Stunning Vegan Goat Cheese Tarts with Pesto from Chef Romy

Tatum, bonjour. Comme se va? Tres bien. Merci. But, Jane, can we please stop pretending that we speak French? Bonjour! Hello, I’m Jane Velez-Mitchell. And I’m Tatum Larson. Welcome to New Day, New Chef Lite. This season may be called Lite, but we’re definitely not Lite on flavor. That’s for sure. We’re bringing you our famous plant-based recipes that are quick, easy, and perfect for lunch. Today, our chef is a French pastry genius and owner of ID Eclair, an extraordinary award-winning restaurant in Pasadena, California. We’re so excited to welcome Chef Romy Dio. Bonjour! Tell us, what are we making? So, today we are going to make a veggie pot. So, like basic ingredient, but fancy presentation. We are going to play with tomatoes, carrots, like a lot of vegetables we can easily find. And our base is going to be a goat cheese, a truffle goat cheese. Magnifique, let’s make it very clear, there is no goat and there is no dairy. This is 100% vegan cheese, no animal products at all. Totally, yes. Everything is 100% plant-based. And you are one of the most famous plant-based pastry chefs in the world. I am now, because I am here. A lot of people think you need butter from a cow and eggs, from a chicken, for great pastry, but you say menon, marcois. That’s a good question. You can find so many different items and even so much richer in taste in the plant world, like vegetables, like oil from different sources. And you can make things very, very tasty. And I think, really personally, I think even tastier and lighter than with butter. All the oil and support we use for the plant-based are lighter, there is no cholesterol inside, there is no bad fat, so everything is like really better for your body. And if you look at it on the calorie side, it’s lighter. You can eat more, so why not do it? I love to hear that. Let’s talk about the ingredients. Let’s get right to it. What do we have here, Monsieur? So here we have our vegan goat cheese. You have carrots. I already cut them to make them smaller. You have a French radish. They are French, they are not like round and red, like the American one. This one tastes bland and tastes very crunchy, so I love them. You have an orky mushroom, so I love this mushroom because they are tiny and they are so beautiful. And when you do plating, it’s like you bring a dimension on your plate and it’s fantastic. They’re so cute. They are adorable. Look at these little mushrooms. Cauliflower, tomato, zucchini, and that, I don’t know how you call it in English. Fennel? I think it kind of has like that licorice flavor. It’s very, very anise, licorice flavor. And on the tart, it’s nice because it’s going to bring crunchiness and freshness to the tart. Now, I have my eyes on these little cups here. Did you make those from scratch? Yes. We make all our pie shells made in our shop. This is a mix of different kinds of oil, flour. They are all gluten-free. And so to finish, we have pine nuts, olive oil, and basil. We are going to do a pesto to go with this tart. Oh, perfect. So how can we help you put this tart together? What can we do? First thing first, I am going to blanch some vegetables because what we want when we do any kind of pastry or any kind of food is to play with the different textures. So some crunchies, some fondant. So we are going to blend some of them. Break our cauliflower to get only small pieces. You know, we are looking, we call that sommité in French. What is it? Sommité. Sommité. We really want the small part. Also, like, we are doing a tart. We are going to make something fun. So we are going to take our radish, and we are going to cut them. So that’s an easy thing to do. Or if you want, like, impress your guests. You cut them like that, and after you put them in cold water, and they are going to open like a flower. So it’s boiling water and salt. We just, actually, I am going to cook the carrots to make them, like, a little bit softer. I don’t want them softer, but I want a little bit. Okay. We keep the crunchiness, but not completely. Okay. Now, you were saying that you like a challenge, but all of these ingredients seem fairly simple and easy to put together. Is that your goal when you’re putting your vegan recipes together, simple, clean ingredients? Yes, yes. And I think we should really use, like, simple, clean ingredients. And after it’s our job as a chef to create, like, something fantastic with something basic at the start. But the most, most important in all of this story is to pick the right one and the tasty one. Because I can buy cauliflower, radish, tomato, and they cannot be tasty. And that also is really the challenge in the U.S., because in the U.S., like, you overproduce everything, a lot of things, especially the vegetables. It’s hard to find very tasty vegetables. So I prefer work with suppliers from farmers’ market or small production to get very, very tasty vegetables. What was your plant-based