Photo by Andrew Thomas Lee
Miller Union owner and executive chef Steven Satterfield is renowned for his vegetable-forward dishes. He released his first cookbook, entitled Root to Leaf in 2015 and was named the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: Southeast two years later. In the last few years, he’s been exploring putting a multicultural spin on vegetables, while evolving his cooking style to include different textures and flavors. Co-authored by food stylist and recipe developer Andrea Slonecker, Satterfield’s new cookbook—Vegetable Revelations: Inspiration for Produce-Forward Cooking—features recipes that help people experience vegetables in a new light. From kale French toast to fava bean primavera with hazelnut pesto, every recipe is unique. Below, he shares what he learned while writing the book.
How was the cookbook writing process different this time around?
The first time, I had too many ideas and had to edit it down a lot. This one, by the time we got the proposal approved, it was June 2020. I was trying to save Miller Union and all the other restaurants working with the Independent Restaurant Coalition. It was really challenging to work on the book simultaneously. I shot with [local photographer] Andrew Thomas Lee in his studio in his backyard. There were many times we were keeping social distance, leaving doors open for ventilation, and wearing masks. Some of the dishes I was making I didn’t have time to do the R&D and made live. I would retrofit the recipe through the testing process to make sure we had the same desired outcome.
What was your inspiration?
A lot of things I’ve been working on have been inspired by things I tasted while traveling or how a different cultural food experience could be applied to a vegetable. Atlanta is such a multicultural city. It’s about applying the global pantry to the vegetable world and pushing ourselves outside our comfort zone a bit.
I’m always thinking about how vegetables can be…
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