Renee Guilbault, a veteran food-industry consultant with extensive experience in large-scale, global food and beverage operations, brings her culinary expertise to the forefront with this recipe for Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad. As the founder of Essayer Food Consulting and a former leader at esteemed establishments such as Pret A Manger, Bon Appetit Management Company at Google, and Le Pain Quotidien, Renee has made a significant impact in revolutionizing menus and executing high-volume strategies worldwide.
Recipe for Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad
Ingredients
Salad
• 16 ounces baby gem hearts or romaine lettuce, washed, dried, and chopped into small ribbons (no stems!)
• Maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper, to your taste
• 3 to 4 chicken breasts, freshly grilled with salt and pepper and chopped into small cubes. Yes, you want these warm if possible . . .it’s just better.
• 6 strips bacon, cooked and diced small
• 4 large tomatoes, diced into small cubes (you could sub cherry tomato halves)
• 6 hard-boiled eggs, quartered or sliced into strips on an old-school egg slicer
• 2 ripe avocados, peeled and diced. Do this only when ready to assemble salads, so the avocado doesn’t discolour.
• 1 cup blue cheese, hand crumbled Fourme d’Ambert is my fave, although Roquefort and Stilton are hard to beat.
Balsamic Vinaigrette
• 1/2 cup high-quality balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 3/4 cup high-quality extra-virgin olive oil
• Maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
1. To make the dressing, whisk together the vinegar and mustard in a small bowl. Add the olive oil slowly while whisking to thicken the dressing. Finish with Maldon and black pepper, to taste. You can store this in the fridge for up to 3 days.
2.To make the salad, first make sure all of your ingredients are ready to go. Place greens in the bottom of a bowl. Season the lettuce with Maldon and pepper and toss to distribute evenly. Yes, really . . . always season your greens!
3. Evenly portion and create colourful rows of ingredients across the top of each salad (whether you are making individual portions or one big dish) in the following order: chicken, bacon, tomato, eggs, avocado, blue cheese. The most important thing is that you fully cover the
lettuce, and you have different colours next to each other so that the salad looks visually stunning.
4. Serve with Maldon and a pepper grinder on the table along with the vinaigrette. Enjoy!
