'Listen to your vegetables,' says 'Top Chef' finalist who loves to cook at home
As a "Top Chef" finalist and James Beard Award winner, Sarah Grueneberg fell in love with Italian cooking, pasta and cheeses.
During her time at Spiaggia, the Texas native fell hard for the Midwest. Chicago became the place she wanted to call home and where she built the restaurant she always wanted: Monteverde Restaurant and Pastificio, 1020 W. Madison St.
Yet she’d never give up cooking at home and needs both to be fulfilled. She shares the best of both worlds in her first cookbook, “Listen to Your Vegetables: Italian Inspired Recipes for Every Season,” written with Kate Heddings ($45, Harvest, an imprint of William Morrow). It's in stores now.
This is not a vegetarian cookbook, though vegetables do take center stage. They also have charming illustrations throughout to showcase how Grueneberg envisions each ingredient’s personality. It speaks to how Grueneberg approaches cooking: She starts with the sides, and it should be fun, not stressful. She creates both comfort and variety in her menus.
Throughout this book, Grueneberg peppers accessible recipes with useful tips for home cooks while advocating thoughtful sourcing of ingredients and getting to know local farmers. Recipes are detailed guides with visual and sound cues. In some cases, like pasta, she also includes step-by-step photos. Grueneberg's recipes range from simple to more complex, without being complicated or fussyot overly complicated meals full of flavor and the Italian style she’s become known for, all while expanding the everyday vegetable repertoire.
Grueneberg lives in the Riverwest neighborhood of Chicago. We spoke to her while she was in Jackson, Wis., after a visit to her Milwaukee-native business partner, Rob Mosher, and his family.
Question: What drives you as a chef and restaurant owner?
Answer: I am obsessed with food and cooking. When it is your real passion, it is something you can’t get away from. I think about food in the shower, when I’m working out. Some of the best dishes happen in those ways. My husband, Jaime (Canete), we met at Spiaggia. My business partner Rob (Mosher), we met at Spiaggia. I have these great people around me who have supported me to do what I love.
Q: You’re a Texas native. What kept you in the Midwest when you opened your own place, Monteverde?
A: I love being near the water, and I wanted to be near water and in a metropolitan city that had a great dining scene. When I moved here in 2005, it was booming. Culinary cities were Chicago, New York and San Francisco. Chicago is same time zone as Texas, easy for my mom to come visit me. Perfect.
Q: You also spend time in Wisconsin, shopping at the West Bend Farmers Market and other spots. What’s the connection?
A: My business partner grew up in Milwaukee. He and his family have a place in West Bend. I love Wisconsin. I try to come here as often as I can. Tony (Mantuano, Kenosha native and formerly of Spiaggia and Mangia), he’d come up and do Masters of the Grill in Kenosha. Our good friend Gray McNally has a farm in Burlington.
Wisconsin is a great way to escape Chicago. We like to go to Timmer’s on Big Cedar Lake; it has that historical feel which I really love. We always go to Sendik’s. I love them and wish they were in Chicago.
Q: What was the goal you set when writing this book?
A: The goal was for people to break outside of the box of what they buy on a regular basis. Grab an ingredient in the produce area that maybe they haven’t cooked with before.
I read that most Americans buy the same groceries on a weekly basis. They have the meals they know how to make, and that’s what they will do, that ritual. I wanted to make the recipes in the book, some simple, not super challenging.
Think rapini. I see it, but I’ve always used broccoli. It is super simple on the sheet tray. Then some more balanced and complicated recipes for people who like to cook as a hobby, spend the afternoon cooking. That's my Saturday afternoon hobby.
I’m one of the few chefs who I know who still loves to cook at home and at the restaurant. … I approached the book to have a balance of recipes, simple to more advanced as you grow more confident with certain veggies.
My Aunt Bea told me, 'Sarah, you can’t have a vegetable book, you’re from Texas. We raise cattle!' It is not just a vegetarian book. It is a book that helps you use vegetables as a muse …
The illustrations are how I see the vegetables. When I say, “listen to your vegetables,” I actually feel like they talk to me. That was the best way to give them their voice.
Q: When you read a menu, you start with the sides, not mains. That’s also how the book is set up, to a degree. What is behind that approach?
A: I love all the things that come with stuff. That’s why sides have always been the thing that draw me in, a vegetable or a rice, more than the chicken or steak. I like the supporting cast on the plate. That's kind of how I cook. I always have chicken breast or chicken thighs in the freezer. I can always pull out a protein, but if I don’t have any vegetables or side thing, I am stumped on what to cook.
Q: Oma’s salad makes both the cookbook and your menu at Monteverde, so it is a must-try. What makes it so special?
A: That’s a family salad. Growing up, my oma made it and we all called it Grueneberg salad. I don’t know how many families have a salad they treasure. I cooked in a lot of high-end restaurants. It took awhile for me to get my confidence to say I have some great family dishes that my family taught me.
It is now on the menu at Monteverde, because I want it to be the perfect green salad you crave. Between the avocados, the vinaigrette, it is simple and tangy and vibrant. Marinating the vegetables is a fun way to think about a salad.
Q: Where were you doing the majority of your recipe testing?
A: Always in a home kitchen. That helped solidify the concept of the book. As soon as COVID hit, I went to the grocery store. Every green vegetable that was easy to cook was gone. The squash and turnips, onions, that was all that was left on the shelves.
It helped me to see how this book should be done by chapter, helping people branch out, not just buying the lettuce in the clamshell. Which I’m guilty of, as well, but buy lettuce and wash it in a salad spinner. That is my favorite tool in the kitchen.
Q: You have a section on cheeses in the book, and include ricotta, suggesting if you can’t make your own, try a few. What are your go-to cheeses?
A: In the Italian way, you need a hard grating cheese, so Parmigiano Reggiano. My cat is named after it actually. Buy the block, and you can grate it however you want. I do like a Pecorino … I also like Manchego and a fresh cheese, like a ricotta or a mozzarella to add to salads or veggies. I do like the Bel Giosio whole milk ricotta. It is delicious. The part skim I don’t like as much because it is not as creamy.
Those are key things to look at on the label. … We also go to Larry’s Market in Brown Deer. They have great cheeses. I recommend going there. Let them give you the great American-made cheeses done in Italian style. They have a good selection.
Q: What’s your most memorable failure or lesson learned the hard way?
A: You have to be very humble. One that pops into my brain, when I came to Chicago, my first trip to interview was a stage. I went to a top-tier restaurant and thought I was going to an interview. I had a nice cardigan, open-toe heels.
He greeted me and opens his closet and put a chef coat on. I didn’t bring any tennis shoes. I had to make the decision, do I stage in heels or do I reschedule? I didn't want to reschedule. It was the opportunity of a lifetime. No, it wasn’t Spiaggia. I ended up not taking the job.
Q: One vegetable you cannot live without?
A: Tomatoes. I love them in every form. It is also the one thing I did not like as a kid. I did not like raw tomatoes! Now I love them so much. They’re so bright and fresh, they put a smile on my face.
More: With a cookbook and 3 restaurants, Iron Chef champ on the mend after propeller accident
Table Chat features interviews with Wisconsinites, or Wisconsin natives, who work in restaurants or support the restaurant industry; or visiting chefs. To suggest individuals to profile, email psullivan@gannett.com.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: James Beard winner's cookbook takes an Italian view of vegetables
