Chefs play a major role in encouraging the consumption of fresh produce. The New York Produce Show’s Chef Demo Stage spotlighted three well-known chefs who are developing produce-forward menus.

The New York Produce Show was held Dec. 6, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center.

The 14^th annual New York Produce Show and Conference (NYPS) opened Dec. 5. The three-day event had a record audience of more than 5,000 executives attending the one-day trade show and three co-located events. There were 350-plus exhibiting companies and a record of 41 sponsors. The New York Produce Show is organized by Produce Business and the Eastern Produce Council.

JESSICA PAMONICUTT

First up on the stage was Jessica Pamonicutt, executive chef and owner, Ketapanen Kitchen, Chicago, IL. Pamonicutt owns Chicago’s first and only Native American pop-up kitchen and catering company.

Pamonicutt, classically trained at Le Cordon Bleu School of Culinary Arts, brings healthy, indigenous, fusion cuisine to the forefront of Chicago’s culinary scene with Ketapanean Kitchen.

A member of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, she was born on the reservation and raised in Chicago, immersed in a communal setting where food was the centerpiece of life. Pamonicutt says because of her background “when she says she can cook for an army, she really can.”

Ketapanen, an expression of love in the Menominee language, embodies her mission. The menu offers traditional and modern indigenous dishes, and familiar ones featuring locally sourced indigenous ingredients — 90% of her menu is plant- or produce-based.

Pamonicutt partners with organizations across the Great Lakes Region to address issues such as food access, food sovereignty, food justice and healthy eating. She is Chef Partner of The Trotter Project, an educational partner of Pilot Light, and a board member of The American Indian Center of Chicago.

Pamonicutt created an Indigenous Salad during the demonstration. The simple salad with pickled blueberries also included apples, limes, sweet kale, pumpkin seeds, clementines, dried cranberries, apple chips, olive oil, honey, orange juice, maple syrup, golden berry puree and goat cheese.

Pamonicutt says you should be able to taste everything you put in a dish. “Nine times out of 10, when you go out to eat, some of these dishes are great and beautiful, but they have so many different sauces and seasonings that you miss the simplicity of the ingredients because these great produce items get hidden underneath. I don’t like that to happen in my dishes, so I try to find a way to make sure they are always balanced, and you can discern everything in that dish just by tasting it,” she says.

DAINA SOTO-SELLERS

Next in the chef demo lineup, was Chef Daina Soto-Sellers, of Johnson & Wales University, Charlotte, NC. She is a science-driven chef with more than 20 years of experience in the food and beverage industry, both front- and back-of-house. Her experience includes catering, casual, fine dining and hotel environments in Puerto Rico, Saipan, St. Thomas USVI, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi and Boston. She has been a full-time culinary instructor at Johnson & Wales University Charlotte since 2015 and previously taught in Puerto Rico, her birthplace.

Soto-Sellers has a master’s degree in culinary innovation and food product development from the Dublin Institute of Technology in Ireland. She also trained with research and development chefs at the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastian, Spain. She currently teaches courses for the Culinary Nutrition Program (Applied Nutrition, Vegetarian and Food Science).

She created a Mushroom “Crabcakes” (minus the crab) dish during her demonstration. Soto-Sellers treats the mushrooms like the meat in the dish. In addition to mushrooms, the dish also includes oil, shallots, garlic, seaweed, soy sauce, breadcrumbs, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, chili powder, quinoa, egg and parsley.

When cooking, Soto-Sellers says it is important, plant-based or not, to layer flavors. “When I was making this dish, it was a bunch of layering. I started with high heat, mushrooms and then shallots, so it’s specific steps that will then layer flavor in my final dish.”

MING TSAI

Chef Ming Tsai, founder of Ming’s Bings, was the featured chef for the 2:30 p.m. demonstrations. He is a James Beard and Emmy Award-Winner, philanthropist, TV personality and entrepreneur.

Tsai is the creator of award-winning restaurants, author of five cookbooks, was host and executive producer of the longest-running cooking series on PBS, Simply Ming, and he just shot a new miniseries, Simply Ming: Better For You.

In 2022, Tsai joined the cast of five world-class chefs in the Netflix series Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend. In 2020, he launched an East-meets-West frozen food line, MingsBings. He is the chairman of the National Advisory Board for Family Reach and an ambassador for World Central Kitchen.

Tsai made three recipes during his demonstration at the New York Produce Show: Watercress Salad with Warm Chicken and Sweet Potato Vinaigrette; Sizzling Beef and Water Spinach; and Watercress Fried Rice.

Two of his recipes included watercress, which he says has been voted the No. 1 healthiest green vegetable in the world. Tsai joked and said, “if you eat watercress, you will never die.”

“I think it’s so easy to bring veggies into your food,” says Tsai.

