The sudden shuttering of American Food & Beverage in Buckhead Atlanta this past January left its executive chef Jeremy Miller planning his next move. Now, Miller tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he's going to bring vegan fare to diners through a pop-up restaurant called Herbivore. The pop-up dinners, to be held at Cafe Sunflower, located at 2140 Peachtree Street N.W. in Buckhead, will take place every other Sunday, beginning Feb. 21.
Although Miller and his family adopted a vegan lifestyle a couple years ago, his role as a chef at a restaurant that prepared food for omnivores meant that he couldn’t cook at work the same way he did at home, he explained. With the launch of Herbivore, Miller can “devote my life to following a plant-based diet and living a vegan lifestyle,” he said.
The chef, who has spent time in such venerable kitchen as Jean-Georges in New York City and Thomas Keller’s French Laundry, noted that the Herbivore a la carte menu of 12 to 15 small plates and three to four desserts will highlight seasonality and make use of global flavors, particularly Southeast Asian flavors for he has an affinity.
“I gained a lot of respect for cooking vegan and raw vegan,” he said. Vegan cooking, he noted, requires that you “respect the vegetables – especially delicate vegetables. It’s a lot harder to prepare.” He added that vegan cooking also necessitated using the best ingredients possible because the quality shows itself in the finished dish.
Don’t look for faux meat dishes, though, like a vegan hot dog or vegan “charcuterie platter.” “I don’t want to mimic meat,” Miller said.
In 2015, former AJC restaurant critic John Kessler wrote of Miller in his review of American Food & Beverage, “Chef Jeremy Miller has sneakier ideas about good food than the wording on his bland, something-for-everyone menu suggests. He’s also a good technical cook.”
Herbivore pop-up dinners: Every other Sunday beginning Feb. 21, 6 p.m. Held at Café Sunflower, 2140 Peachtree Street N.W., Atlanta. For details, call 706.267.8933 or email herbivoreATL@gmail.com. A website is coming soon.
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