Part II of Salads, Hors D'Ourves, Food as Art, and Garnishing

Salads II was all about composed salads... salads where every individual piece has a purpose on the plate. Chef Jay taught this class as well, and so we had a delicious family-style feast at the end - this style of class works well with some things, such as salads, and not so well with other classes, such as soups (it's hard to eat 10 bowls of soup).
During class, I worked on a marinated beet salad. I have a new found love for beets. Their brilliant, deep, color, the sweetness of their taste, and the versatility of their use all create a wonderful vegetable. Beginning by pressure cooking the beets, I then made the dressing/marinating liquid from balsamic vinegar, olive oil, shoyu, and a few more things. After the beets were cooked, they were peeled and cut into thin slivers (batonnets), and then soaked in the marinating liquid. I also prepared endive lettuce, but instead of chopping the endives, I peeled back individual leaves to use as "cups" for the beets. Chef Jay gave us the freedom to put our own spin on the salads, and so I created this dish as an appetizer course, instead of the salad course. Dicing the beets, I then scooped them into the cup portion of the endive, garnished with a bit more dressing, seasoned, and voila they were ready to serve! Such a simple process, but delicious and beautiful - in line with my philosophy of letting the food speak for itself.

Once again, we had ALOT of delicious salads to enjoy for lunch... below are pictures of my favorites. Notice that each salad is very carefully plated, with each component in a specific place.




Garnishing class was all about creating things out of food - tomato roses, tourne potatoes, fans, fluted mushrooms, winged apples, and lots of other technical things.

A lot of times these techniques signal professionalism and "high-end dining" to the diner. In the right dish at the right time, the things I learned in this class will be valuable, but on the whole, I think that creating objects out of food is an unnecessary addition to the plate - food is beautiful in its natural state. I did learn alot of elegant, understated techniques for garnishing soups, desserts, etc. that I think will be useful. One of my friends, however, undertook the task of creating Mr. Penguin and Mr. Sheep out an eggplant - made famous by a recent food competition contestant who won by using this technique to create a kid-friendly vegetable dish.

I think you already know what I think about this...