“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.

Celery Root Salad

Ingredients

• 1 head of celery root, about 1 pound
• Juice of half a lemon
• Sea salt to taste
• 1 egg yolk
• 3/4 cup flavorless oil (See note above in carrot salad)
• 1 tablespoon finely-chopped chives

Quarter the celery root, peel, then grate through the large holes of a box grater. Bring water to a boil, add half a tablespoon of salt and blanch the celery root for 1 minute. Drain and squeeze gently to dry thoroughly. Leave in a bowl to cool.

Prepare a mayonnaise in a food processor with the juice of half a lemon, a teaspoon of sea salt and one egg yolk. Turn the machine on and slowly pour in 3/4 cup of flavorless oil in a steady stream.  When half the oil has been added, taste for seasoning. (If the sauce needs more salt, dilute a pinch in a tablespoon of boiling water. The heat helps set the egg and loosens the texture of the mayonnaise.) With the machine running, add the remaining oil in a thin stream to finish the mayonnaise.

Toss the blanched celery root with the mayonnaise. Decorate the salad with a tablespoon of finely chopped chives.

NOTE: My friend Bart Evans reminded me that a classic Sauce Remoulade for celery root can be achieved by adding a teaspoon each of chopped capers and cornichons along with chives and cayenne to our mayonnaise.