Top 5: Spring-iest Salads

Spring-iest Salads TOP 5 by DANNIELLE KYRILLOS

Dannielle Kyrillos, a series judge on Bravo’s Top Chef Just Desserts and expert on all things food and entertaining, shares her five favorite Spring-iest salads from around the country.

Portrait by Peter Hurley

A wise woman once said that the best part of anything with cheese in it is the cheese. While many would argue this is never more apt than in the salad kingdom, smart and kindly Chef Jason Wilson gives the exceptional burrata he lovingly handcrafts such an elegant gang of vegetable accomplices that somehow even this enticingly quivering globe of creamy goodness doesn’t overshadow its plate-mates. Sweet peas with parts of their coats and wacky tendrils, toasty hazelnuts, crisp carrot wisps, and a careful mix of leafiness surround the perfectly warmed, oliveoil-enrobed burrata, waiting to be swept up in the inevitable creamy ooze. Like the whole Crush experience, the dish so comfortably marries the hallmarks of spring, exuberance and restraint, and it’s such a lively, tasty salad you almost forget that cheese is at its heart. Almost.

1

Burrata Salad

CRUSH 2319 E. MADISON STREET SEATTLE, WA 98112 206.302.7874

Roasted Broccoli & Green Bean Salad

COCHON 930 TCHOUPITOULAS STREET NEW ORLEANS, LA 70130 504.588.2123

If only the Simpsons had been to Cochon. The cartoon family taunted their most healthconscious member with the infuriatingly catchy, “You don’t win friends with salad!” but if they’d tried this really green but really rich concoction, they’d be singing a totally different tune. Broccoli is roasted to the edge of caramelization, intoxicatingly earthly and just barely sweet. Green beans lend a fresh crunch, and pickled onions provide trails of pucker. Barbecued pecans come excitingly close to serving as proof that candy in salad might not be as horrible as we’d thought. And the mildly kicky poblano ranch coating the whole beautiful mess makes this the only salad that is both veggie-laden and decadent enough to make absolutely anyone happy.

Salade du Café

CAFÉ CHRISTINE 6 COMPANY STREET CHRISTIANSTED, ST. CROIX (USVI) 00820 340.713.1500

Certain lunch scenarios scream for a burger. Others, like any you’ll encounter at Café Christine, whisper conspiratorially for a proper, classic salad. Or more precisely, une salade. Thin, rare ribbons of London broil are draped over dainty lettuces, Gorgonzola and pine nuts, with just a soupcon of tart dressing. It is utterly French and exactly right for its setting, an elegant tropical courtyard of crumbling ruins and meandering roosters. The Christine in question, Madame Grassiot, prepares each sublime dish single-handedly in a kitchen marked “Private” and opens just for weekday lunch. When this salad appears on the daily hand-chalked menu, it is a must, as it allows room to finish the meal comme il faut, with a slice of what very well might be the world’s best pear-chocolate pie.

4

Kale

A(MUSE) 44 BALTIMORE AVENUE REHOBOTH BEACH, DE 19971 302.227.7107

Hari Cameron is the kind of chef you want to be best friends with before you even meet him. His not-quite-year-old a(Muse) is a room at once cool and welcoming, his menu is witty and smart, and his dishes are precise but not precious. And when the Beard-Award-nominated thirty-year-old emerges from his bustling kitchen to say hello, you realize the soft-spoken artist is a problemsolver, too. He has removed any doubt that truly fine dining can flourish in this sleepy beach town, and he has saved the kale salad from being the next Caesar. His version is so inventive it’s like a rebirth. The top leaf is actually dehydrated and crisp, hiding a rainbow of fresh leaves, plucky Meyer lemon and lardo. Underneath it all is humble quinoa, scattered playfully, the texture suggesting roe or mustard grains. Phew, kale has been rescued!

Avocado and Papaya Salad

TOWN 3435 WAIALAE AVENUE HONOLULU, HI 808.735.5900

The very best salads are those so fresh, so throbbing with immediacy that the simple tossing together of a few just-harvested items is enough to capture the very flavor of a place. This is exactly what happens with any salad at Ed Kenney’s Town, but when the version involving avocado, papaya, cucumbers, leafy red oak and pecans is on the menu, you will meet and then consume Mother Nature herself. She’ll be wearing a lusty coat of Green Goddess dressing flecked with herbs, and one bite will evoke sunshine and fresh air and everything good. Most all the ingredients will be from nearby MA’O Organic Farms, on the board of which Kenney sits and whose mission is to nurture not just gorgeous produce, but also the region’s young people.