As greens go, the Caesar salad hasn’t been the hippest way to eat your veggies in recent years.
After exploding in popularity in the 1980s, it fell out of fashion — and off many restaurant menus — because it was high in fat, contained raw egg and was seen as just plain boring.
“It lost cachet,” says Andrew F. Smith, a New York University food historian and the editor-in-chief of “The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink,” of the salad, which was reportedly invented by an Italian chef named Caesar Cardini at a Tijuana hotel, circa 1924, when he spontaneously combined romaine lettuce, croutons, lemon and Parmigiano cheese.
“Everyone started serving Caesar salads — including fast-food chains,” adds Smith. “Many were badly made with not-very-exciting ingredients: wilted lettuce, processed cheese, tasteless croutons and cheap oil.”
No longer. After falling out of favor, the Caesar salad is returning with intriguing ingredients and in unexpected forms. Here’s a sampling:
The wilted kale and escarole salad with grated egg and anchovy vinaigrette. (Alex Afervez)
Caesar amuse. (Alan Batt)
Smoked Caesar with aged Cheddar and pumpernickel croutons. (Alex Afervez)
Bite-size bounty
When renowned modernist chef Wylie Dufresne (wd-50) opens his new gastropub, Alder, in the East Village next month, his Caesar will appear in a most atypical format: Caesar nigiri.
“Like a lot of things we do, there is a tongue-in-cheek aspect to this dish,” says Dufresne of the sushi-like salad bites that will feature charred Spanish mackerel glazed with Worcestershire sauce and sitting in a sauce of cooked egg yolk and anchovy on a rib of romaine.
Each little soldier is finished off with a sprinkle of pickled garlic, grated Parmigiano, a crack of black pepper and fried lemon zest, for maximum flavor.
“When you put it in your mouth, my hope is you will think of the Caesar salad of your youth,” says the chef. “Though it certainly doesn’t look like that.”
Caesar nigiri, $12 for four (price subject to change when the restaurant opens in early March) at Alder, 157 Second Ave.; no phone yet
A kale of a time
Perhaps the trendiest of all recent spins is the kale Caesar, especially on Brooklyn menus.
Credit Buttermilk Channel in Carroll Gardens, where chef Ryan Angulo started subbing the calcium-rich green in for romaine in 2008.
“At the time, [kale] was an underutilized, delicious green that I hadn’t seen on any menus,” Angulo recalls.
In the years since, he’s toyed with his kale Caesar; the current version features wilted kale, escarole and a “more traditional” dressing with anchovy and Worcestershire but no raw egg.
“I took the egg out and serve it boiled and chopped on top for a little contrast,” he enthuses.
Wilted kale and escarole salad with anchovy vinaigrette and grated egg, $9 at Buttermilk Channel, 524 Court St., Brooklyn; 718-852-8490
A spoonful
This Caesar salad bite often kicks off meals at TriBeCa’s Marc Forgione.
“I got the idea while eating a salad, and wanted to do a fun amuse [a small bite that begins a meal] with those flavors,” says chef Marc Forgione. He uses Parmigiano-Reggiano “spheres,” dehydrated olives, garlic breadcrumbs, extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice, oil-cured anchovies and bits of romaine lettuce to create his one-bite Caesar that’s served on a porcelain spoon. “It’s an egg-shaped delicacy that bursts in your mouth.”
Caesar amuse, complimentary with the $99 tasting menu at Marc Forgione, 134 Reade St.; 212-941-9401
A little smoky
At American Table restaurant, chef Marcus Samuelsson (Red Rooster) ups the crunch factor and adds a smoky element by using crisp pumpernickel croutons and subbing smoked herring for anchovies.
“Whenever there is an iconic dish, I want to honor it and I want to go in my own way,” says Samuelsson, who grew up eating pumpernickel bread in Sweden.
He adds another unique note to the classic Caesar by using an aged Cheddar instead of Parmigiano, but it’s the salad’s crispness, from those pumpernickel bits and ultra-fresh greens, that’s key. “The worst thing in the world is the promise of a salad that ends up soggy!” he exclaims.
Smoked Caesar with aged Cheddar and pumpernickel croutons, $11 at American Table Cafe and Bar, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, 1941 Broadway; 212-671-4200