Jun 15 2008
Summer Salad
A salad which could have been so good, and could have been so bad. Which was it?
- Chef’s Salad
This salad started out well, with ingredients I enjoy: iceberg lettuce was something of a favourite when I was a child; the ham was good stuff sliced thickly at the deli counter in waitrose; emmental, whilst not as good as gruyere, is an alright sort of cheese, and oh man, I love avocado…
But then, stone me, some eejit went and put a whole load of sweetcorn in it! Bleh! (It should be noted that I am perfectly happy to eat sweetcorn on the cob. Off it is just plain wrong!) Good grief what are we to do do it for the sake of the children challenge grumble grumble grumble grumble.
And do you know what? It was fantastic. Really moreish. As Nigella says in the book, the range of textures really works, as do the contrasts in flavours in each mouthful. Dare I say it, the sweet sweetcorn worked well against the plain lettuce and the salty ham. It was huge- too big to mix in the serving bowl so we had to resort to the bread bowl- but we almost finished it between us.
This recipe is from the Retro Rapido chapter; you can really tell, it didn’t feel at all like any salad you would get served in the UK at present. Much of the chapter feels old and dowdy, like my mum’s 1970’s edition of the Good Housekeeping cookery book. And yet Chef’s Salad felt firmly like the kind of thing I would expect to be served in France- in a home if not in a restaurant. The same can be said for much of the Retro Rapido chapter: Oeufs en cocotte; Mouclade; Crepes Suzette; the fondue and probably even the chicken liver salad are all French or French cuisine-inspired. I’d say that italian eating has influenced much of the cooking of my formative years, basil and rocket and olives and parma ham. Why then has the introduction of Italian ideas driven out French food- once so trendy (I grew up using the words Cordon Blew to mean posh cooking without knowing why) to the point that it now seems faded and out of touch?
Chef Salad used to be pretty big in North America around 10-20 years ago, and I think you can probably still get it in most diners/family restaurants. This version is quite a bit more “sophisticated” in that the ones you tend to get in NA contain lettuce, ham, tomato/other typical salad veg, and maybe some shredded processed cheese.
You’re right about French cooking seeming dated (maybe in the 70s we thought French cooking was really posh and impressive, and that was important back in the age of dinner parties?) and I’m definitely more influenced by Italian cuisine. I suspect that chefs like Jamie Oliver have brought Italian cookery into vogue.