A New York City chef is taking an Empire State Building restaurant by storm with plant-based dishes that are healthy and delicious.
“I found my way up here after college and went to school, it was just really what I was meant to do,” said Jarrett. “I ended up at a great small restaurant in Brooklyn called Seersucker. I worked for them for several years and then I had an opportunity with Yellow Magnolia restaurant at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.”
Jarrett started at STATE Grill and Bar, located within the Empire State Building, in 2019, and has taken her farm-to-table approach to the menu. Though everything was put on hold for a period of time due to the pandemic, once STATE was back and ready for action, Jarrett got to work on the menu. “Everyone loves bucatini and it’s kind of a classic pasta, It’s kind of a classic pasta dish, but I wanted to apply my own sensibility to it. Me and my team, we came up with a way of making the pasta by juicing fresh beets and it gives the pasta this beautiful color. But then after we’re done juicing the beets, we take the pulp that’s left inside the juicer and we dehydrate it, so it’s like breadcrumbs,” said Jarrett.For the sauce, fresh fennel is sautéed and deglazed with white wine.
In Jarrett’s cooking, she says that vegetables are the most interesting part of her dishes and makes it so they can stand alone on their own or with meat added to the plate.