the times | Thursday April 28 2022 7
SPLASH NEWS; AVALON the table
Reusable takeaway people
Depends. Are we talking about Frank
Green ceramic cup people (lofty
aesthetes with architectural
aspirations and an appreciation
for a solid non-drip locking function
on a spout) or Chilly’s mug people
(yoga mummies with fun slogans on
their sweatshirts and a weakness for
the kitsch, who pretend they’re
buying said mug for their teenage
daughter, but are fooling no one) or
Rishi Sunak Bluetooth smart Ember
travel mug people (prepared to
spend £179.95 on a mug which
they think of as “a nice bit of kit”,
though they’d never say it out loud,
no one’s said “a nice bit of kit” out
loud since 1997)?
Macchiatto people
More usually oat flat white people, but
they’re showing off after a boozy
lunch at the River Café. Prosecco has
made them brazen.
Espresso martini people
The middle-class answer to porn star
martini people.
People who order a shot of
espresso and down it while
standing up at the counter,
as if they’re Italian, which
they’re not, although they
do go to Puglia every year,
sometimes twice
Dreadful.
People who claim an espresso
before bed helps them to sleep
Dangerous; possibly with some Sue
Gray overlap.
M
y aunt once
asked me what
my favourite food
was and I
remember the
look of dismay
on her face when
I told her it was
salad. But my Italian grandmother’s
salad remains one of the most
delicious things I’ve ever eaten,
despite its simplicity: just soft lettuce
with oil, vinegar, salt and bread for
dunking in any residue dressing.
Now salad is my go-to lunch, but
I’ve embellished Nan’s blueprint.
Maybe I’ll use a bag of mixed leaves.
Or I might add quartered radishes,
slices of avo, capers, anchovies or the
little sweet, spicy, piquant peppers
you get in a jar. For the dressing I
rely on the best extra-virgin olive oil
and balsamic vinegar I can find.
Failing that, I might mix in honey and
wholegrain mustard. But as
adventurous as I like to think I am, I
eat what is essentially the same thing
every day. Maybe I’m in a salad rut.
Should I consult a salad expert?
This is where Jess Damuck, a
34-year-old cook and food stylist from
New York, comes in. She calls herself
the “salad freak” and has published a
book of the same name. Her salads are
boundary-pushing, she says, and it’s
her belief that making and eating a
salad is a form of “self-care”.
This all sounds marvellous — and a
bit woo-woo: she lives in California, I
suppose it goes with the territory. Still,
I could do with revolutionising my
tired lunch repertoire and don’t mind
getting zen at the same time. Looking
at the book’s front cover, it’s clear to
see there will be no bags of prewashed
mixed leaves here. It looks like
summer on a plate: segments of
mandarin, a splodge of creamy burrata
cheese, a drizzle of grassy-green olive
oil and a pinch of flaky sea salt.
Damuck, who began her career as a
recipe developer for the American TV
personality Martha Stewart, says she
has been obsessed with citrus since
moving to Los Angeles. It’s certainly
not my idea of a salad, but that’s why
she chose it. “People would expect a
tomato salad. But the whole point of
the book is to change people’s minds
about what a salad can be.”
Skimming through the book, there
are a lot of novel ideas — chicory with
persimmons, tea-smoked chicken with
bitter greens, grilled nectarines with
gorgonzola. Perhaps her boundary-
defying creativity came from her first
job as a 21-year-old intern for Stewart,Unusual fruit, fishy dressing,
nuts! Upgrade your salad
If you had to make
lunch for US celeb
Martha Stewart,
you’d be inventive
too, Jess Damuck
tells Giulia Crouch
admire the beautiful colours of the
different ingredients, is a way to
achieve mindfulness. “I’m not saying
you’ll have a spiritual experience,”
she says, “but I do hope you’ll be
able to focus on each task and let
the weight of the day and any other
little things in your mind go.”
True to her millennial generation,
there is also a show-off element to
her salads. “If you can’t Instagram
your food, does anyone want to
make it any more? I’m not sure.”