STUDENT CHEFS

Student chefs representing Johnson & Wales University’s Providence, RI, and Charlotte, NC, campuses foraged among the hundreds of booths on the show floor for ingredients to create three courses each at the Show’s Culinary Innovation Station.

A Crostini Trio starring Snap Dragon Apples, Mangos and Arugula; Gratin of Rainbow Potatoes, Onions and Spinach; and Mushroom Scallops with a Butternut Squash Sauce, Blistered Tomatoes and Corn, were among the offerings that were tasted and voted on by show attendees.

“I looked at all the produce and a million ideas came to mind,” says Sean Holmes, from the Providence campus, who is majoring in baking and pastry arts with a minor in culinary sustainability.

SAVE THE DATE!

Mark your calendar for next year’s New York Produce Show and Conference: Dec. 10-12, 2024.

And exhibitors, book your booth now, as there’s a limited time to maintain the current booth rate. Visit www.nyproduceshow.com/exhibit2024 or talk to your sales representative before Jan. 12 to lock in the 2023 rate!

• • •

Recipes:

Watercress Salad with Warm Chicken and Sweet Potato Vinaigrette

By Ming Tsai 2023
(Serves 4)

Ingredient List
2 large chicken breasts, skin on, seasoned well 30 minutes prior to cooking
3 large shallots, sliced
2 tbs Dijon mustard
2 tbs tamari
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large sweet potato, cooked through in microwave (5-8 mins, wrapped in damp paper towels and poked), peel and dice into ½-inch cubes
2 cups No. 2 watercress
Grape seed oil to cook 
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Instructions
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Heat a large sauté pan to medium hot heat. Coat with oil and add chicken, skin side down. Cook for 2-3 minutes until brown, then flip. Place in the oven and roast for 8-12 minutes, depending on the size of chicken breasts. Cook until the internal temperature reads 155 degrees, remove to rest. The chicken will continue to cook and carry over past 160 degrees.

For vinaigrette: In the same pan, use the chicken fat to sauté shallots, cook until soft for about 2 minutes, and season. Whisk in Dijon, tamari and rice vinegar. Bring to a simmer and whisk in olive oil. Season to taste.

Slice up chicken and add to vinaigrette, toss. In a large bowl, add watercress, sweet potatoes and mix with chicken vinaigrette. Toss well, taste for seasoning.

Enjoy!

• • •

Sizzling Beef and Water Spinach

Rice Noodles
By Ming Tsai 2023
(Serves 4)

Ingredient List
12-16 oz NY Strip or your fav steak, trimmed, sliced into ¼ inch slices
3 tbs oyster sauce
1 bunch of scallions, sliced, green and white separated
1 tb minced ginger
1 tb minced garlic
1 tb toasted sesame oil
3 cups water spinach, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup chicken stock
Cornstarch slurry (½ tb cornstarch, mixed with 1-2 tbs cold water or stock)
4 cups rehydrated rice vermicelli
1 tb toasted white sesame seeds
Grape seed oil to cook
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Instructions
In a bowl, mix steak slices with oyster sauce, scallion whites, ginger, garlic, and sesame oil. Grind in black pepper. Marinate for 10 minutes.

Coat a hot wok with oil and stir-fry beef, moving constantly. You may have to do this in 2 batches. Set beef aside.

In the same wok, coat again with oil and stir-fry the spinach until wilted, season.

Add stock and bring to a simmer, whisk in slurry. Bring to boil and cook until it has a sauce-like consistency, about 1 minute.

Add back the beef, then noodles. Toss well.

Plate and garnish with scallion greens and sesame seeds.

Enjoy!

• • •

Watercress Fried Rice

By Ming Tsai 2023
(Serves 4)

Ingredient List
3 eggs, scrambled and seasoned
1 bunch of scallions, sliced, green and white separated
1 tb minced ginger
1 tb minced garlic
1 red bell pepper, small dice
2 cups watercress, chopped into 1-inch pieces, a handful set aside for garnish
4 cups cooked hot house rice (50/50 brown/white, soak brown rice for 1 hour separately in water then cook together with white rice)
2 tbs tamari
1 lemon, juice and zest
Grape seed oil to cook
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Instructions
Coat a large wok heavily with oil and heat until almost smoking.

Line a plate with paper towels.

Add eggs to wok and stir vigorously until puffed and cooked through, remove eggs and place on the paper towel lined plate to drain.

In the same wok, add a touch of oil then scallion whites, sauté for 1 minute then add ginger and garlic. Season, then sauté for 30 seconds.

Add bell pepper and watercress, season, cook for 1 minute.

Add hot house rice, cooked eggs and 1 tb tamari. Check for seasoning. Stir fry until warmed through, remove from heat.

Combine the remaining tb of tamari with 1 tb lemon juice. Toss with a handful of watercress and season.

Plate fried rice in a large bowl, top with dressed watercress, garnish with scallion greens, and lemon zest.

Enjoy!