Popular ingredients include seasonal and heirloom vegetables, truffles, freshly made flavored pasta, potatoes, mushrooms, risotto, grains, legumes, reduced vegetable stocks, flavored oils, truffles and unusual herbs. Michelle Bernstein, chef-owner of The Strand in Miami, thinks a vegetarian option must be as interesting as other entrees. Pasta becomes deep red from combining roasted beets with flour and is layered with baby vegetables, shallots and tomatoes, or whatever is in season. The dish is presented in a truffle vegetable fume. The restaurants do not use any animal products or byproducts and her ingredients are all organic.
Gentry makes vegetarian appealing by using quality ingredients and layering flavors.
While Gentry and others, such as Eric Tucker at Millennium in San Francisco and Suzanne Fain of A Moveable Feast in Houston, have enjoyed a long-running and devoted vegetarian clientele, other operators have found they need to be more encompassing. Heartbeat, for example, knew it needed to be omnivorous. But they want roasted red pepper hummus or an Asian stir-fry. The students grew up eating out more often than their parents did and prefer boldly flavored food, Howard says. They are very familiar with ethnic cuisine and they know that this kind of cooking has more flavor.