Edible Dallas & Fort Worth Spring 2022

DEEP IN THE HEART

While she’s fingernail-deep in her craft she gladly pauses to offer horti- cultural insight. “I do take every opportunity, if somebody walks past the garden, I’ll spend 15 to 20 minutes explaining what we’re doing. They might not re- alize that this is a turnip and that you can eat both the tops and the bot- toms, or that this chef is using the mint here for his lemonade. They’re connecting the dots as they walk in to get their lunch. It’s super cool!” she explains. And she doesn’t tidy it up. “This is a real-life working garden. It’s like being on a mini-farm. Sometimes the plants don’t look good, food crops expire quickly, flowers are short-lived, and there’s pests and bees. These are the facts of life. Deal with it!” she jokes. Chefs Dig Gardens Vijay Sadhu, executive chef at LC Kitchen, is ecstatic about how their campus’s nine-bed garden adds to his fresh, ever-changing seasonal menu and enhances dishes for diners. “Basil for example, we used to buy from our supplier, and I compared that with what we are growing on-site and the difference is night and day,” Sadhu says. “The fragrance is incredible as well. If I go to a su- permarket, I just can’t get the same smell as what I get from the herbs here,” he adds.

But the value that the garden brings is rooted in more than just what it adds to the plate. “What I see here, it’s different. It even motivates my staff. There’s so much passion, so much love involved with the garden” says Sadhu. He loves that “when people come to our garden, they look, they touch, they feel, they smell.”

LC Kitchen Basil Pesto Makes one batch Ingredients 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts 2 ½ tablespoons lemon juice

2 garlic clove Salt to taste 3 cups fresh basil leaves 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese Method Pulse the nuts, lemon juice, and garlic in the food processor until they’re finely chopped. Add the basil and pulse again. Next, drizzle in the olive oil with the food processor blade still run- ning. Finally, add grated Parmesan cheese and process briefly until com- bined.

Chef Vijay Sadhu at LC Kitchen

EDIBLE DALLAS & FORT WORTH SPRING 2022 | 33