journey? Oh, that’s a long story. It starts almost 10 years ago because my brother-in-law is 100% vegan. And each time we were doing, like, family party, like, birthday, brunch, whatever, he cannot eat anything. He cannot eat any of the pastry I was doing. And that bothered me because what’s the purpose if not everybody can enjoy it? And like I told you, I am a challenger. So I look at it and I say, okay, why with all these beautiful ingredients, nobody is bringing the vegan pastry and the vegan food as another level with something nicer, something tastier. We can do so much things. So let’s do it. And that’s how I declare it is born, and that’s my way to the vegan world. Can I high-five you when you’re wearing a glove? Of course. Yes, can I just say thank you so much for setting such a good example for chefs everywhere. Yes. You know, it is a challenge to create delicious vegan food, but it’s not something that’s impossible, and I think you’re proving that today. Thank you. So my carrots are still cooking. I just put the cauliflower inside because, like, you see, they are tiny, so they are going to cook very fast. And I’m just going to take off everybody at the same time. Okay, wow. So far, I could do this, which is really shocking. Yeah, no, this is definitely user-friendly, and I see now you’re given the vegetables a little ice bath. Why are you doing that? So each time when you blanch a vegetable, whatever you do, you need to take it off and put it in ice to stop the cooking, because if you just let it on the side, it’s going to continue to cook and it’s going to be very, very soft. You are going to lose the crunchiness. Okay. Wow, light bulb moment. I never, never, never realize that. That’s why so many of my vegetables are overcooked. Same here. Yeah, I’m like the main mushy vegetable offender, so now I know. That’s perfect. Oh, wow. That’s worth the price of admission right there. So now we are going to prep everything we need to do the start. Huh. So I’m going to get the tomato into it. So you see these tomatoes are like colorful, nice, and if you try them, they are very, very tasty. Oh, now here we go, our little mushroom friends. Aww. Bye, guys. Worthy cause. Oh, look at that. Look at those tiny little mini mushrooms. Mini, mini. So we are going to slice our funnel too. So same thing with the funnel. What we are looking for, it’s like really a tiny slice. Yeah. Not something very… Well, the funnel is very strong. It has that licorice taste and too much of it can really ruin. It’s kind of like turmeric. I have poured too much turmeric on so many things. So you don’t see it, but all the vegetable has been washed before I start. So they are all clean. That’s why I can work them directly. Yes, yes. We are going to use the zucchini. So for the fun part, we are just going to do peels. Now that’s raw zucchini. And everybody has that on. So it’s pretty easy. You can do that with zucchini. You can do that with carrots. Yeah. And when that’s done, we are just going to get the slice in two. I just love how intricate everything is. Everything is just so artfully done. Ah, it’s like exactly. We eat with our eyes before we eat with our mouth. So everything you see needs to be nice. It needs to give you like this envy to eat it, like this connection. And that’s really what is our mouth. Our job as a chef because cooking is not art. The art part is really like creating the connection between all the products, make them work together, make them look beautiful. You’re an artist. Let’s just call it what it is. Truly. Yeah, look at all of these beautiful swirls here. And look at the color combo. I know, it’s gorgeous. We’ve got red. We’ve got yellow. We’ve got brown. We’ve got off-white. They say eat the rainbow. We’re going to eat the rainbow today. Oh, and then we’ve got pink. Look at that. The flowers. Oh, there we go. This is our radish. So like I told you, we cut them and they open like a flower. It’s so pretty. And did you come up with this yourself or did you study under some chef? Yeah, I am for generation of cook and pastry chef. My father was a chef. My grandfather was a chef. And I grew up in my grandfather restaurant. And all of this trick was things I saw at this time, things I learned like talking with them. So there you go. Just in your blood. What’s the most important lesson that you gleaned from your family growing up? Do what you love. And that’s really what I teach to all my co-workers and all my staff team. It’s find a job you love because if you do that, you will never work another day in your life. You will just go and enjoy what you do. And that’s what I do. It’s my passion. I like it. So I don’t care to wake up at 3am to make my customer happy because I like what I do. I love it. Now all our vegetables are ready. So I’m going to put them in my bowl with a little bit of olive oil. A little bit of balsamic vinegar. That’s it so simple? Yes. Just a little bit. Just a touch. Some salt. You’re