The Best Salad You'll Ever Make (Restaurant-Quality) | Epicurious 101

00:06:53
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmFT-L45i2w

Summary

TLDRLish, a professional chef, teaches viewers how to create a restaurant-quality salad at home, focusing on the dressing, greens, and presentation. She demonstrates making a classic French vinaigrette using shallots for a sweeter flavor, explaining the importance of rinsing them to remove harshness. The dressing follows a 2:1 ratio of olive oil to vinegar, seasoned with salt. Lish emphasizes the importance of tossing the salad with hands to evenly coat the greens and adding layers for texture and presentation with toppings like Danish blue cheese and toasted almonds. Greens are chosen for their diverse flavors and textures, and presentation is enhanced by plating on a flat surface rather than in a bowl. Lish concludes by encouraging experimentation with tips and techniques to elevate home salads to restaurant quality.

Takeaways

  • 👨‍🍳 Learn to make restaurant-quality salad at home with a professional chef.
  • 🧅 Use shallots instead of red onions for a sweeter vinaigrette.
  • 🚿 Rinse shallots to remove harsh onion flavor.
  • 🥗 Follow a 2:1 ratio for the vinaigrette: olive oil to vinegar.
  • 🤲 Toss salad with hands to evenly coat greens.
  • 🧂 Season the salad greens directly for enhanced flavor.
  • 🍽️ Plating on a flat dish enhances presentation.
  • 🧀 Add Danish blue cheese for creaminess and tang.
  • 🌰 Toasted almonds add nuttiness and texture.
  • 🍃 Experiment with different greens for varied texture and flavor.

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 - 00:06:53

    Lish, a professional chef, demonstrates how to make a restaurant-quality salad at home, focusing on dressing, greens, and presentation. She begins with a classic French vinaigrette using finely chopped shallots for sweetness, champagne vinegar for a mild taste, and extra virgin olive oil at a 2-to-1 ratio. She emphasizes the importance of seasoning to balance the flavors and shows how to achieve a semi-emulsified dressing. Next, Lish selects a variety of greens like romaine, butter lettuce, endive, and little gem, highlighting their different textures and flavors. She explains proper preparation, leaving larger leaves intact for a fancy look. Finally, she presents the salad, layering greens with Danish blue cheese and toasted almonds for texture and flavor. The key takeaway is the importance of proper dressing, seasoning, presentation, and using hands for tossing to elevate homemade salads to a restaurant standard.

Mind Map

Video Q&A

  • What type of vinaigrette is demonstrated?

    A classic French vinaigrette.

  • What is used instead of red onion for the vinaigrette?

    Shallots are used instead of red onion.

  • Why rinse the shallots?

    Rinsing removes the harsh onion flavor to avoid the salad tasting like shallots alone.

  • What is the significance of the dressing ratio?

    The dressing uses a 2:1 ratio, with two parts olive oil and one part vinegar or lemon juice.

  • Why toss salad with hands?

    Tossing with hands ensures even coating without bruising the greens.

  • What is essential for seasoning the salad?

    It's important to season the greens themselves after dressing to enhance flavor.

  • Why use a plate for plating salad?

    A plate allows for a wide surface to mix and match bites more freely.

  • What additional toppings are suggested for the salad?

    Danish blue cheese and toasted almonds are added for texture and richness.

  • What greens are recommended for the salad?

    A mix including red leaf, green leaf, romaine, butter lettuce, endive, and little gem.

