Cesar Salad from Scratch

[menton1]

Several years ago, we dined at the Williamsburg Inn in Williamsburg, Va. The most memorable part of the meal (I still remember it!) was the cesar salad, created from scratch right at the table.

Started with trimmed romaine leaves and a giant wood bowl. Mashed some garlic cloves with the back of the spoon on the sides of the bowl. Repeated this procedure with anchovy filets. Some dry mustard, cloves (if memory serves) and I do distinctly recall a couple of egg yolks mixed in. Lemon juice, olive oil, greated cheese, and after a nice toss, the croutons.

These days ordering cesar salad produces a premade dish bearing little resemblance to the one described above.

Are table-prepared cesar salads a thing of the past? Any restaurants still doing this? Any other good memories?

[Meredith380]

The Manor in West Orange, NJ still prepares caesar salad tableside.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Table-prepared caesar salad is both entertaining to watch and to eat .. it tastes so much fresher, maybe because one watches it being made ... honestly, table-prepared anything is going to be done in a fancier, more expensive setting ... it is part of the "show" when they served it to us at Delmonico Steakhouse, Las Vegas, NV.

And, in a similar question, do waiters still flambee foods tableside? Steak Diane? Bananas Foster in NO?

[Bill Miller]

Table-prepared caesar salad is both entertaining to watch and to eat .. it tastes so much fresher, maybe because one watches it being made ... honestly, table-prepared anything is going to be done in a fancier, more expensive setting ... it is part of the "show" when they served it to us at Delmonico Steakhouse, Las Vegas, NV.

And, in a similar question, do waiters still flambee foods tableside? Steak Diane? Bananas Foster in NO?

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Absolutly, and I do Bananas Foster for guests at home. I like showing off!

[lperry]

I realize it's out of the way for most people, but Ristorante Sarnelli in Orange Park, Florida has it. Rosaria Sarnelli herself will make your salad table side. It makes me want to go home for a visit!

[Torrilin]

It's probably much less common due to concerns about eggs and salmonella. Add in that it's a tableside showpiece dish and thus expensive to do even if the ingredients aren't, and it's no surprise that it's not commonly done. The one place I know that does this kind of thing has nearly the entire waitstaff trained to prepare the flambeed dishes at tableside. They keep specially set up carts with portable burners and space for their mise en place. It's clearly a phenomenal amount of work and expense. They won't do caesar salad tho, probably because of salmonella concerns. The restaurant's prices clearly reflect their staff's training. It's *not* an inexpensive meal.

When I *do* go to a restaurant that offers tableside preparation of things like Caesar salad or steak Diane I tend to go overboard on 'em. I have a very childish fondness for having everything that possibly can be set on fire. Drama is good, especially if the food lives up to the drama.

Emily

[Fat Guy]

Pasteurized eggs -- in the shell, nearly indistinguishable from standard eggs -- are now widely available. And I wonder what the actual labor cost of tableside preparation is. I mean, perhaps this is an oversimplification, but aren't we just talking about ten minutes? That's about $2 or $3 in waitstaff wages even at higher-end places where servers are well paid. It seems you could easily get a $5 premium on a Caesar salad prepared tableside. Mexican restaurants manage to prepare guacamole tableside withour much of an apparent premium, Chinese restaurants do plenty of stuff tableside, and in fine-dining restaurants there seems to be a trend towards doing more tableside presentations. Maybe it's just that there isn't much demand for tableside Caesar, bananas Foster, etc. I like them, though. (PS I think in some places the fire codes are the problem for flaming desserts.)

[Mano]

While in graduate shcool about 20 years ago I waited tables at restaurant in Long Beach, CA and made Ceasar Salad, Steak Diane and Bananas Foster at tableside. They were always crow-pleasers and yielded nice tips.

For the life of me, I can't remember the recipies for any of them.

[francois]

??? Ceasar salad from scratch, isn't that what we do at home??? With much better results than in most restaurants...

[Torrilin]

Pasteurized eggs -- in the shell, nearly indistinguishable from standard eggs -- are now widely available. And I wonder what the actual labor cost of tableside preparation is. I mean, perhaps this is an oversimplification, but aren't we just talking about ten minutes? That's about $2 or $3 in waitstaff wages even at higher-end places where servers are well paid. It seems you could easily get a $5 premium on a Caesar salad prepared tableside. Mexican restaurants manage to prepare guacamole tableside withour much of an apparent premium, Chinese restaurants do plenty of stuff tableside, and in fine-dining restaurants there seems to be a trend towards doing more tableside presentations. Maybe it's just that there isn't much demand for tableside Caesar, bananas Foster, etc. I like them, though. (PS I think in some places the fire codes are the problem for flaming desserts.)

