Our Michelin Chefs Cook series always brings you the best videos of top chefs working their craft. Whether it’s a killer steak, better-for-you takeout foods, or warming soups and stews, there are always new tricks that you can learn from our Michelin-starred chef recipe collections.
Here we have scoured the internet for some of the best gourmet salad recipes from top chefs. Salad is great comfort food that can come together in a dash, but it's easy to get into a rut. Stop making ordinary salads and toss together a show stopper that everyone will want to dig into. Mix plant-based ingredients with meat, poultry or fish and you can always lean on the classics like potato salad, corn salad and caprese but adding your own twist.
Don't neglect your side salad, with these recipes form Michelin star chefs you can elevate your side dish to something that is just as appreciated as your main course. Green salads come alive with the addition of cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, toasted almonds, bell peppers goat cheese, red onions and of course high-quality olive oil. Pomegranate molasses and figs can really add excitement to your salad.
6 salad recipes by Michelin-starred chefs
1. Jean-Georges Vongerichten's shrimp salad
For a light starter to any meal, try the acclaimed chef’s steamed shrimp salad with two dressings. We love this salad for its simplicity - just fresh shrimps and mixed greens come together with two different types of luxurious sauces.
- Start by peeling and deveining the shrimp then split them in two, keeping the tails attached.
- Place on a buttered dish, season and grill for about 1 and a half to 2 minutes.
- Plate up with seasonal salad greens, sliced avocado, enoki mushrooms and diced tomatoes.
- Drizzle with the first dressing (1 part soy sauce, 1 part lemon juice, 1 part truffle juice and 3 parts olive oil).
- Add chopped chives then the second dressing, a reduction of shallots, Champagne vinegar, cream and butter.
2. Gordon Ramsay’s spicy beef salad
Gordon Ramsay's salad recipe makes use of a great piece of beef and turns it into an Asian-inspired salad full of fresh cherry tomatoes, mixed greens, and herbs. The salad dressing is bright and spicy, made with fiery red chilies, fish sauce, lime juice, and mint. The entire salad is topped off with toasted peanuts.
- Start by seasoning the steak generously and sear in a hot pan with olive oil. Turn once and cook for 2 and a half minutes on each side. Allow to rest.
- Make the spicy dressing: deseed a chilli and chop, crush in a pestle and mortar with a peeled garlic clove and salt. Add two teaspoons of palm sugar, fish sauce and fresh lime. Mix until the sugar dissolves.
- Prepare the vegetables and coat in the dressing.
- Plate up with the sliced, rested steak. Top with crushed, toasted peanuts.
3. Daniel Boulud’s favourite salad recipes
Chef Daniel Boulud creates two super easy summer salads - one with a medley of tomatoes, another with peaches and Parmesan cheese. If you're used to making tomato caprese salad, try the starred-chef's version with labneh instead.
Labneh, a Middle Eastern fresh cheese, is easily made at home - simply wrap a cheesecloth over some greek yoghurt and hang over a bowl in the fridge overnight. The result will be a fresh cheese with a cream cheese-like consistency that can take on any flavour you wish in a dish.
- For the tomato salad: cut heirloom and cherry tomatoes into wedges and season. Make a dressing with tomato water, lemon juice, garlic, honey, sumac, olive oil, salt and pepper. Plate up with drained labneh, sliced avocado and shallots before garnishing with basil and a pinch of sumac.
- For the second summery salad: use a leafy green base with herbs and add flaked pecorino cheese to cooked quinoa and sliced peach. Sprinkle with toasted almonds and chopped black olives. Drizzle with a Champagne vinaigrette or balsamic dressing.
2 Caesar salads: Thomas Keller vs Massimo Bottura
4. Thomas Keller Caesar salad
If you are after a good old caesar, Thomas Keller's salad is where it’s at. In this video for the New York Times, the chef goes through each and every element of this American classic, from what olive oil to use, why you use anchovies in the dressing, to what type of salt you should be sprinkling on your salads. This is the guide to help you make the best Caesar salad of your life.
- Make the anchovy paste.
- Grate the parmesan cheese onto a baking sheet to make a parmesan crisp.
- Add a garlic clove and coarse salt to the anchovy paste to perfume the bowl with garlic.
- Add a raw egg and blend until it coats the back of the spoon. Gradually add olive oil to emulsify.
- Add the torn salad leaves to the emulsified dressing and another pinch of salt. Grind black pepper over the top and squeeze lemon juice.
- Grate more fresh parmesan into the bowl and add broken pieces of the parmesan crisp. Toss all the ingredients together.
- Plate up and garnish with more grated parmesan and single brown anchovies.
5. Massimo Bottura’s Caesar salad
Called Modena to Dubai, Bottura’s salad shares a few elements in common with the Caesar salad, but is something entirely new that only Bottura can create. Ingredients like Parmesan cheese mingle with balsamic vinegar from Bottura’s hometown of Modena, as well as ingredients unique to the Middle East.
While we don't recommend it, you may (if you absolutely must) substitute the balsamic vinegar with red wine vinegar if you can't find it, and go for a good mix of baby greens and edible flowers for visual effect.
- Arrange the base leaves and herbs delicately. Grate a boiled egg yolk before adding dots of extra virgin olive oil and caesar salad sauce.
- Drizzle in balsamic vinegar and dot with lemon gel.
- Add thin slices of crunchy bread and parmesan crisps to garnish.
6. Enrico Crippa’s 21-31-41 salad recipe
This is one of Crippa’s most famous recipes, partly because it uses a whopping 40+ ingredients for a salad that is kept entirely raw. His process of picking all the ingredients, such as succulents, greens, roots, and flowers from his two gardens makes for fascinating viewing, and the resulting salad is a symphony of raw flavours.
You won't find any feta cheese or red onions here. Rather, the entire dish is about tasting the incredible diversity in flavours and textures of greens - some familiar, some not so much. Use it as a guide to creating your own composition of fresh vegetables.
- Prepare the fresh salad leaves and herbs.
- Assemble the dish by combining the leaves, add a pinch of salt, sesame needs and nori seaweed.
- Add candied ginger water, julienned pieces of candied ginger, some drops of Barolo wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Stir together carefully.
- Add aromatic herbs and assemble. Top with hazelnuts.
- Garnish with edible flowers to add colour.
Salads provide an endless source of creativity in the kitchen. To trigger your tastebuds and try out some new flavour combinations, check out these mouth-watering salad recipes: pea and asparagus with goat’s cheese, an Italian white bean salad, a Persian eggplant and tomato salad, and a vegan cauliflower and potato salad.
