Dinner By Chef Dasalla, Course 2: Grilled Spring Vegetable Salad

Grilled Spring Vegetable Salad

Continuing Story…

As I noted in the first course, it’s difficult to discuss the recipe in this blog post because I didn’t cook it, so after I present the recipe, I’d like to offer his short biography.

Recipe

4-5 each asparagus

6-7 endive leaves

4 small baby nude potatoes

1 red bell pepper

Toss vegetables except for the potatoes in olive oil, salt and pepper and grill them.  Be careful with the endive not of over wilt it. Once cooked slice the pepper into to inch batons and the asparagus into 2 inch logs.  For the potatoes cook them in salted water, should taste like the sea, until done.  Strain and cut the potatoes in half and roll them around the grill to get that smoky flavor.  If you have a vegetable grill rack use it so the vegetables don?t fall through the grill

For the vinaigrette

1 shallot small dice

1 tsp chopped fresh thyme

¼ c sherry vinegar

2 tbl olive oil

Sweat the shallots with a little oil, then add thyme.  Deglaze with sherry and then add the remaining olive oil.  Season with salt to taste.  Reheat veggies in the vinaigrette and plate by random placement of the veggies.  Garnish with some arugula.

Biography

Chef Robert Dasalla is a 2007 graduate of the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. He has over 10 years of experience at such restaurants as Pizza California in San Jose, California, Thinkers Cafe in Potrero Hill district in San Francisco, Ana Mandara located in Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, and Waterbar on the Embarcadero in San Francisco.

What I’d really like to discuss here is Chef Dasalla’s latest project. He recently became executive chef and part owner of Premier Pizza in Fremont, California. If you click on the link to Premier Pizza’s website, you might notice that it’s not updated with his information yet. He will be relaunching the restaurant under a different name (still undecided), currently scheduled for the end of May. It will remain a pizza and pasta restaurant. I will update this post when the new website is published.

Final Thoughts

Since Chef Dasalla is busy with the new restaurant, he isn’t taking catering jobs right now. If you wish to contact him, he can be emailed at vtaridder@yahoo.com. The third course in this series will be a halibut dish.

To be continued…