Once upon a time in this country, choosing not to eat meat meant resigning yourself to a life of mushy grains, bland “health foods,” and sprouts…so many sprouts.
So, when Greens came along in 1979, not long after the farm-to-table movement began taking shape, it wasn’t just a revelation—the restaurant was the vanguard of a plant-based eating revolution.
Executive chef Katie Reicher wasn’t even born when Greens opened in a defunct army facility on the San Francisco waterfront. When she got there on an externship during her studies at the Culinary Institute of America in 2015, Fort Mason still had the deserted look of, well, a defunct army facility.
Greens Restaurant executive chef, Katie Reicher(Erin Scott)
“I was 21, knew nobody in the city, walking into this warehouse that was Fort Mason,” says Reicher. “[I remember thinking] this restaurant’s fake, I’m gonna die here. But as soon as I opened the door, I was like oh my gosh, this beautiful gem. Everybody was so nice and the house was packed.”
That summer was all it took for the young chef to fall in love: with Greens, with San Francisco, with her future husband even, whom she met her second week in town. When Reicher completed her final year at culinary school, she immediately returned. Greens is the only restaurant she’s ever worked for—and she’s risen through the ranks so quickly, from line cook to sous chef to executive chef in just five years, it’s head-spinning.
Now, after leading the restaurant for an additional five years, Reicher is releasing her first cookbook, Seasons of Greens, on April 22nd.
Seasons of Greens is a compendium of more than 125 of Reicher’s dishes, brought to life with gorgeous photography by Erin Scott. The recipes are wide-ranging, inspired by culinary traditions from near and far.
“Greens has a history of supporting a world-based cuisine but before I took over, it was very limited—it was very subtle and very much interpreted back through a California lens,” says Reicher. Since taking the top job, the chef has “expanded the global reach of the menu,” and that’s reflected in the book’s pages.
Burrata toasts with balsamic cherries from 'Seasons of Greens'(Erin Scott)
Like choosing among children, it’s impossible for Reicher to pick a favorite recipe from the collection, but a few stand out in her mind. One, is the root vegetable biryani, an Indian-inspired rice dish made with turnip, sweet potato, celeriac, saffron, and cashews.
“On my menu, I have what I call menu slots. There’s always a pasta, always a pizza, always some kind of stew—and we have a slot we call the wild card, where you can kind of do whatever you want,” Reicher explains. “The biryani came about after months of ‘I’m going to throw this recipe out.’ I was really struggling. But it came on the menu and I almost couldn’t take it off because it was so popular. There’s a lot of love behind that recipe—and it’s also very easy to make.”
Half Ukrainian American, half Italian American, Reicher also feels a connection to the cookbook’s pierogies (with peas and feta), which she grew up making, and its manicotti with broccoli and béchamel, a dish her paternal grandmother used to make that’s similar to cannaloni but made with crepes.
“Including them in the book was really special,” says Reicher. “I also really love the pasta with the wild mushrooms and the chili crip on top [the caramelized mushroom & onion pasta]. I love all the pastas. I’m a pasta girly.”
Writing the cookbook was a lifelong dream for Reicher—”back before I even wanted to be a chef I was writing menus,” she says—but it’s just one of many things at Greens of which she is proud. At the top of the list is the restaurant’s healthy work culture. While some of her peers in the Bay Area struggle to hold on to staff, it’s been years since the chef has had to post an ad for employment.
Celery and peanut noodle salad from 'Seasons of Greens'(Erin Scott)
“There’s a lot of brothers, sons, cousins, sisters that work here,” she says. “People just bring in their family because it’s a great place to work and they know they’ll be treated right. That’s a big reason I stayed as long as I have, and will continue to stay.”
Another point of pride is the restaurant’s guest chef dinner series, which invites well-known local chefs to “showcase their cuisine through a vegetarian lens,” Reicher explains. “It helps some chefs reach parts of the community they haven’t been able to—like Brandon Jew of Mr. Jiu’s—in such a way that [diners] would feel like they are getting the full experience.” The guest chef dinner series will return a little later this year.
“Greens has come a long way in the five years I’ve been running it, but there are always more things to explore and dishes to try,” Reicher says. In other words, the wunderkind is just getting started.
As for the cookbook, the chef hopes it will help to introduce new audiences to Greens. Available now for preorder, Reicher will be discussing the book and signing copies at events next week: at Omnivore Books at its official release party on April 22nd, at Neon on April 23rd, and at a special Seasons of Greens Spring Supper at the restaurant on April 24th. She’ll make additional book tour stops in California through June.
// Greens is open for lunch Tuesday through Friday from 11:30am to 2:30pm, for brunch on Saturday and Sunday from 10:30am to 2:30pm, and for dinner Tuesday through Sunday from 5pm to 9pm; 2 Marina Blvd, Fort Mason Center Bldg. A (Marina), greenstrestaurant.com
The first cookbook from Greens Restaurant and executive chef Katie Reicher debuts April 22nd.(Erin Scott)