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The labor cost is not primarily time, it's training. If a restaurant makes a specialty of tableside dishes, they need to have a staff that can prepare them well every time. This is not usually in a waiter's job description, so they have to spend time training the waiter to do it. If it's guacamole, there might not be much of a premium. If it's steak Diane or another flamed dish, there probably is a premium (tho you might not notice it on the menu). Caesar salad? well, depends on how much trouble they have teaching staff to get the emulsion right I suspect. Skilled labor can *always* charge more, and at a place that does many tableside dishes, the staff is skilled.

So when you're making up your business plan at the start, you have to plan on more staff training time, and you have to plan that new servers will take a little longer to train. It's also well to plan on some way of making sure the staff is well paid, because that reduces turnover. You have to budget for any special tools the staff will need. You can't squeeze the maximum number of tables into your restaurant, it wouldn't be safe. So each table needs to produce more revenue every night. You need a chef who likes teaching enough that he or she can handle staff training. For a restaurant where they expect the bill for 2 diners to come out around $150 or so, this extra trouble is no big deal. Most of it they'd do anyway. For a restaurant where they're happy when the bill makes it to $50, it's much more of a big deal. And well, there's a lot more of the latter in the world than there are of the former.

Emily

[menton1]

This is not usually in a waiter's job description, so they have to spend time training the waiter to do it.

An interesting statement, says alot about the American concept of waiting tables. In Europe, it is a career, a dignified profession. It the US, it is mostly a way station for unemployed actors and students needing some income. No wonder we need so much additional bus staff. I've rarely seen bus staff in Europe...

[godito]

This is not usually in a waiter's job description, so they have to spend time training the waiter to do it.

An interesting statement, says alot about the American concept of waiting tables. In Europe, it is a career, a dignified profession. It the US, it is mostly a way station for unemployed actors and students needing some income. No wonder we need so much additional bus staff. I've rarely seen bus staff in Europe...

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agreed. I have that same problem in Chile. Although we do have a lot of servers that make a living with it, they're hardly professionals. Most of the money spent in training is wasted, since employee turnover is so high.

As for tableside dressing (or any kind of service), I see it less and less this days, but it's always nice to encounter.

[Meredith380]

Most places where I've experienced tableside service, (chauteaubriand, caesar salad), it's always been done by the maitre d', not the servers.

[orangeman747]

If anyone is looking for a table-side recipe, I remember that on Alton Brown's "Good Eats" he did a show on salads, and he showed how to create a table-side preparation of Caesar Salad, it looked delicious!!! Maybe you could find the recipe on foodtv.coom???

[bouche]

If anyone is looking for a table-side recipe, I remember that on Alton Brown's "Good Eats" he did a show on salads, and he showed how to create a table-side preparation of Caesar Salad, it looked delicious!!! Maybe you could find the recipe on foodtv.coom???

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Here's an Alton Brown find but it doesn't describe the important technique of mashing anchovies in with garlic, salt and other ingredients.

[Smithy]

If anyone is looking for a table-side recipe, I remember that on Alton Brown's "Good Eats" he did a show on salads, and he showed how to create a table-side preparation of Caesar Salad, it looked delicious!!! Maybe you could find the recipe on foodtv.coom???

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Here's an Alton Brown find but it doesn't describe the important technique of mashing anchovies in with garlic, salt and other ingredients.

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Welcome to eGullet, bouche!

Please tell more about the important technique. Someone upthread mentioned getting the proper emulsion. I'm not sure how one would get an emulsion - or know they had it - when adding and mashing those ingredients while the lettuce leaves are already in the bowl. Would someone please help me with this info?

Edited for clarity.

Edited September 5, 2006 by Smithy (log)

[jsmeeker]

I usually do the Alton Brown metohd at home. I don't use a fancy wooden bowl, nor do I do it table side. I just do it in my kitchen. (the salad is usually just for me).

I thought Altons method DID mash the garlic with the salt. Maybe it doesn't come through in the on-line recipe like it does in the show? As far as anchovies are converned, it's not there because the ORIGINAL recipe didn't use any. Julia Child seems to concur. IIRC, she was actually served a Casear salad by Mr. Cardini himself.

Anyway, as to table side prep of Casesar salad and other food items. It seems to be pretty much a lost, "old school" sort of thing. There is one restaurant in Dallas that's still known for doing the Casesar salad, along with other classic table side preperations. Is it outdated? To "fussy" and not in step with more modern cooking techniques? Maybe. But it sure can be fun from time to time.