Cool Plates features dishes from across the country to help inspire chefs' creativity.
“If you can find a creative way to put a Caesar salad on the menu, it’s always a seller,” said executive chef John Keller, who has been seeing a lot of kale salads on menus recently.
For this dish, Keller prepares a simple Caesar dressing — egg yolk, olive oil, lemon and lemon zest, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and Parmigiano-Reggiano. But for a twist he adds fresh anchovies instead of cured ones.
Keller makes a chiffonade of Tuscan kale and red kale, saying that the two not only have different colors but dissimilar textures and flavors as well. He added that red kale seems to be more tender and less peppery than the Tuscan kale.
He then adds slices of Asian pear to balance out the bitterness of the kale and the tanginess of the dressing, and tops with Parmigiano-Reggiano and croutons.
The dish is priced at $12.
Contact Bret Thorn: [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary