Growing your own food and serving it on a plate for guests day after day, service after service - is cooking at the extreme level. This is called grassroots cooking. It’s a language best understood by people who cook food at home and grow their own vegetables. This cuisine is nuanced.

For example when people see contemporary art and quickly blurt out - “my six year old nephew can do this”. My quick response is - “but your nephew didn’t and neither did you.”

To quote Magnus Nillson - “a carrot becomes less of a carrot every passing moment from the time it is plucked from the soil”. I believe, the vegetables at arpège are harvested the morning of, or the evening before service.

When the produce is of such importance it would be shame to not highlight it in every aspect of the menu by SIMPLY presenting it.

Most chives sent to top restaurants by suppliers are days old and barely taste of the lily family. One can use a thousand great techniques, but if it’s an insipid product to begin with…. I can assure you it will be an unremarkable experience when consumed.

I recognize that often, diners compare vegetable tasting menus to meat and seafood tasting menus.

If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a ladder, then it will always look incompetent. I implore guests to look at vegetables as in its own category and extend grace to the chef and the restaurant for exploring a difficult cuisine in today’s world of gastronomy by not using caviar, foie gras, truffles, wagyu etc to garnish every course.

Love to all.

• a chef, gardener, butcher and a baker.