A strong vegetarian dish can be built as a small composition of textures. Begin with a soft base: purée, potato chiffon, ricotta or creamy vegetables. Add something with bite: cabbage, chickpeas, beans, pasta or grilled vegetables. Then something crisp: nuts, flakes, a seared crust or a florentine. Finish with something fresh or pickled to cut through.
Cauliflower is a good example. Cauliflower purée brings softness, while fried florets give colour, an edge and bite. Purée alone makes the dish soft; florets alone leave it without cohesion. Together they provide greater depth.
Cabbage can do something similar. Raw or lightly cooked cabbage provides fresh crunch, while grilled or wrapped cabbage offers warmth and more depth. Cabbage is one of those ingredients that can travel from dreary canteen food to serious gastronomic player when treated properly. It merely needs a little affection and perhaps some heat in its cheeks.
At Kromans, texture is not theoretical. You feel it. You taste the difference between soft purée and a crisp flake, discover why pickled tomatoes can wake a dish, and notice how nuts provide body yet can become too much if they are not balanced by acidity.
Again, the social setting helps. With several people around the dish, the right questions come more readily: ‘Does it need crunch?’, ‘Is it too soft?’, ‘Should the tomato bring more acidity?’ This is the ordinary poetry of the kitchen. Not lofty. Simply necessary.