talking my language. I love salt. So I am going to mix all of that to cover them with the olive oil and the spices. You’re right. So you see the look actually. Oh, wow. Let’s… Oh, look at that. A whole little family. It looks so perfect. Whoa. Look at that. So I’m going to put my cheese inside like that. All right. So the Robert cheese is soft. So it’s easy to work with. So we are going to fill our tart with the cheese. Look at the form. Yeah. So that’s the best we should have working. Sorry. The tart shell is oil. The flour, salt. Wow. So these are all homemade. Yeah. These are made in my shop and that’s what I used to do my page three with it. Aha. Now I don’t have a pan that looks exactly like that, but could I use like a muffin tin? Yeah. You can do whatever shape you want. The pie can be wrong. It just… So my shop is called I.D. Eclair because Eclair is my favorite dessert and everything in my shop is going to be this shape. So Eclair shape. That’s why my pie looks like that. I like that. Eclair. So we are going to work exactly like a fruit tart. Like, yeah, just like a tart. And we are going to play with like all our shape, our vegetable, all our design. That’s so beautiful. To make it look nice. So the advice when you do that, it’s don’t follow any regular organization. Just put them like whatever you want and all the color are going to work together at the end and bring you something who is going to be very fabulous. Oh my gosh. Look at how that’s coming together. Look how cute. This is adorable. This is so adorable. I love this. Next party, I’m making beer. I’m going to blow my friends away. Oh, I love that with the flowers. Oh my gosh. Bright, fresh and packed with flavor. Right now, here we have our veggie tart. So we have the crispy tart, we have the fondant cheese and the vegetable on the top. That’s super nice, but we need to go over that and bring like some peps on this recipe. So we are going to do a pesto. We’re going to do a pesto now? Yes, we are going to do a pesto now. This is always up in the bar. I love that. We are going to need two ingredients. Okay. Like the pine nuts. So it’s better to toss them before in an oven like to get them a little bit caramelized. I did it before I came. Olive oil. Uh-huh. We all know what that’s like. And fresh basil. Oh my gosh, the aroma. So first we are going to put our basil inside. So we are going to use the head of the basil. I’m blown away by this process. Is there a specific measurement that you go by with the basil or do you just grab? You just grab it. Measure with your heart. Yeah, exactly. Got it. We are going to put our pine nuts. Wow. And we are going to drop a little bit of olive oil. Hold on. Hold on a second. We have a tradition around here at New Day New Chef. Any time we use the blender, we do the blender dance. Are you ready to dance, sir? Uh, yes I am. Are you ready to dance? Yes, let’s do it. Okay, let’s hit it. So, not too much. Not too much fun. Uh, not too much because we won’t keep the big part inside our pesto to get crunchiness. Oh, okay. You see it. Oh, okay. With the squoosh. Oh, squoosh. Yeah, very nice. And we have about that. Oh, beautifully done. Oh, my gosh. Chef Rami, you have outdone yourself. Yes. Thank you so much. I want to eat it. Oh, this is just first class service here. Thank you so much. Oh, my gosh. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Look at this. Look how beautiful this is. It’s almost too pretty to eat. And speak for yourself. Mm. You just need that sound. We are good. Mm. We bake our tart like 10 minutes in our connection oven. So, we are looking for something crunchy. It’s really crunchy because we just make it. But technically, we let it sit like a few minutes or a few hours before you serve it to your guests. And the pie starts to get the humidity from the cheese. And you really get the crunchiness, but also the softness. Yeah, you get only the crunchiness. I owe you. Oh, my gosh. Incredible. Thank you so much for an amazing lunch. It was so delicious. If you want a copy of this recipe, you can check it out on Unchained TV’s website on the screen below. Extraordinary. You can also watch this episode again and all of your favorite New Day, New Chef episodes, as well as the best in plant-based documentaries, TV shows, so much more on Unchained TV, the app, which is on your TV, your phone, and your tablet. Really hope you enjoyed that as much as we did. Thank you so much for joining us. And if you happen to make this for lunch, please show us on your socials using the hashtag NDNC. Chef Romy, thank you so much for coming in. This was truly extraordinary. I learned so much. Delicious lunch. You’ve got to check it out. ID Eclair in Pasadena, which also has a wine bar. It’s worth the trip. You’ll never have pastry like this. Plant-based. It’s good for you, the environment, and the animals, too. It’s a new day, and you, too, can be a new chef. See you next time. Let’s dance it out, people.