Cookbook: Salad Days

Salad Days

His name may be synonymous with rich, decadent chocolate desserts, but this summer the "Guru of Ganache" Marcel Desaulnier shows his lighter side in Salad Days: Main Course Salads for a First Class Meal.

Award-winning author Marcel Desaulniers excels at creative menus, as evidenced in his Willliamsburg, VA, restaurant and cookbook of the same name, The Trellis. In this departure from all things chocolate and sinful, Salad Days orchestrates entire meals around the crisp, contrasting flavors of tender salad greens, earthy vegetables, tart citrus, hearty beans and grains, cheeses and nuts—often accented by loftier flavors, such as those of salmon, sausages, beef, or duck, among others.

Meticulously well-organized, these recipes present every component of the dinner separately, from the salad dressing to the greens to cooked accoutrements. Preparation steps are logically defined, right down to the assembly of the dish, along with equipment lists for each recipe. "The Chef's Touch" sidebars explain in detail the valuable chef's tips that really make each dish come into its own.

For elegance and simplicity in one, the meals in Salad Days fit today's lifestyles all year long. And with Marcel's generous explanations, excellent preparation tips and careful organization, anyone can make main-course salads like a 4-star chef.

—KH

Salad Days
Main-Course Salads for a First-Class Meal
by Marcel Desaulniers
Photography by Peter Johansky
Simon & Schuster Editions
1998, Hardcover, US $27.50
ISBN: 0-684-82261-X
Recipes & photos reprinted by permission