MENU TRENDS: Hearty Salads Provide Cold Comfort
Hearty ingredients help restaurant customers warm up to salads in cooler-weather months.
By Fred Minnick, Special to R&I -- Restaurants & Institutions, October 15, 2008
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Substantive and savory are the keywords for winter salads, such as this version with venison by Robbie Lewis. GET THE RECIPE |
Salads are a given for summer, when the widest array of fresh ingredients is ripe for the picking. Yet many diners crave a bed of greens even when the weather turns cold and tastes turn toward comfort foods. A creative combination of specialty greens, flavorful proteins and seasonal fruit or vegetables can provide the satisfaction they seek. Even better for restaurants, consumers may be willing to spend more for these substantial salads. According to a June 2008 American Express MarketBrief survey conducted by Chicago-based research firm Technomic, diners cited larger portions, more protein, and the use of premium cheeses and vegetables as reasons they would pay more for a salad in a restaurant.
Seeing this potential, many chefs make salads as much a priority on their winter menus as they do in summer, tossing together a range of greens (arugula, endive, frisée, mizuna and more) plus unique ingredients that are fresh and fitting for the time of year.
“I usually use chicories and radicchios, plus heavy but 'safe’ cheeses,” says Robbie Lewis, former executive chef at Bacar in San Francisco and owner of the consulting firm Riviera Restaurant Group. Lewis also favors using Tuscan duck, New Zealand venison, warm mushrooms, grapes and bacon. “The point is to cover all the umami bases and get savory, sweet, crunchy and other textural aspects in there,” he says. While at Bacar, Lewis paired fried egg and frisée with duck confit, haricots verts and whole-grain-mustard vinaigrette. His Blossom Bluff Nectarine Salad combined prosciutto di Parma, endive and toasted almonds.
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| Jake’s Restaurant pairs frisée and duck confit with a French potato salad made with walnuts and Roquefort cheese. |
Adding hearty ingredients seems to be a good way to entice college students to eat their greens as well, particularly during colder months. At Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.—where winter’s chill arrives early—Executive Chef Carmen Allen says that students look for wholesome, flavorful ingredients to keep them full and warm. For these young diners, the solution can be as simple as adding grilled chicken or salmon to a Greek or Caesar salad, although on a bed of lettuce, even root vegetables—parsnips, squash, beets, Brussels sprouts—gain appeal. “If I just steam Brussels sprouts, the kids won’t go near them,” says Allen. “But if I roast all of those ingredients together and offer them [on a salad], I can never make enough.”
Indeed, according to R&I’s 2007 Menu Census, salads in general are rising in popularity, particularly in schools as well as at casual-dining restaurants.
A Complex Approach
Chef Jeremy Lieb of Trois restaurant in Atlanta steps up his winter salads by injecting either sweet–and–sour or bitter–and–salty contrasts. “I try to have a great balance—I will grill baby vegetables, poach scallions, use artichokes and quail egg,” says Lieb, who chooses mixed greens as the base for many of the salads. “I don’t want to take away from the vegetables because they are beautiful. If you get great products and respect them, you don’t have to do much to make it taste great.”
 
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| Chef Jeremy Lieb of Trois shows off complex flavors in a goat-cheese-and-endive salad (top) as well as his salmon carpaccio with leafed-herb salad. |
Inspired winter-salad offerings include beet-cured salmon carpaccio with shaved fennel, celery and leafed-herb salad and Belgian endive with baked goat cheese.
Fresh is Still Best
Of course, salads are all about fresh ingredients, and that mandate is no different late in the year. In his salads, Chef Sam Hayward of Fore Street in Portland, Maine, loves to make use of local shrimp—in season from December through April—which he says are sweeter than Gulf varieties. Explains Hayward: “The tender meats are very sensitive to acidity, so we might add just a few drops of a vinegar at the last moment and give it a quick toss. This really seizes up the proteins on the outside of the shrimp nicely.”
Hayward also uses venison and other game meats with winter greens, opting
to buy animals whole to allow for more options. “When we buy a whole deer, we’ll break down the shoulder or leg and cure, smoke and serve the thinly sliced or shredded meat cold with wild mushrooms and a mix of chicories,” he says.
Something for All Seasons
For some operators, what works in summer proves just fine for winter, too. Trois’ Tuna Nicoise, for example, with green beans, golden potatoes, peppers, eggs and olives, has proved to be a multi-season hit.
At Jake’s Restaurant in Manayunk, Pa., Chef Bruce Cooper finds that the Cornmeal Encrusted Calamari Salad with arugula, radicchio, scallion and spicy red-pepper vinaigrette resonates with customers year-round. So does his Roquefort Salad, featuring Boston lettuce, Belgian endive, watercress, croutons, bacon and Roquefort dressing. If Cooper does add a special winter salad to the menu, it also will feature meat or cheese. “I always prefer salads that have something in them,” says Cooper. “My mother couldn’t get me to eat salads unless they had meat or cheese.” As with so much in cooking, it seems mother knows best.
Contact writer at riedit@reedbusiness.com
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