SALADES DE PROVENCE
THE ART OF EUROPEAN ZEN INTO EVERY SALAD
By Stacey Kumagai
The French have ZEN down to more than just a science, they have transformed it into a lifestyle. You can witness this from the way they play, enjoy life, love and celebrate the beginning and end of each day in how they dine. American culture has stolen French cliché catch-phrases like Joie de Vivre (a healthy enjoyment of life), Carte blanche (having free rein to choose whatever course of action you want) and Crème de la crème (best of the best). Yet when it comes to Americans actually understanding how to actually do, be or experience just that – there is a faux pas in the translation…. and all ZEN is lost.
Enter the French Mediterranean Cuisine of Salades de Provence who can help us en route to REAL ZEN with their food and dining experience. The Zen way of life is through simplicity…..Salades de Provence’s menu is simple… it is based on salads. But make no mistake – this is not your mother’s or grandmother’s wedge of iceberg and typical dressing- which is a side component to the meal you had growing up.
You can experience a salad like never before because there is careful complexity added with culinary prowess, making these oh-so-sexy salads, the ultimate in haute cuisine. Ooh la la. You think we’re kidding? Salads which start with an inviting bed of crisp, fresh organic salad greens are certainly sexy, naked as they are. But what happens when you add premium ingredients like candied onions, golden breaded goat cheese, aromatic fresh herbs, savory grilled vegetables, curried marinated prawns, roasted chicken or smoked salmon or duck breast, caramelized pork, wild octopus or wild rice, fresh fried potatoes, crunchy nuts, imported French cheeses or an exotic anise flavored oil? Are you drooling yet? It’s a feast for your eyes, as much as it is a feast for your palate – the tantalizing combinations make salads more than just a salad.
“Our business is different because first, nobody has our menu, it’s not a huge menu with vast diversity. We are specialized on salads which were created by us. People can’t create their own, but we tried to create salad as a meal. We also have quiches, crepes and soup,” states owner, Richard Makinadjian. My cousin Eric Martirossian started the business 14 years ago in my city Aix en Provence, South of France. I joined him later and wanted to develop a chain, it’s why I came to Los Angeles to open the second restaurant. The idea was to do a restaurant with light food, healthy, fresh products. Salad is very healthy. It is light but at the same time we wanted people to be fed. Our salad menu is not simple salad like Caesar. We use high quality products, like goat cheese, sun-dried tomato, Poilane tartine, grilled vegetables, prosciutto and more. The most popular salad is the one with chicken, I guess because it’s close to the Caesar salad which is the most popular salad in America. But not far behind in popularity are the Salade Nicoise, and l'Assiette Sainte Victoire with lamb, rice, bell peppers....They also love quiches and crepe, I sell more here than in France,” explains Makinadjian.
Salades de Provence makes an exciting salad, no matter how you toss it. But there was initial concern about how the salads would be embraced by Los Angelenos. Salads de Provence’s menu mirrors its flagship in France, and European lifestyle/Zen culture differs greatly from American lifestyle.
“That is very true. It is totally different than the way it is in the U.S. and especially in Los Angeles. But also people here are very aware of the "body", they all go to the gym, they don’t want bread, they eat egg whites. Our restaurant and menu is exactly the same as in France, the only difference is here we serve the breakfast. In France we don’t. At the beginning we did a very Frenchy breakfast with croissant, pain au chocolat, French bread tartine with jam, but I could see people are not used to this kind of breakfast. Americans eat omelettes, so we adjusted and did a little French-American breakfast. But lunch and dinner are the same as our menu in France. In the beginning I was a little scared that people would want to change everything in the salad but I’m surprised, most of them eat the salad as we provide and they like it,” shares Makinadjian.
Salades de Provence is more than salads. As Makinadjian mentioned, the establishment also serves up quiches, crepes and soup. Author Bruce Feirstein’s 1982 Best Seller ‘Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche’ would be a joke here…. Because it does not apply. The savory quiches are a hit and are hearty, healthy, gourmet and delicious. Just like with their salads, Salades de Provence selects premium ingredients which people don’t expect, and are delighted to discover.
Makinadjian shares that some of his customers are fairly well-informed about French cuisine, terms and even have some culinary knowledge about the great art of making crepes. “ A lot of people love crepes and they say it’s hard to find a good crepe place in LA. They know about the 2 flours, farine de sarrasin for the savory crepe and the regular farine for the sweet. Here we carry only the regular because it’s hard to find the sarrasin and also because we do an unsweetened crepe mix. It goes well even with a savory crepe,” explains Makinadjian.
Salades de Provence makes both sweet and savory crepes. The savory crepes are filled with healthy and fresh organic greens, vegetables, fresh herbs, cheeses and nuts, making for nice mix of textures and flavors in a light crepe. The sweet crepes are dessert treats with diverse offerings from lemon and sugar, Nutella, bananas and coconut, fresh fruit, granola and yogurt, to a more decadent Grand Marnier and butter.
Rounding out the menu are the drinks including juices, teas and coffee drinks. Their Famous French Tea “Mariage Freres” was founded in 1854. And their Famous French Coffee Café Richard was founded in 1892.
Salades de Provence celebrates French Meditteranean cuisine the ZEN way - taking simplicity to a level of refinement, creating salads to be enjoyed in a unique way. The ZEN way…from France with love …and a ‘quiche.’
Salades de Provence is located at 1040 North La Cienega Blvd.,
West Hollywood, CA 90069
310.657.9696
For more information go to www.saladesdeprovence.com