For most of his 42 years, Scot Jones’ idea of comfort food was shaped by the meals he and his eight siblings were raised on in West Akron. He rhapsodizes about his mother’s stuffed roasted chicken, beef stroganoff and chicken paprikash.

“My aunt used to make this stuff called mush,” he adds. “It was ground beef cooked off with a couple cans of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup over mashed potatoes. That was the best!”

Jones radically revised that definition after assuming executive-chef duties at The VegiTerranean, a Rubber City restaurant opened by rocker Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, Canton restaurateur Dan Duplain and Jones in late 2007. “Chrissie opened up my eyes to a whole other world …,” he says of his fellow Akronite. Culinary training and a well-educated palate allowed him to adapt to cooking without animal products almost immediately. But the change in personal eating habits was a gradual one for a lifelong carnivore who spent much of his career preparing meaty northern Italian dishes at Johnny’s in Cleveland, Duplain’s Fedeli in Canton and his own Grappa’s in Akron.

“I’d look at that steak at the supermarket and go, ‘Oh, my God, what I could do with that!’” he says. “It was tough in the beginning. But then I started playing around at home, like I played around at the restaurant.” Among his first creations were a creamy squash soup and a minestrone alla Genovese made with fresh pesto, pastina and vegetables. “I got great flavors, and my partner and I were satisfied.”

Jones’ more homespun menu options include fresh whole-wheat tofu linguine with a hearty portabello and wild-mushroom ragout and a vegan pot pie made with tofu instead of chicken or turkey. He also uses brand-name meat substitutes such as Tofurkey sausage in his Back on the Chain Gang sausage sandwich (named after one of The Pretenders’ greatest hits) and Gardein patties — made of wheat, soy, the ancient grain quinoa and pea, beet and carrot proteins — in his baked rigatoni Bolognese. The offerings have won over meat-eating he-men who arrived at The VegiTerranean planning to make a run for the nearest McDonald’s after the bill was paid. “As a chef,” he says, “that’s the challenge I love.”

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Whole-Wheat Linguine With Portabello and Wild Mushroom Ragout

Jones replaces the whole-wheat tofu linguine made for the restaurant by Ohio City Pasta in Cleveland with a plain whole-wheat counterpart for at-home preparation. He credits the portabello mushrooms with giving the sauce its meaty flavor.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 ½ pounds whole-wheat linguine
1 1/3 cups fresh portabello mushrooms, sliced 1/2-inch thick
1 1/3 cups fresh oyster mushrooms, sliced 1/2-inch thick
1 1/3 cups fresh shitake mushrooms, sliced 1/2-inch thick
1 teaspoon fresh garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh shallots, chopped
2 cups Chianti or cabernet sauvignon wine
4 cups fresh or canned roma toma-toes, roughly chopped, with juice
1 teaspoon mixed fresh sage, rosemary and thyme, chopped
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper or to taste


Directions:

1) Prepare linguine according to package directions. Heat olive oil in large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, garlic and shallots and saute for 8 minutes. Add red wine and continue sauteing for 2 minutes.

2) Add tomatoes to sauce and cook for 10 minutes or until sauce is thick. Add sage, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper. Strain linguine and divide among four plates. Ladle sauce over linguine. Serves 4.

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