Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Things I Don't Understand: non-tossed salads

Sometimes when I buy a salad it's not tossed, it's organized.  All the tomatoes are together in a clump, all the cheese is together in a clump, all the cucumbers are together in a clump, etc.

I don't understand why a restaurant would do this.

The pleasure of a salad is the interaction between the flavour and the texture of the different ingredients.  The crispness of the lettuce, the bite of the tomato, the creamy smoothness of the cheese, the zing of the dressing...this isn't nearly as pleasurable when you end up eating all the cheese in one bite, or get a forkfull of nothing but tomato.

Yes, it's marginally easier not to toss the salad, but tossing a salad isn't terribly difficult when you have a properly-equipped commercial kitchen and are making dozens or even hundreds of salads a day.  In any case, it's certainly easier to toss a large batch of salad in a restaurant kitchen than it is for a customer to toss it at the table with only a fork, or for an office worker getting a takeout lunch to toss that salad in the tightly-packed takeout container at their desk!

Even if you don't like all the ingredients and want to avoid one or two of them, it's far easier to skip the red peppers in a tossed salad than to toss your own salad with only one utensil and no access to a large bowl.

Most places I buy salads from seem to pride themselves in their freshness, quality, and interesting combinations of ingredients.  So why not make the most of that by tossing the salads properly?

3 comments:

laura k said...

You're referring to a composed salad. Salade composée. A salade nicoise, for example, is never served tossed. I like to create a huge composée platter, and people can create their own salads from there.

It's a different style. But it's not wrong or an accident.

laura k said...

Oh wait a sec, you're talking about takeout salads, why supermarkets don't toss them first. Not composed salads.

In that case, my answer is: because it's easier for them, saves labour costs. And the customer can more easily see what's in the salad, how fresh the ingredients are, and more easily pick out what they don't like.

This is based on formerly having family that ran and worked in a deli.

laura k said...

I noticed this.