mexican cuisine with locally produced ingredients. He shows us how he makes sweet potato tamales. He fills the tamales with roasted sweet potato puree, and tops them with an aerated sweet potato and guajillo sauce, purslane salad, and sweet potato chips. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Gustavo Garnica is chef de cuisine at Cosme, an Enrique Olvera restaurant that serves contemporary cuisine rooted in Mexican flavors and traditions, while celebrating local ingredients from the Hudson Valley. In this interview, Chef Garnica talks about the plant-forward menu at Cosme, respecting ingredients, and the relationships he has forged with local producers and farmers. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Chef Emilio Cerra shows us how he makes grilled maitake mushroom tacos at Oxomoco, a plant-forward Mexican restaurant in Brooklyn. He par-cooks the maitakes in mushroom broth, then grills them over a wood-fired grill. He tops the tacos with herbed ricotta, the grilled maitake, maitake soy butter, and some sous vide egg yolk salsa. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Emilio Cerra is chef de cuisine at Oxomoco, a plant-forward Mexican restaurant in Brooklyn. He shows us how he makes a tostada topped with various carrot preparations. He tops the tostada with coconut yogurt, grilled and braised carrots, blanched and marinated carrots, carrot habañero salsa, and finally dressed raw carrots. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Emilio Cerra is chef de cuisine at Oxomoco, a plant-forward Mexican restaurant in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. Oxomoco opened in 2018, and earned a Michelin star in 2019. In this interview, Chef Emilio talks about inspiration for their modern Mexican wood-fired menu, and how he opened the restaurant with his friends from middle school. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Shenarri Greens is executive chef at vegan soul food restaurant, Cadence, in New York City. Here she shows us how she makes vegan southern fried lasagna. Greens grew up eating traditional lasagna and wanted to serve lasagna with a southern twist on her menu. The lasagna is filled with pine nut ricotta, and a rich red wine Bolognese. She plates the lasagna with tomato basil sauce. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Shenarri Greens is executive chef at vegan soul food restaurant, Cadence, in New York City. Here she shows us a fun vegan dish inspired by a crab cake. She makes a palm cake with chickpeas, hearts of palm, seaweed, and aquafaba as a binder. Chef Shenarri plates the palm cake with spicy slaw and tops it with vegan chipotle aioli. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Shenarri Greens is at the vanguard of vegan cooking in America. Her vegan soul food menu at Cadence in New York City, where she is executive chef, combines the flavors of her Virginia upbringing with her passion for sustainable dining. Chef Greens has earned James Beard Award semifinalist nods for Emerging Chef in 2022 and Best Chef: New York State in 2023. In this interview, she talks about her career path, and how her vegan cooking is helping change the industry. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Chef Madeleine Lais, Assistant Culinary Director at Shukette restaurant in New York, shows us how she makes a smoky eggplant dip called Melitzanosalata. She mixes grilled eggplant with roasted peppers, garlic, serrano chiles, red onion, parsley, lemon juice and olive oil. Chef Madeleine serves the dip as a shared appetizer with freshly baked breads and crudité. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Chef Madeleine Lais, assistant culinary director at Shukette restaurant in New York, shows us Shukette’s signature salad. The hearty salad features grilled radicchio, mixed greens, figs, toasted walnuts, and a date vinaigrette. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Chef Ayesha Nurdjaja is a James Beard Award Finalist and serves a Middle Eastern menu at Shukette restaurant in New York. Her plant-forward dishes draw on the rustic, vibrant flavors found throughout Morocco and Tunisia. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Ayesha is the daughter of an Indonesian father and Italian mother. She talks about her culinary influences, and her penchant for taking inspirations from classic dishes with unique flavorful ingredients. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Chef Nasim Alikhani of Sofreh, in Brooklyn, shows us how she makes a’ash reshteh, a classic Iranian stew. This intensely aromatic and rich stew is made with beans, lentils, noodles, herbs, the liquid from strained yogurt, and liquid whey. The a’ash reshteh is topped with mint oil, more liquid whey and onion chips. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Chef Nasim Alikhani of Sofreh, in Brooklyn, shows us how she makes anarbij with cauliflower steak. Anarbij is a fragrant stew from northern Iran, made with an abundance of herbs, pomegranate molasses, onion, and ground walnuts. She serves the stew as a hearty vegan entrée at her restaurant plated in a shallow bowl and topped with a grilled cauliflower steak brushed with pomegranate molasses. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Nasim Alikhani is chef/owner of celebrated Persian restaurant, Sofreh, in Brooklyn. Growing up in Iran, Nasim Alikhani was a passionate cook from childhood, spending the first years of her life in the kitchen alongside her mother. When she departed after the revolution, it was by re-creating the dishes of her youth that she was able to feel connected to home. It took Nasim 25 years to realize her dream of opening a restaurant, and, in the summer of 2018 at age 59, she opened Sofreh to great critical acclaim. Chef Nasim Alikhani strives to create a hospitable, dinner-party atmosphere in her restaurant. She talks about the plant-forward traditions of Iranian cuisine and her love of cooking with herbs. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Samuel Yoo is chef/owner of Golden Diner in New York City’s China Town, and shows us how he makes a vegan chili crisp wedge salad. He delights in taking a traditionally creamy dish and transforming it into a vegan creation, and this salad is no exception. He tops the iceberg lettuce wedges with vegan ranch dressing, vegan blue cheese, mushroom bacon, diced tomatoes, and a generous amount of chili crisp. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Samuel Yoo is chef/owner of Golden Diner in New York City’s China Town and shows us how he makes a Mushroom Reuben Quesadilla. He uses Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and mushroom pastrami. Making the mushroom pastrami is a 3-day process. Portabella mushrooms are cured overnight, drained, roasted, chopped, and smoked for 2 days. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Momofuku alum, Samuel Yoo, is a rising star and chef/owner of Golden Diner in New York City’s China Town. Fusing his fine dining background with a reverence for traditional American diner fare, Golden Diner serves Latin, Chinese, Greek and “Brooklyn vegan” inspired cuisines. Samuel Yoo talks about techniques for making vegetables shine, and how eating in Queens diners in his childhood influenced his menu. Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!