Inside the Plant-Forward Kitchen is a video education series from The Culinary Institute of America and Unilever Food Solutions, a first-of-its-kind video reference library documenting the best of plant-forward cuisine.

Plant-forward eating is one of the most significant culinary mega-trends underway in America and in global foodservice. It’s changing how chefs think about menus, flavor development, creativity, and their customers. Chefs around the world are in a unique and pivotal position to help lead the transformation to sustainable, healthy and delicious plant-based dining. Through video recipe demonstrations, market tours, and interviews, Inside the Plant-Forward Kitchen offers inspiration, advice, and insights from chefs who are on the leading edge of this movement.

At the end of each documentary, chefs from Unilever Food Solutions show us how to make recipes inspired by the dishes featured in each series. These videos include practical plant-based flavor building strategies, and step-by-step recipe demonstrations that you can adapt for your own menu.

These videos were made thanks to the generous support and sponsorship of Unilever Food Solutions.


Inside the Plant-Forward Kitchen: London

In the third installment of an educational video series produced by The Culinary Institute of America—a first-of-its-kind video reference library documenting plant-forward cuisines around the world. In this chapter, we explore the markets and restaurants of London and Cambridge, UK. Among the featured chefs are David Moore and Chef Phil Kearsey of Michelin-starred restaurant, Pied à Terre. Chef Alexis Gauthier dishes on his trailblazing decision to remove all animal products from his restaurant, Gauthier, and Chef King Cookdaily tells us about his Buddhist roots being the inspiration behind his plant-based takeout menu. From Chef Emerson Amelio de Oliveira’s zero waste philosophy to the eco-friendly restaurant design of Elly Ward’s, Edit; to Marc Summers of Bubula Spitalfields, who loves surprising his customers with just how delicious vegetables can be—our tour of London’s plant-forward kitchens will surprise and inspire you.

Watch Inside the Plant-Forward Kitchen: London here.


Inside the Plant-Forward Kitchen: New York and the Northeast

In this volume, we visit the restaurants and kitchens of the northeast, including New York, Brooklyn, and Massachusetts. We talk to Chef Amanda Cohen, a pioneer in the plant-forward movement at her restaurant Dirt Candy. We meet Chef Daniel Humm, who discusses how he transformed his world-famous restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, into a fully vegan establishment. We’ll experience the Middle Eastern creations of Shukette, traditional Iranian and Persian food at Sofreh, organic Queens diner fare at Golden Diner, and Southern Soul Food cooking at Cadence. We visit two Mexican restaurants, Cosme and Oxomoco, where the chefs combine Mexican gastronomy with locally grown New York produce. Finally, we leave New York to see how plant-forward principles can be scaled at high volume foodservice, when we head to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with Chef Alexander Ong.

Watch Inside the Plant-Forward Kitchen: New York here.


Inside the Plant-Forward Kitchen: California

In this volume, we explore the markets and farms, kitchens and restaurants of Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. We begin in Los Angeles, and talk to Wolfgang Puck, who was at the vanguard of bringing plant-forward cuisine to American foodservice in the 1980s. Chef Suzanne Goin of A.O.C., talks about embracing rustic farm-to-table cuisine. Also in southern California, we visit the kitchens of Kismet, Cafe Gratitude, and Malibu Farm Restaurant. Heading north to California’s Bay Area, we meet with three-Michelin-star Chef Kyle Connaughton of SingleThread Farm in Healdsburg, and Chef Heena Patel of Besharam in San Francisco.

Watch Inside the Plant-Forward Kitchen: California here.


Watch Plant-Forward Recipe Demonstrations by our Sponsor, Unilever Food Solutions