Cookbook Talk: Abra Berens

July 10, 2019 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Drawing Room Library

As part of our environmental event series with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), join Chef and Author of Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables Abra Berens in conversation with Chicago Tribune’s Food and Beverage reporter, Louisa Chu, NRDC’s Josh Mogerman and Urban Growers Collective’s Laurell Sims.

Tickets include two bites inspired by Berens’ cookbook, Ruffage — breakfast radishes dipped in a butter, flavored with their greens, and wild rice arancini with ramps and arugula puree — as crafted by Land and Sea Dept. The book will be available for purchase at the event.

Hungry for more? Make reservations for Cherry Circle Room just down the hall, where Executive Chef Michael Kinasz will feature a Ruffage-inspired menu highlighting Cherry Circle Room’s offerings from local farmers, in the spirit of the cookbook.

Click here to learn more about a complimentary 10 a.m. tour of Green City Market led by Chef Abra herself, taking place earlier in the day at Green City Market Lincoln Park (Clark St. & Lincoln Ave.).

Named a Best Cookbook for Spring 2019 by The New York Times and Bon Appetit
Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables – A how-to cook book spanning 29 types of vegetables: Author Abra Berens—chef, farmer, Midwesterner—shares a collection of techniques that result in new flavors, textures, and ways to enjoy all the vegetables you want to eat. From confit to caramelized and everything in between—braised, blistered, roasted and raw—the cooking methods covered here make this cookbook a go-to reference. You will never look at vegetables the same way again. Organized alphabetically by vegetable from asparagus to zucchini, each chapter opens with an homage to the ingredients and variations on how to prepare them. With 300 recipes and 140 photographs that show off not only the finished dishes, but also the vegetables and farms behind them.