Table-Side Ceasar Salad

May2

There was a time in Winnipeg, when dining meant having someone wheel a cart to your table and rub a bowl with garlic to start the preparations for your Caesar salad.  The classic French restaurants of St. Boniface would carve the beef tenderloin and ladle the hollandaise over the variety of vegetables from their Chateau Briand cart.  Crepes Suzette were often ordered for the show of the flaming liqueurs.

When “Six in the City” ventured to New York last summer we loved the fact that table service in the Big Apple is not a thing of the past.  We had our guacamole en molcajete prepped at table side at Rosa’s Mexicana and the expertise and the resulting freshness was truly memorable.

Our son’s father-in-law was one of Winnipeg’s table-side Caesar salad aficionados and we often reap the benefits of his time in the practice.  At Easter dinner recently, when the automatic start for the ham didn’t activate while we were all at church, they decided to add a salad course. 

Don says that his recipe is very “loose” but he has agreed to share it here:

Crush some cloves of garlic with salt (I have a suribachi for this).  Add one or more egg yolks (depending on quantity).  Add fresh lemon juice and a dash of vinegar.  Blend in olive oil (2-3 times the volume of lemon/vinegar).  Season with pepper, Dijon mustard.

 

Kath’s quote: “Being set at the table, scratch not thyself, and take thou heed as much as thou canst not to spit, cough and blow at thy nose; but if it be needful, do it dexterously, without much noise, turning thy face sidelong.”-Francis Hawkins

2 Comments to

“Table-Side Ceasar Salad”

  1. Avatar May 3rd, 2011 at 10:26 pm Victoria Says:

    the salad was probably the highlight of the whole meal – so glad it worked it’s way into the menu.
    just a minor correction – Don served table side Caesar’s mainly in Edmonton.. Winnipeg’s loss…


  2. Avatar May 4th, 2011 at 7:17 am kath Says:

    The ham was perfect and so were Jen’s sweet potatoes, not to mention the pavlovoa…… Hard to pick the highlight.


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