Lemon/Oregano Vinaigrette
Clark McDaniel, Executive Chef
Paesanos 1604
San Antonio
it user-friendly so they can add a quart
of juice and a half-quart of oil, some sour
cream, and so on,” Wismer says.
A current trend on the exotic side is to
use the restaurant’s fancy mixed drinks
to make a salad dressing, he says. For
example, a restaurant might promote
vodka with juices and Caribbean
seasonings. This could provide the basis
for a similar Caribbean salad dressing.
Another consideration is that salads often
are served with proteins, such as salmon,
shrimp, chicken or sea bass. “You don’t
want to kill the flavor with blue cheese
dressing,” Wismer says. He works with
operators on dressing flavors that match
the protein, such as sea bass with a
mango-flavored dressing.
goat cheese and spinach flavors. Two
other dressings are cucumber buttermilk
and Gorgonzola buttermilk. Both are light,
almost like a vinaigrette, instead of heavier
like a classic ranch.
Making the dressings can present
operational issues. At SPIN! the dressings
are made from scratch and are not
fully emulsified like many outsourced
dressings. “We have operational
procedures that ensure the proper
mixing of the dressing at each step,
from preparation to service,” Lozoff says.
After the dressings are prepared in large
batches, they are separated into usable
containers before storing. Lozoff says
care must be taken with dressing that’s
not emulsified to keep the flavors and
texture together. “You have to shake it all
the time as you divide it.”
Yield: 6 cups
2 pasteurized egg yolks
½ cup water
½ cup lemon juice
½ cup red wine vinegar
2 T. Dijon mustard
½ cup honey or Karo corn syrup
1 T. minced garlic
1 T. oregano
1 T. Clark McDaniel’s seasoning
2 T. kosher salt
4 cups oil
½ cup Peppadew peppers, chopped
Method: Blend egg yolks, water,
lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, honey,
garlic, oregano, seasoning and salt;
add oil slowly while blending. Add
peppers; pulse. Check seasoning;
adjust as needed.
FINER POINTS
SPIN! Neapolitan Pizza, with four
restaurants in the Kansas City, Mo.,
area, has six signature dressings, each
developed for specific salads, says co-owner Gail Lozoff. The dressings were
developed for the restaurant by James
Beard Award-winning chef Michael Smith
of Michael Smith Restaurant and Extra
Virgin, both in Kansas City, who is friends
with Lozoff and her co-owner husband.
“All the dressings are addictive in their own
way and have qualities about them that are
unique to how they pair with the ingredients
in the salads,” Lozoff says. For example, the
spinach salad gets Chianti vinaigrette, in
which the restaurant reduces the Chianti
to give it an intense flavor to pair with the
Charles Mereday, an Indianapolis-
based food and beverage consultant,
has developed many dressings in his
career, and says the current thinking is to
develop a dressing that’s different—such
as incorporating a vegetable purée. In
November 2010, he spent time at The
Chef’s Garden Inc., Huron, Ohio, which
grows microgreens and other vegetables
for restaurants. There he worked on
his carrot/ginger dressing, in which he
combines ginger in a carrot purée and
adds grapeseed oil, lemon juice, white wine
vinegar, a touch of sugar, salt and pepper.
sugar added. In fact, it doesn’t need
sugar. I only added a touch to make it
a little edgier.” He notes that dressings
with a trace of sweetness tend to be
more successful.
“It’s been well-received,” Mereday says.
“The carrots have a natural sweetness,
which helps cut down on the amount of
His dressing development advice is to take
advantage of any ingredient that will help
to make it more nutritious. Vegetables
can serve several purposes. “They add a
depth of flavor and can be cross-utilized
as a binder. Rather than an egg yolk,
use roasted onion purée,” he says. For a
roasted onion balsamic dressing, roast
red onions whole in the skin until soft all
the way through, then purée with extra
virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey.