There’s nothing wrong with that,
Damuck reasons. “Documenting
our food has become such a big part
of our lives. The aesthetics of a dish
are important.”
Sometimes she bases a whole recipe
on how the end result might look. “I
might see a specific shade of green
and decide I want to work with that.”
To be fair, I’ve Instagrammed salad
before. In fact, I’ve Instagrammed a
lot of food and it is something that a
lot of my peers do too. “That’s why
I’ve included styling tips in the book,”
says Damuck. “I want people to feel
proud of what they make. I know how
great I feel when my friends ooh and
aah at the table over one of my dishes.
I want everyone to experience that.”
Not only does she guide you through
the perfect way to cut citrus fruits so
they look their prettiest, she provides
a Spotify soundtrack to get you in the
right headspace (a QR code in the
book links to her playlists on Spotify).
As well as styling tips, there’s also
practical advice. I now know that to
get a shaving of carrot to stiffen up
and curl beautifully requires a
Benriner mandolin, good hand-eye
coordination and an ice-cold water
bath. And that a salad spinner is
essential (at the moment I pat my
lettuce dry with a bit of kitchen roll,
but Damuck says if the leaves are still
a bit wet the vinaigrette won’t stick).
She also has a comprehensive list of
what to have in your pantry, including
white balsamic. “It’s my favourite
vinegar and I use it constantly,” she
says. “I love its sweetness. I love its
tartness. I love it combined with
lemon.” I, for one, am sold.
In fact Damuck’s first tip for salads is
to make your own dressing and to
experiment with different ones. “That’s
the best way you can really start
changing up your salads.” Maybe my
honey-mustard days are truly over?
I’m already salivating at the prospect
of making a roasted grapes, endive and
ricotta salata — Damuck’s technique is
to coat the grapes in olive oil and bake
them at 220C for about 25 minutes,
until they blister — and the crunchy
citrus and radicchio salad with its
turmeric, lemon juice and tahini
dressing. Her roasted cauliflower
with almonds, parsley, medjool dates
and a chopped anchovy vinaigrette
also sounds divine.
As for Damuck, her favourite salad
is simple: a little gem salad with a
lemon mayonnaise dressing and
hazelnuts. “It’s bright and creamy
and you can make it in three seconds.
That’s the one I make the most.” My
nonna would surely approve.where she was tasked with making her
lunch every day — a job no one else
seemed to want, due to the star’s
exacting nature. Stewart wanted a
different salad every day and would
offer vague instructions such as: “I’m
in the mood for something light and
fresh and truly delicious.”
“There was all this mythology in the
test kitchen about what Martha liked
and disliked,” Damuck remembers. “I’d
start making something and the other
food editors would say, ‘Never give her
that, she doesn’t eat that.’”
One day she’d announce that only
the lettuce from a certain stall at the
farmers’ market would do and the next
she’d proclaim the leaves were too
tender and she only wanted crisp
greens going forward. Another time
Damuck was told she had taken a
“massive risk” by serving shaved
courgette. “I had to think outside the
box and constantly come up with new
combinations,” she says. “But it kept
me inspired.”
Damuck even picked up ideas
from some of the celebrity friends she
made while working on set, such as
the rapper Snoop Dogg. “I never
thought he’d be into salads, but he
loves them, especially a cobb salad.
He told me to put nacho chips in
at the end and it was genius.”
Snoop’s “BBQ chicken cobb salad
with all the good stuff” can be
found in the book.
Of course, eating in this
“vegetable-forward” way, as
Damuck terms it, is going to make
you feel great physically, but
Damuck thinks it can also help with
one’s mental wellbeing. She believes
that taking time to prepare salad, andSalad Freak: Recipes
to Feed a Healthy
Obsession by Jess
Damuck is published
by Abrams at £21.99Above: a salad of plum,
endive and gouda
with hazelnuts. Below:
Jess Damuck with
Martha StewartSue Gray: blackAmericano,no sugar