Arpège

"The best cookbook ever written was by Mother Nature herself," according to Alain Passard. His name is associated with vegetables – and, for those in the know, a certain beetroot in a salt crust. He called it before anyone else with his 100% vegetable-based menu, initially considered radical. Nowadays, his green philosophy is de rigueur at every restaurant. Despite his success, the chef who fetes fruit and flowers never feels more at home than when in one of his three kitchen gardens in the west of France, where his twin vocations of cook and gardener meet. He heads there for inspiration, exploring the culinary possibilities of vegetables in a bid to elevate this ordinary ingredient so often relegated to the status of a side dish. A bucolic fresco references this environment in the restaurant's dining room.