I recently the pleasure to get acquainted with Greg Arnold, the head chef of  Sage, an organic vegan bistro in LA. At first glance, his menu seems out of this world for a small towner like me who is used average 70’s type vegetarian/vegan food found locally, unless I travel to a rather large city. The menu is loaded with organic specialty produce, robust spices, delicately balanced reductions, complex and thoughtful sauces and other glorious things that really set the restaurant and his food apart. Aside from Greg’s creativity in the kitchen, he is a great iphonographer and kind enough to share tips and tricks in both cooking and photography.

All of these components; the cooking, lifestyle and photography fit perfectly with my new project which makes use of the #ff (Follow Friday) trend on Twitter and like media outlets. It is intended to showcase new restaurants, up coming chefs and the like with a positive attitude and ultimate goal of a cruelty free lifestyle through a signature recipe of theirs photographed by me and a short Q&A about why they do what they do.

For today, we will start with Greg’s photography, his recipe and his view on why he does what he does.

Greg in the kitchen.

Upstairs.

View from upstairs at Sage in LA.

The man with a knife.

Pictured here the dish that I am recreating for Follow Friday. The balsamic reduction is topped with a golden slice of lasagna with layers of heirloom tomatoes and other vegetables, a rose petal, tomato and kalmata puree layered with a vegan bechamel sauce, topped with sliced almonds and a fried eggplant round. Is that enough to make you drool yet?

My next post will contain his prep photos, the instructions and of course my rendition. All photos shown in this post are taken by Greg. You can find more of his work by searching for @ofaire on Instagram.