When fruit and vegetables arrive at the table without having traveled the earth, you can really taste the difference. The flavor is more intense and, of course, fresher. Modern vegetable cuisine values regionality, seasonality, and sustainability. When creative cooks also get involved, they conjure up true taste experiences from vegetables. And sometimes a piece of meat is also allowed – that distinguishes it from vegetarian cuisine, which hasn’t always devoted itself to regionality, and sometimes tries to imitate the taste of meat.

Farm-to-Table

The very definition of creative vegetable cuisine is TIAN Restaurant Wien. Star chef Paul Ivic serves seasonal vegetarian cuisine of the highest standard. On the menu at the TIAN is something very simple: fennel, kohlrabi, celery. What is served is stunning. Rare, almost forgotten types of vegetable and fruit from the region are brought to the table. Ivic focuses intensively on sustainability. He prefers to throw away as little as possible when cooking, and also uses roots, leaves and peel (read about this in his cookbook "Restlos glücklich"). "Eating is more than just taking in nutrients. Eating means taking responsibility for all the raw ingredients and all the hard-working people in the background," says Ivic. "And my team appreciates their hard work by making every effort to process the whole plant – from root to leaf – and throw nothing away."

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Hotel Gilbert is not just a green hotel with lots of plants on the façade and inside; here, the greenery is also served at the table. In the hotel restaurant &flora, everything revolves around vegetables straight from the farm – prepared in a sustainable and modern way. Chef Parvin Razavi cooks according to the conviction "From Leaf to Root" and uses all parts of vegetables and fruits. Colorful, light cuisine with international influences, in which meat is served at most as a side order.

brösl in the Stuwerviertel district may look like a classic Viennese beisl, but appearances are deceiving. No Viennese cuisine is served at brösl; instead, the focus is on farm-to-table. The menu changes daily because the products come from small producers. The cooking is done using whatever is available. The style of the cuisine itself has a Mediterranean element, and yes, fish and meat are also on the menu here.

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The C.O.P. restaurant serves authentic cuisine with no frills. The name stands for “Collection of Produce” and is a joint venture between Haya Molcho and chef Elihay Berliner. Regional produce with no long transportation routes is another core theme at the C.O.P. restaurant. There are sensational vegetable dishes on the menu here too, as well as meat and fish.