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  • 00:00:00
    hi I'm Lish styling I'm a professional
  • 00:00:02
    chef and today I'm going to show you how
  • 00:00:04
    to make a restaurant quality salad at
  • 00:00:06
    home
  • 00:00:11
    we're going to be getting into the
  • 00:00:13
    dressing greens and presentation of a
  • 00:00:15
    restaurant style salad this is
  • 00:00:16
    restaurant quality salad 101.
  • 00:00:19
    if you ever feel like the salads that
  • 00:00:21
    you make at home aren't quite as good as
  • 00:00:23
    what you would get in a restaurant with
  • 00:00:24
    just a few tips and tricks and
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    techniques you can really amp up your
  • 00:00:28
    game
  • 00:00:31
    this is my take on a pretty classic
  • 00:00:33
    French vinaigrette it really showcases
  • 00:00:35
    The Greens in the salad we're going to
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    start with a little bit of Shallot which
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    is very French of us this is a pretty
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    massive shallot I might use half of this
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    just for good measure
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    I'm just gonna chop this guy as fine as
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    possible I'm using a shallot here
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    instead of a red onion or any other kind
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    of onion because shallots have like a
  • 00:00:54
    sweetness they're a little more mellow
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    they play nicely with all the flavors so
  • 00:00:59
    we're gonna put our shallots into the
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    strainer over here I'm gonna rinse off
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    my shallots for about a minute because
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    you're taking off all of that harsh
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    onion flavor and if we didn't do this
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    step of rinsing them your salad would
  • 00:01:13
    just taste like one big shallot and on
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    the paper towel to dry so that you don't
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    add excess water to your dressing we're
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    left with just the pure goodness of the
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    shallot so we begin the vinaigrette I
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    have my rinsed off shallots here I'm
  • 00:01:28
    going to add about a quarter cup of
  • 00:01:30
    champagne vinegar I love using champagne
  • 00:01:33
    vinegar and dressings it's a very mild
  • 00:01:35
    vinegar made with champagne grapes it
  • 00:01:37
    doesn't have too much of an overpowering
  • 00:01:40
    presence now it's squeezing in about a
  • 00:01:42
    half a cup of extra virgin olive oil
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    if you want a milder dressing feel free
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    to use a vegetable oil if you're looking
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    for a two to one ratio so two parts
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    olive oil and one part vinegar or lemon
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    juice or any kind of acidic ingredient
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    of course we season with salt
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    feel free to eyeball dressings that's
  • 00:02:01
    kind of what I do all the time because
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    you really know if you hit the mark when
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    you taste it
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    you know it's mixed enough when you can
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    see the creaminess of the dressing so
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    that that oil is playing nicely with the
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    vinegar a beautiful semi-emulsified
  • 00:02:19
    dressing without any stabilizer in here
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    it's going to separate eventually but
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    that's vinaigrette so yeah and that
  • 00:02:26
    ratio is perfect I mean I can just keep
  • 00:02:28
    eating this if that's okay
  • 00:02:30
    we're there
  • 00:02:33
    here we have our melange of greens all
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    of these you can pretty much find at
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    your normal grocery store some red
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    leaves some green leaf we have some
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    romaine butter lettuce some Endive and
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    then this one is a little special this
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    is a little gem isn't it adorable you
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    don't have to use all of these you can
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    use whatever grains you have in your
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    fridge we're just gonna trim them up a
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    little bit the thing with restaurant
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    salad it always look so fancy so I'm
  • 00:02:59
    gonna leave these in large leaves the
  • 00:03:03
    little gem here we can just break apart
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    look how precious these leaves are
  • 00:03:07
    aren't they just gorgeous they make it
  • 00:03:10
    kind of happy right I think some Red
  • 00:03:12
    Leaf in there would be nice Red Leaf has
  • 00:03:15
    a lot of volume to it it has all of the
  • 00:03:17
    the ribbony effects that are so
  • 00:03:20
    beautiful on a plate I'm gonna go for
  • 00:03:22
    those inner leaves but they're a little
  • 00:03:24
    bit smaller and I'll even cut a couple
  • 00:03:27
    of them in half lengthwise it's a little
  • 00:03:29
    bit easier to the Endive is a little bit
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    bitter the green leaf is kind of fresh
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    the baby gems has that very crisp
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    texture to it all lend themselves in
  • 00:03:41
    different ways to the salad and that's
  • 00:03:44
    what makes it kind of exciting right
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    those are our greens let's get to
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    dressing shall we key to a restaurant
  • 00:03:51
    salad that a lot of people forget to do
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    at home is we're going to actually dress
  • 00:03:55
    our salad so we're going to toss it in
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    the dressing I'm gonna take about maybe
  • 00:04:00
    three tablespoons of our dressing here
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    I'm going to start with the dressing in
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    the bowl already this is also a very
  • 00:04:06
    restaurant style trick because you can
  • 00:04:09
    actually control how the dressing coats
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    the lettuces if there's a little bit too
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    much dressing you can leave some of it
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    at the bottom of the bowl if there's not
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    enough you can always add more I always
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    toss with my hands this is very
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    important because how else do you know
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    if the greens are actually evenly coated
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    so you can feel the greens and you're
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    not bruising them you're gently tossing
  • 00:04:30
    them in the dressing another thing that
  • 00:04:33
    is key is seasoning the salad yes we
  • 00:04:36
    seasoned the dressing but there's a lot
  • 00:04:38
    of water in these greens so I really
  • 00:04:40
    want to bring out the flavor of the
  • 00:04:42
    dressing and the greens by seasoning
  • 00:04:44
    every little leaf that's in there and of
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    course the only way to know if it's
  • 00:04:49
    seasoned is to taste it
  • 00:04:53
    I am there I think that this is
  • 00:04:56
    perfect and I am ready to plate
  • 00:05:01
    plating is such an important thing when
  • 00:05:03
    it comes to elevating your salad we eat
  • 00:05:05
    with our eyes first when I see a salad
  • 00:05:08
    that has all these layers on it and
  • 00:05:10
    textures and colors I just want to dive
  • 00:05:12
    in so that's what I'm going to do here
  • 00:05:14
    today I have some Danish blue cheese for
  • 00:05:17
    creaminess and tang and some toasted
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    almonds that are just going to add a
  • 00:05:21
    little bit of nuttiness and richness to
  • 00:05:23
    the dish of course it also adds Crunch
  • 00:05:25
    and protein so it's practically a full
  • 00:05:27
    meal I am going to start by taking about
  • 00:05:29
    half of the greens here lightly
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    layer them in the center of the plate I
  • 00:05:36
    love eating a salad off of a plate it's
  • 00:05:38
    a wide surface that you can kind of move
  • 00:05:40
    things around and mix and match your own
  • 00:05:42
    bite sometimes in a bowl it just gets a
  • 00:05:44
    little too claustrophobic and you don't
  • 00:05:46
    get to Choose Your Own Adventure now I'm
  • 00:05:49
    going to take a little bit of this
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    Danish blue cheese and just crumble it
  • 00:05:53
    right over the top all about layering
  • 00:05:57
    when you're creating a salad a little
  • 00:05:59
    bit of the almonds I'm going to put the
  • 00:06:01
    second layer of Greens on top right now
  • 00:06:04
    on top of all that cheese and almonds
  • 00:06:06
    stunning isn't it when you use your
  • 00:06:08
    hands you have much more control and can
  • 00:06:11
    build up this beautiful tower all right
  • 00:06:13
    now more cheese
  • 00:06:15
    because she's never a bad idea unless
  • 00:06:17
    you're lactose intolerant almonds
  • 00:06:20
    I need it
  • 00:06:21
    there you have it I don't know who
  • 00:06:24
    wouldn't want to dive into this salad
  • 00:06:25
    but I'm pretty sure it's my lunch this
  • 00:06:28
    is the perfect simple elevated salad all
  • 00:06:32
    right the moment of truth
  • 00:06:35
    might as well go in with your hands
  • 00:06:36
    right
  • 00:06:39
    pop me down in a red booth at a
  • 00:06:41
    steakhouse and call me happy as you can
  • 00:06:43
    see it doesn't take much to elevate your
  • 00:06:45
    salad at home with just a few little
  • 00:06:47
    tips and techniques
  • 00:06:49
    you just change your whole salad game
Tags
  • salad
  • vinaigrette
  • dressing
  • greens
  • presentation
  • shallots
  • olive oil
  • French
  • seasoning
  • plating