Chef Robert Reynolds’ Three Salads
“The act of cooking ends in creativity but begins in the hands.” - Chef Robert Reynolds

I just posted a new Novice to Pro interview with Chef Robert Reynolds, cookbook author, cooking teacher, restauranteur and a heck of a nice guy. I called Chef Reynolds today in Portland, Oregon and we talked about food, cooking, France and and his culinary school, Chefs Studio.
Chef Reynolds trained in France with Madeleine Kamman and was mentored with Josephine Araldo. The two of them co-authored the cookbook, From a Breton Garden. He owned the very popular restaurant in San Francisco, Le Trou, from 1982 to 1996.
Check out my interview with Chef Reynolds to hear his suggestions to help novice cooks get over their fear of cooking or his most important elements when creating a recipe from scratch. Below is his recipe for Three Salads. They are from his cookbook, An Excuse To Be Together.
THREE SALADS
Arrange all three salads nicely on a plate. Garnish them with butter lettuce and hard cooked eggs for lunch. You might sense what it is like to grow up with a French Maman who often makes dishes like these. Don’t forget the baguette!
Carrot Salad
(Note: I refer to flavorless oil to imply oils (peanut, sunflower, safflower, etc.) that don’t have as pronounced a flavor as olive oil.)
Ingredients:
6 medium-sized new carrots
Sea salt to taste
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 or 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard, to taste
4 tablespoons flavorless oil (see Note above)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Freshly ground pepper
Grate 2 cups of new carrots through the fine holes of a box grater. Put a generous pinch of sea salt into a small bowl. Add 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, swirling to dissolve the salt. Add Dijon mustard to taste and using a fork, whisk to incorporate 4 tablespoons of oil. Toss the carrots with chopped parsley. Finish with salt and pepper to taste.
Beet Salad
Roast 2 to 3 whole, medium-sized beets at 350 degrees F until they become fork tender, about an hour. When they have cooled, peel them. Dice or shred and put into a bowl before tossing with another vinaigrette.


The mozzarella we buy at Costco. I like the large egg size that comes in the big tubs. A tub will last us a couple of weeks depending on how often my girls ask for slices to snack on. Personally, I think this is the same mozzarella that you buy in gourmet stores that are sold individually at twice the per pound rate.

