Adler's treatment of the wilted salad — hot fat poured over sturdy greens, creating a half-cooked, half-raw preparation that is more interesting than either fully raw salad or fully cooked greens — represents her philosophy of the in-between state as a flavour opportunity. The technique is old (Southern wilted lettuce with hot bacon fat is the American ancestor) but her articulation of why it works makes it applicable beyond its traditional forms.
Sturdy greens (frisée, radicchio, kale, dandelion, watercress) dressed with a warm or hot fat-based dressing at the moment of serving, producing a partially wilted texture that is simultaneously raw and cooked — retaining the freshness and bitterness of the raw green while the fat softens the toughest fibres and carries fat-soluble aromatic compounds into the leaves.
- The fat must be warm to hot — cold fat produces a dressed salad, not a wilted one. The heat is what wilts the greens and integrates the dressing [VERIFY minimum temperature for wilting effect] - Bitter greens respond best — tender leaves like butter lettuce collapse completely under warm fat. Sturdy, bitter greens (frisée, radicchio, dandelion) hold their structure while wilting slightly - Acid added immediately after the hot fat brightens the dressing and prevents the fat from making the salad heavy — the classic warm bacon dressing formula (fat + vinegar + sugar + mustard) is the template - Serve immediately — the wilting continues as the salad sits, and a perfectly wilted salad at 30 seconds becomes a completely collapsed salad at 5 minutes
MOMOFUKU (continued) + AN EVERLASTING MEAL