Bernardus Lodge Launches Plant-Based Summer Menu

June 15, 2021 – The new menu items leap off the plate with an explosion of color and freshness: striped beet spring rolls, purple cauliflower soup, yellow corn-sweet pea-black truffle agnolotti, electric red strawberries in a bed of Italian burrata.

But as inspired and appetizing as Lucia Restaurant’s new Colors of the Season rundown might be, new menus from Bernardus Lodge’s Lucia Restaurant and its Cal Stamenov-led kitchen aren’t entirely newsworthy.

They do them too often and too well. But this one is notable, as it offers the latest wave of wonder in a dining world leaning increasingly away from meat. Note Daniel Humm reopening Eleven Madison Park as completely vegan last week, Eric Ripert touring behind his new Vegetable Simple: A Cookbook, Bon Appétit shelving any beef recipes on its Epicurious website, and The Beet news outlet predicting 2021 is the year plant-based eating goes mainstream.

In debuting the menu, Bernardus cites a Gallup poll that found 77 percent of Americans have reduced their meat consumption in the past 12 months, with more than half moving to a more “flexitarian” or semi-vegetarian diet. It’s no coincidence our recent coverage has spotlighted a vegan taco shack on Cannery Row and entirely vegetarian Terra Superfoods in Old Monterey.

So bring on the local asparagus steamed with saffron couscous, curly purple mustard and a passion fruit emulsion; the “backdoor avocado” salad with quinoa, heirloom tomatoes, fennel and fresh basil; the green gazpacho born of celery, cilantro, avocado and piquant padron peppers; the leafy green risotto with kale, Swiss chard, spinach, chervil and fava; the stuffed rainbow chard and its artful interplay of green lentils du Puy, zucchini, brown rice and goat cheese. (Plates run $16-$36.)

Stamenov has been into garden-fresh product for the arc of his celebrated career. That’s why he helps cultivate a two-acre organic garden on property, maintains close relationships with the likes of Swank Farms, and keeps his own bee paradise backyard. 

That’s where I found him on Monday, tending to a flock of pollinators that buzz from eight hives among trees and bushes studded with kiwi, almonds, peaches, apples, quince, pomegranate, raspberries, blackberries, apricots, avocados and persimmons.

He talked about how he likes having a vegetarian menu with the option of a piece of meat or fish, rather than an animal protein-heavy menu with a symbolic veggie plate.

“You have to cook what you like,” he says. “For me, I raise vegetables, so I have a lot of respect for them because I get to nurture them.”

The widening veggie focus, meanwhile, empowers him to tap into something that’s as much about flavor as it is personal or planetary health.  

“Now we’re seeing more demand for good vegetables, as people are a lot more aware of ingredients, and they did a lot of research into small farms during COVID, and even started ordering produce by direct mail,” he says. “For me, I love the colors, especially in the spring and summer, but the flavor has to be there.”

In this case, it’s safe to say it is.