CUTE ENOUGH TO EAT
Sorr y, plus-size produce: Tiny young veggies are garnering all the attention on the dinner table
T OP chefs like their wines aged and their veggies young.
“People want to have things at their peak freshness,” chef Adam Bordonaro tells The Post.
That’s why, like many chefs right now, he’s all about baby veggies at his West Village restaurant, Ardyn. These teensy eats are harvested early, so they’re ultrafresh and adorably tiny, allowing for artful presentations.
“We’re getting stuff right out of the ground,” says Bordonaro, who currently offers several preparations of petite Thumbelina carrots, sourced from a local farm at roughly 10 times the cost of standard-size carrots.
Others are getting their tiny veggies from hydroponic operations, where plants are grown in a nutrient solution, instead of soil, in precise indoor or greenhouse conditions. Farm.One, a subterranean vertical farm housed beneath the twoMichelin-starred Tribeca restaurant Atera, provides bespoke ingredients for its upstairs neighbor, along with Eleven Madison Park, Eataly and Marea.
Meanwhile, at Shoji, a small omakase spot in Tribeca, chef Derek Wilcox is currently preparing young new potatoes that are only ¾ inch in diameter and have been out of the ground for less than a week. Customers are loving them.
“They’re especially creamy, but not as starchy as a full-grown potato,” Wilcox says. “A guest last night told me, ‘This has ruined potatoes for me forever.’ ”
Ready to shrink your plate? Read on to learn how to add three popular bite-sized veggies into your rotation.