Walk into Geist's kitchen and you won't find a produce supplier on speed dial. Instead, Krüger sources flash-frozen broccoli, peas, and strawberries from Greenyard, a European wholesaler specializing in vegetables frozen within four hours of harvest. "Fresh is a marketing term," Krüger explains bluntly. "Frozen is a preservation method. By the time your farmers market tomato reaches your plate, it's been refrigerated for seven days, sprayed with ethylene gas to ripen, and still tastes like cardboard." His frozen vegetables, in contrast, are harvested at peak ripeness and immediately flash-frozen at -40°C, locking in nutrients and flavor compounds before degradation occurs. The Science Behind the Taste Enzymatic browning—the chemical process that makes produce gradually lose color and flavor—happens slower in frozen vegetables because cellular water is locked into ice crystals. Krüger's broccoli, thawed just before service, has 12% more chlorophyll than its fresh equivalent because the chlorophyll hasn't oxidized over days of cold storage. He roasts the frozen broccoli without thawing, which creates a Maillard reaction that develops nutty, umami-rich flavors impossible to achieve with pre-thawed produce. "Frozen isn't lazy cooking. It's the only honest way to cook vegetables at scale," Krüger says. His caveat: buy vegetables frozen in bulk from wholesalers, not grocery store freezer aisles. Industrial freezing (done at harvest) preserves texture; retail freezing (done days later) creates ice crystals that rupture cell walls during thawing.