In the 80s, a French restaurant in Maynard, MA made a great Caesar salad. They also had a desert they described as tagliatelle chocolate which was a chocolate crepe cut like tagliatelle with a homemade black chocolate sauce and fresh whipped cream. I did as many businesses lunches as I could there and always ordered both.
Flash forward to my life in Europe. I saw many Caesar salads on menus but when they came they had iceberg lettuce (why bother--no taste, no nutrition) and a sauce that never read the recipe for a real Caesar salad.
At Marro, where we eat beyond frequently, I was chatting with the chef and said how Caesar salads were a real disappointment not even a good imitation of a "real one." He asked what a "real one" was.
First, romaine lettuce only, I told him.
He asked if I had a recipe. I couldn't find my mother's, but I located one close to it. I took it to him with apologies. After all he was a trained chef. I'd gone six months to chef school and only on weekends and over the years he has prepared wonderful meals that my housemate and I've devoured along with his clientele.
He said he would try it.
Today we tried his attempt which he hand delivered to us and waited for me to sample. He also offered to put our shopping in the restaurant frigo. He'd added a few flourishes that only added to the wonderful base.
It was as good or better than my mother's and that French restaurant.
I do wonder at my nerve of telling a chef how to cook, but his openness perhaps was our shared love of good, if not great, food.
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