Iceberg Lettuce Slices

I have to admit, I totally cheated on this salad. I used romaine hearts instead of iceberg because that's what I had. I used oven-roasted tomatoes and croutons I had made previously and frozen. I made blue cheese dressing from another recipe, not Keller's. I made the bacon as suggested, but I didn't have thick-cut bacon so I didn't get the true lardons.

Does it matter? The flavors were terrific together, an elevated steakhouse salad. I'm sure Keller would approve of my improvising and using what I have on hand.

My husband also really enjoyed it, and he ate it with an Italian vinaigrette (he doesn't care for blue cheese). Great salad.

I have never really been a big fan of the Iceberg Wedge Salad. In particular, I am not a big blue cheese fan. I decided to make this recipe to see if Chef Keller’s method, preparation and attention to detail could change my mind.

The recipe was quite involved, so this isn’t the type of salad you can start and finish in the same day unless you have at least 6 hours or up to 2 days if you plan to make your own Brioche Croutons (p 273) from Brioche (p 272), which I did as well. Almost everything can be prepared in advance though and that is what I did. I enjoyed the step by step process to make Blue Cheese Dressing (p 182) by making the Buttermilk Dressing (p 182), which included making Garlic Confit and Oil (p 266) used to make Aioli (p 333) from Mayonnaise (p 333). The Oven Roasted Tomatoes (p 333) were a delight, although time consuming, but well worth it. I enjoyed the little tips and tricks along the way that enhanced the overall recipe, especially for making the perfect bacon lardons.

Absolutely every piece of this recipe is can’t miss. Don’t leave or substitute a thing out or you will be missing out.

It's not often I use iceberg lettuce, but this was fabulous. I did not oven roast tomatoes. I would like to try it that way next time but instead used peeled heirloom tomatoes fresh from the farmer's market. I did not order the bacon from Hobbs' but instead used applewood-smoked slab bacon from my local meat market. I think the combination of wonderfully chunky smokey bacon, crisp, refreshing lettuce, smooth and silky tomatoes and crunchy brioche croutons is fabulous. I would recommend making the croutons, tomatoes (if I had time I would have done them) and maybe even the dressing a day a head of time because making this and the entree was very time consuming.

This salad is a PRODUCTION. Really. If you want a project that takes days then this is for you. I love to cook and this tried my patience. By the time you roast the tomatoes (five hours), make the garlic confit oil (one hour), make the aioli (I tried four times and it never emulsified so I had to use store bought), bake the brioche (over 24 hours) then turn it into croutons, cook the lardons and finish the dressing you have a couple of days of preparation. Because I knew some of my guests don't like blue cheese, when I made the dressing, I kept half of it the regular Buttermilk Dressing and made the other half the Point Reyes Blue Cheese Dressing. The whole time I was prepping I kept thinking to myself this better be REALLY good to justify the amount of time spent on it. And it is really good. Do I ever need to make this again? Probably not. Though everyone loved it- especially those of us who haven't had iceberg lettuce since the 1970s!

Let's get one comment out of the way first: this is not a salad you can make tonight--not unless you have oven roasted tomatoes (5 -6 hours prep) on hand and garlic aioli with which to make the blue cheese dressing and brioche for croutons. That being said, once you assemble the components, this is a knockout salad. It can singlehandedly make iceberg lettuce popular again. Making the lardons as directed is a revelation. They were delicious and just the right texture for the salad. The roasted tomatoes are great in this and the lightness of the croutons is just right as well. The dressing was a huge hit, described as "the best blue cheese dressing ever."