Gone is the traditional garden or Caesar salad. Couples are asking for new variations of this menu staple. Consider a Mango and Goat Cheese Salad with Black Olives Elderflower Nectar Cordial Dressing – now we are talking. Still set on the traditional salad? Consider a deconstructed version where each ingredient is artistically presented on the plate.
There are so many variations on two traditional salad themes for a wedding. When it comes to selecting a salad for your starter such as the standard Garden Fresh Salad or Caesar Salad we would like to help you step it up! Just a tip, we really like height and stacking! And, we also like plating just before it goes out so for caterers reading this you may want to plan accordingly with your ops department.
We really enjoy working with Frisee lettuce; it gives a lot of character to the plate. A Frisee Salad a beautiful, light and airy fresh salad with balsamic vinaigrette, can be contained in a log cabin stack of asparagus. A slight variation on this could be sliced grilled rounds of zucchini topped with the Frisee lettuce. You could even layer the zucchini alternating with the Frisee (lasagna like) and topping it off with Frisee and shaved garden veggies like carrots or beets. This is a very nice tall looking presentation.
The traditional Caesar Salad is normally premixed in a bowl and placed on the plate, Boring! Let’s try two versions on the Caesar Salad but let’s try serving an extremely ice-cold plate.
In the center of the plate make a pancake of Caesar Salad dressing, on top of that place the romaine lettuce topped with fresh broiled croutons and then topped with curls of parmesan cheese. Using a parmesan bowl as a great decorative element, place the romaine lettuce in the bowl and drizzle with Caesar Dressing. Top with grated parmesan cheese and black olives.
Or, if you want to be even more unique, skip the salads all together and add a cheese course or even soup. Stay tuned for Part 2 – starter courses!