Practice · 03
Vegetable-led cooking.
Vegetables as a point of view, not as a restriction. We build dishes starting from the plant: roots, leaves, flowers, seeds. And we use meat and fish as accents.
Seventy per cent of the Ora Etica menu is plant-based. The Vegetali Mon Amour menu is vegetarian throughout. We do it because it suits the planet and because it suits the taste: more layers, more acidity, more sweetness.
Vegetable is not vegetarian.
Vegetarian defines by exclusion: no meat, no fish. Vegetable defines by inclusion: with roots, grains, fruit, herbs, flowers, leaves. They are two different kitchens, not one dish under two names. At Horto we cook the second. When meat or fish appear, they are an accent on a dish that is already finished, not the dish itself.
What changes in the kitchen.
When the vegetable is the centre, the technique moves with it. Fermentation to build depth, cooking under ash and embers to concentrate the sugars, pickling and drying to stretch a season by a month. Nothing the Italian farming tradition did not already know, applied with the rigour of a starred kitchen.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Horto a vegetarian restaurant?
- No. It is a vegetable-led kitchen: the plant is the centre, meat and fish are accents. The Vegetali Mon Amour menu is entirely vegetarian.
- How much of the menu is plant-based?
- About 70% of the Ora Etica menu is of plant origin; the Vegetali Mon Amour menu is entirely vegetarian.