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Rich Landau of Vedge: on asian pears, guarapo, Velveeta, matsutakes, cheesesteaks, and portabellos
Let’s just go ahead and get this out of the way: I’m a meat-eater. I love a filet mignon and the smoked buffalo wings over at Ice Line. But I’ve often wondered how vegan or vegetarian restaurants approach their food. I’ve always kinds of assumed that they try to approximate the flavors and textures that us meat-eaters experience on a daily basis. Meaning, they’re probably trying to make a portabello “cheesesteak” taste just like an actual Philly cheesesteak made with beef…
Or are they doing something very different? Are they unabashedly creating from a flavor playbook and palette that exists uniquely unto themselves? Much of what I thought about vegetarian food changed the day I had one of the best sandwiches of my entire life, a portabello and broccoli rabe sub. It ended up being a creation from a chef named Rich Landau. You may know Rich better as the founder, along with Kate Jacoby, of Vedge.
Now Vedge is not just a vegan resturant; it’s an institution in Philadelphia, and one of the most important and ground-breaking vegan restaurants in the city. So Rich and I caught up out here in West Chester Pennsylvania. We broke the ice over a taste test of three kinds of sugars—piloncillo, jaggery, and a Chinese “old brown sugar” called hēitáng—then talked about the lengths that Rich has gone to to infuse flavor into the foods he serves, how some flavor combinations can reflect creative genius, why a pear is the perfect fruit, and more.
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If you want more content:
fever4flavor.com
Instagram | @fever4flavor
Produced by Studio D Podcast Production.
If you’d like to support Fever4Flavor, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Your input helps us make the podcast even better, points us to topics that are relevant to you, and helps us reach new listeners. All you have to do is open up the Podcast App on your phone, look for Fever4Flavor, scroll down until you see ‘Write a Review’ and tell us what you think. Join me next week as we continue to explore the infinite world of food and flavors here on Fever4Flavor.
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By Evan YoungLet’s just go ahead and get this out of the way: I’m a meat-eater. I love a filet mignon and the smoked buffalo wings over at Ice Line. But I’ve often wondered how vegan or vegetarian restaurants approach their food. I’ve always kinds of assumed that they try to approximate the flavors and textures that us meat-eaters experience on a daily basis. Meaning, they’re probably trying to make a portabello “cheesesteak” taste just like an actual Philly cheesesteak made with beef…
Or are they doing something very different? Are they unabashedly creating from a flavor playbook and palette that exists uniquely unto themselves? Much of what I thought about vegetarian food changed the day I had one of the best sandwiches of my entire life, a portabello and broccoli rabe sub. It ended up being a creation from a chef named Rich Landau. You may know Rich better as the founder, along with Kate Jacoby, of Vedge.
Now Vedge is not just a vegan resturant; it’s an institution in Philadelphia, and one of the most important and ground-breaking vegan restaurants in the city. So Rich and I caught up out here in West Chester Pennsylvania. We broke the ice over a taste test of three kinds of sugars—piloncillo, jaggery, and a Chinese “old brown sugar” called hēitáng—then talked about the lengths that Rich has gone to to infuse flavor into the foods he serves, how some flavor combinations can reflect creative genius, why a pear is the perfect fruit, and more.
---
If you want more content:
fever4flavor.com
Instagram | @fever4flavor
Produced by Studio D Podcast Production.
If you’d like to support Fever4Flavor, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Your input helps us make the podcast even better, points us to topics that are relevant to you, and helps us reach new listeners. All you have to do is open up the Podcast App on your phone, look for Fever4Flavor, scroll down until you see ‘Write a Review’ and tell us what you think. Join me next week as we continue to explore the infinite world of food and flavors here on Fever4Flavor.