Jian bing is a traditional Chinese street food commonly eaten for breakfast. The crepe-like wrappers are filled with egg, lettuce, crispy wonton skins, cilantro, and sometimes a protein—in this case, plant-based bolgogi beef. The crepes are cooked with a drizzle of hoisin sauce and sriracha and can be enjoyed as a hand-held to-go item.

Here to show us how to make jiang bing are Chef Emei Luo, the head cook of Asian Programs, with Chef Alex Ong, director of culinary excellence, at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. This is a popular made-to-order item at Worcester Dining Commons for the students of UMass.

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This Middle Eastern platter with grilled chicken kebabs, warm hummus, chickpeas, and roasted vegetables is a regular item served at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst student dining. Bob Bankert, Executive Chef at the university’s dining services, shows us how to make the dish. He likes to offer the students a customizable topping, which, for this dish, is sumac onions and pickled watermelon radish.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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!