Cutting EDGE Cuisine - Recipe

Vegetarian Times has been a leader in the natural products industry for over 25 years. To celebrate the arrival of natural foods trends on the gourmet scene, Vegetarian Times will highlight four "Cutting Edge Cuisine" culinary sections in 2000. Each section will feature a different culinary institute.

A new, multi-cultural, sustainable cuisine is emerging in America's culinary

institutions. The birth of this cutting edge cuisine is a response to our nation's evolving palette and the maturation of the natural products industry. Americans are exhibiting a newfound love of all foods exotic and spicy. We are more aware of where our food comes from and how it is produced. Americans are demanding a greater variety of food choices, as well as better tasting and higher quality food.

Our culinary institutes are listening. For most of the past century, the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) has shaped our country's ideas about gourmet food. During that time period, the time-honored culinary traditions of Northern Europe have provided the CIA with inspiration. Over the past five years, however, the CIA has opened itself to the powerful new trends shaping our country's dining habits, fueling the creation of an entirely new gourmet cuisine.

This new cuisine is based on a holistic approach to cooking. The CIA is teaching culinary students to connect with food at its source-in the garden! This involves "chefs rolling up their sleeves and digging their hands into the earth to learn a whole-foods approach to cuisine."(1) The result is that CIA students are "soak(ing) up the values of plant-based diets, seasonality and sustainable organic farming practices."(2)

The "rising interest in ethnic flavors, including Asian and Latin American trends"(4) is another driving force of the new cuisine. The broadening of the American palette has resulted in a greater attention to variety at the CIA. "For example, in (their) Asian culinary herb garden, you'll find sawtooth, red shiso, Thai basil and Vietnamese coriander."(3) Today's culinary students are becoming veritable food encyclopedias!

The CIA is not alone in incorporating these new trends in gourmet cooking. Cooking schools around the country are responding to the changes in America's dining habits. Chefs from The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, the first culinary institute featured in our 4-part "Cutting Edge Cuisine" series, developed the following recipes using some of the finest brands of natural products and incorporating the latest trends in gourmet cooking. Our thanks to the chefs at C.H.I.C.

The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago is a professional culinary college for aspiring chefs. Established in 1983, C.H.I.C. offers a two-year associate degree (certificate in professional cooking & baking) and a small selection of courses for non-professionals. C.H.I.C. offers qualifying students several scholarship funds, including national programs and internally administered programs for academic excellence. C.H.I.C. graduates hold jobs in many of the finest hotels and restaurants in Chicago, nationally and internationally. For more information call 312-944-0882 or visit www.chicnet.com.

Graduates of The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago (C.H.I.C.) are taking a cutting edge approach to cuisine and applying it in their professional careers. Chef Joan Borras of Wild Oats Market in Hinsdale, IL., a 1999 graduate of C.H.I.C., credits C.H.I.C. with preparing him for a career in natural foods by providing him with a strong foundation in cooking basics and instilling in him a love for cooking. Chef Joan has between fifty and sixty original recipes in the deli case at Wild Oats Market, Hinsdale -- the "Cutting Edge Cuisine" retail partner. He has agreed to share his most popular recipe with us:

Mango Grilled Tofu

One pound firm tofu
2 cups fresh mango
  (cut into chunks)
1 tablespoon cooked red peppers
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 stick butter or 1/4 cup
  maple syrup
1 liter mango juice
1 tablespoon olive oil

Cut the tofu into 1/2" squares. Brush tofu squares with the olive oil. Grill the oiled tofu just enough to make grill marks on each side. Put grilled tofu in a container with mango juice and marinate it for two hours. Put the tofu and mango juice in an oven-safe bowl and cook them at 350 [degrees] for 40 minutes.

Place the mango chunks in a saute pan with the butter or maple syrup and cook on high heat for about five minutes. Add the turbinado sugar and cook for another minute. Mix in the cinnamon and the nutmeg and leftover mango juice from the cooked tofu. Place the tofu on a platter and pour the mango chutney over it. Serve as an entree. Serves 4

WINE RECOMMENDATION:

FREY VINEYARDS 1998 CHARDONNAY 335 cal; 6g prot; 16g fat (7g sat fat); 43g carb; 31 mg chol; 163mg sod; 4g fiber

Amy's Kitchen Mushroom and Brown Rice Pilaf

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons red onion, minced
3 green onions: white minced and
  green sliced and reserved for
  garnish
2 cups White mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup Shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 cup Portabello mushrooms,
  large dice
2 cups instant brown rice
1 (14 oz.) can Amy's Kitchen
  Mushroom Soup
1 1/2 cups water or vegetable
  stock
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper