When a grilled chicken and arugula salad ordered at a large chain restaurant came out with yellow leaves, I pointed out that, “It looks like the arugula has gone bad.”
“It’s supposed to look like that,” the server answered with a know-it-all smirk. “It’s wilted arugula.”
“Wilting arugula doesn’t turn it yellow,” I explained. “In fact arugula turns darker green when wilted. Old and rotted arugula, on the other hand, turns yellow.”
The waiter took the meal back to the kitchen in a huff, and minutes later a manager rushed over with the plate in question and sincerely apologized.
“May we make you another salad?” he asked.
After agreeing, the server delivered a less-yellow arugula salad with poorly washed greens. There were tiny grains of sand that crunched with each bite.
The experience demonstrates that just because large, casual-dining chains now can easily order herbs and other highly perishable items, it doesn’t necessarily elevate the quality of food in those outlets. Moreover, some chains seem to be getting too complicated in an attempt to create more upscale dishes and raise prices as modern distributors provide two to three deliveries a week of fresh foods.
But getting the perishables in house doesn’t ensure those items remain fresh, or even make it onto finished plates as planned. One dish description at another huge chain promised a sprinkling of sliced basil. Out came a naked protein. When I pointed to the basil in the photo on a table tent the waiter rushed back to the kitchen.
The server then brought a new dish that was sprinkled with a few large basil leaves. That basil elevated the flavor of the dish, but the herb was not cut small enough. It would overpower one bite and be absent in the next.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for adding new and exciting flavors to chain menu items, but cooks need to have proper training materials in their hands to know how to use delicate ingredients. And many skills are best taught with hands-on product identification and handling and cooking lessons as new ingredients are introduced.
More ingredients, in fact, result in many more variables in the kitchen. All foods need to be tasted over and over, regardless of how many recipes and training sessions are in place.
Arugula, for example, varies widely in flavor. It’s no iceberg.
In fact, if a restaurant can’t provide a simple, well-made crunchy iceberg salad with the right amount of blue cheese dressing, ripe, red sweet tomatoes, and warm bacon, why mess around with arugula? It’s hard enough to make something wonderful with simple ingredients, especially with on-premise prep in many outlets, and it’s even harder to keep up the quality with a larger larder.
Keeping the herbs properly identified is a task in itself. Even my husband, who can fix computer servers that run huge airlines, has trouble telling sage from rosemary.
So how can anyone expect a 17-year-old, part-time prep cook—who’s most likely thinking about his date in 45 minutes—to concentrate on numerous details like identifying herbs, remembering a basil topping and checking if salad greens are fresh?
Instead, how about using staples already in house before bringing in new highly perishable ingredients? Grilled citrus fruits are fine garnishes that offer a stylish yet colorful statement. Before moving on to fancy filets, teach the proper cooking of the simple French fry, which often arrives unbrowned, soft and flavorless.
And rather than penalize employees who snack, encourage cooks and servers to taste dishes offered in weekly meetings.
If servers are expected to sell a $21 sea bass, for example, it helps if they can accurately describe the dish’s qualities as a gentleman named Jeff did recently at a P.F. Chang’s. The fish was “moist, delicate and delicious,” just as promised.