Perched in Paris, France, chef Kei Kobayashi’s Restaurant Kei offers a unique twist of elements from both Japanese culture and French heritage, creating a beautiful harmony both on the plate and for the palate. After working and learning beside many of the great French chefs – Alain Ducasse, Gilles Goujon…just to name a couple – over the years, chef Kei now holds a Michelin star to his own name, and is creating beautiful works of art for his patrons. Here, we have the recipe for the chef’s signature dish – “Garden of Vegetables.”
“I love working with vegetables,” says chef Kei. “There are hundreds of possibilities and ways to cook with them. My signature dish is the “Garden of Vegetables.” It is a salad with different types of vegetables, each one cooked in a different way – some raw and others just slightly heated.”
Enjoy!
Vegetables |
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| Ingredients Round zucchini Zephyr zucchini Gold Rush zucchini Pink radish Red radish Multi-colored carrots Raw red new beet Runner bean |
Instructions Prepare all vegetables in pieces or shavings, raw or barely cooked. |
Rocket (Arugula) Mash |
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| Ingredients 500g of rocket (arugula) 2 bunches of basil 1 garlic clove Olive oil |
Instructions Wash the rocket and the basil leaves (plucked off). Sweat with olive oil and mix with garlic (prick garlic on a fork and leave in). Cook covered. Let cool quickly. Mix and whisk with olive oil. Put through Chinese sieve. |
Siphon |
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| Ingredients 20cl of full cream 2 yogurts 200g of rocket mash Salt and sugar |
Instructions Mix the rocket mash with other ingredients. Put on a siphon with 2 canisters. Gas and keep refigerated. |
Olive Sauce |
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| Ingredients 500g pitted black olives 16cl of olive oil 1cl of caper juice 80g capers 6cl of water 2 garlic cloves |
Instructions Mix all ingredients together for 5 minutes, until you have a homogenous mash. Leave aside. |
Anchovy Mash |
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| Ingredients 100g of salted anchovies 10cl of milk |
Instructions Put the anchovies and the milk in Thermomix. Mix for 5 minutes at 80°C. Put through Chinese sieve. |
Olive Mayonnaise |
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| Ingredients 1 yellow egg 2tbsp of anchovy mash 2 spoons of Dijon mustard Juice of 1/2 lemon 25cl grape seed oil Sugar |
Instructions Create a mayonnaise and loosen with olive sauce. Season with remainder of ingredients. Keep refigerated |
Plating |
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| Ingredients 120g smoked salmon Coriander flower Rocket flower Curly red mustard flower Borage flower Fennel flower Chamomile Mizuna sprouts Turnip sprouts Leek sprouts Fleur de sel (French sea salt) Olive oil Basil oil |
Instructions On the plate, place some anchovy mash and olive mayonnaise. On top, place a piece of smoked salmon and season with fleur de sel and a dash of olive oil. Siphon the rocket. Dress the vegetables focusing on the big pieces, first. Finish assembly with shavings, flowers, and sprouts. Finish by pouring a trickle of basil oil all around the base of the salad. |
Chef Kei Kobayashi plating Garden of Vegetables. © Richard Haughton
Curious to know more about chef Kei Kobayashi? Check out our Q&A here.