Forget What You Think You Know About Salads

   Salads are often portrayed as a boring heap of vegetables, most likely smothered in ranch dressing. What you may not realize is salad has so much to offer if given the chance. How many times have you heard a common garden salad referred to as "rabbit food?" If never...well then, lucky you. As someone held responsible for garde manger or cold foods in my every day life, I like to think of salads as more that just a simple heap of ice berg lettuce, carrots, and tomatoes. So here we go...I would like to take you on a visual journey of some of my own creations over the past month or so. The pictures you will see are from my own personal collection. I keep them to remind me of ideas I've come up with.

First up: Coppa and Pickled Green Tomato Salad

List of ingredients: house made coppa (hand crafted by my sous chef), my own pickled green tomatoes and locally grown Jimmy Nardello peppers, shaved manchego cheese, arugula, field greens, roasted pumpkin seeds and cherry sorghum balsamic vinaigrette. 

Second to make the cut: Pickled Apple and Pancetta Salad

List of ingredients: Admittedly, this one has a lot going on, but the cool thing is it didn't need a dressing. When all the ingredients came together it was an explosion of flavors that played well off of each other. Featured also are strawberries, parmesan cheese, beet root hummus, gooseberry conserve, pickled apples, pancetta, and arugula.  Most if not all of the ingredients were bought local and made in-house. 

Last one for now: Roasted Local-Beet Carpaccio

List of ingredients: So a few months ago my sous chef received a ton of beets from a local farmer. Beets. Everywhere. Here's where I come in. Wanting to do a play on the ever famous beef-carpaccio, I knew I could pull off a colorful and tasty beet-carpaccio. It featured candy stripped beets, golden beets, red beets, and white beets. Along with the surplus of beets this dish also featured pickled ground cherries, sorrel, dressed shallots, balsamic reduction, toasted almonds, and blistered grapes. 

   When unlocking my creative side at work I try to keep in mind local trends, extra ingredients we have in the kitchen, and what will look good together on a plate. I'd like to think I have quite a few talents in the kitchen, but for the most part I have been assigned my designated station at work. I make the best of it by continually pairing charcuterie meats and cheeses with our locally grown produce. So the next time you think of salad please remember not to limit your imagination to a bunny nibbling on a carrot stick. 

Bonus Picture: Grilled Shrimp and Sweet Corn