Bibb Winter Fruit and Goat Cheese Salad
Inspired by Helen Corbett's 1950's classic cookbook.
holiday feature
Well-Seasoned Greetings
At the end of their workday on Christmas Eve, chefs unbutton their white jackets, hang up their toques and, with a sigh of relief, leave their sous-chefs in charge of the kitchen for a few days. No sooner do they get home than they’re often thrust back into a kitchen — one that’s small and perhaps staffed by amateur helpers, some with tiny hands and huge expectations.
But even for the most sophisticated chefs, holiday cooking is not about wowing everyone with the latest ingredients and chicest techniques. It’s about re-creating traditional holiday dishes — all those old standbys that affirm a family’s shared history, the simple foods they’ve loved since childhood, those rib roasts and cookies that are always the same no matter how much everything else may change.
We asked some of our region’s chefs to share their favorite recipes and the memories that go with them.
Chef Kathy Cary
Lilly’s Bistro
1147 Bardstown Rd., Louisville
www.lillyslapeche.com
Family and food are the two most important parts of my life so it was inevitable that even at a very young age I was paying attention to what was going on in the kitchen.
My mother was one of my first great cooking teachers. She had the recipes, of course, but she also had the skills and the passion for the presentation. Everything had to be perfect. After all, this was a meal for the family, a cook’s most important audience.
Christmas Eve was her culinary time to shine. Her menu has not deviated much for the past 50 years and includes a salad course that has quite a history, which she recently shared.
Seems that in 1957, my parents, while on a road trip to California, stopped off in Austin, Texas, to visit Mom’s college roommate and her husband. Her friend served a delicious meal using recipes from a recently published cookbook by Helen Corbett, which included a salad of Bibb lettuce, Texas pink grapefruit and avocado slices served with a thick, sweet-tart vinaigrette dressing made with poppy seeds.
Corbett was considered a groundbreaking cook, akin to Julia Child, who elevated home cooking out of the ’50s doldrums. She constantly wrote of the pleasure to be found in cooking for the people you love.
Mom took that salad recipe and several others in that same 1957 cookbook and created the holiday dinner menu that would imprint on me the way I think and do everything concerning food.
Chef Rocco Cadolini
ROC Restaurant
1327 Bardstown Rd., Louisville
www.rocrestaurant.com
My mother, Concetta Cadolini, also known as Nonna Rosa, made from scratch this delicious dish Gnocchi alla Sorrentina every holiday. It was the famiglia Cadolini’s favorite signature dish since when I was young child in Sorrento, Italy. My job was to peel the potatoes and grate the cheese. I have three siblings—one sister and two brothers—and hundreds of cousins, aunts and uncles and, of course, Nonna Rosa! Every holiday and Sunday dinner was an Italian feast.
This holiday Chef Rocco carries on the tradition with his daughters, 14-year-old Alessia and 9-year-old Sofia Cadolini, in the kitchen of Roc Restaurant. As the three hand-mix the potatoes, flour and eggs to make gnocchi, memories of cooking with Nonna come pouring forward.
“This reminds me of being in Nonna’s kitchen in Italy. She is very outgoing and full of life,” said Alessia of her near- 80-year-old grandmother, who doesn’t speak English.
“She’s a good cook and shows us how to make food with her hands,” says Sofia, with a smile on her face and her hands covered in gnocchi mixture.
Rocco explains the key to good gnocchi is to cook the potatoes slowly. “It is an easy recipe but few know how to make it right,” he says. “When made right, you should not know you’ve eaten it. It should not be heavy.”
After rolling the mixture into small logs, Rocco quickly cuts the gnocchi into small pieces, explaining his gnocchi is about half the size of his mother’s because he prefers to give customers more bite-size pieces of Gnocchi alla Sorrentina, a regular menu item at Roc Restaurant.
For Alessia and Sofia, making gnocchi for the first time with their dad is an accomplishment they can’t wait to share with Nonna the next time they FaceTime.
Next on the girls’ agenda is learning how to master Nonna’s meatballs!
Executive Chef Mike Wajda
Proof on Main
702 W. Main St., Louisville
www.proofonmain.com
My oma would make cream of broccoli soup around the holidays and throughout the winter months. The texture and subtle curry flavor of this soup really hits home and takes me back to my childhood in her kitchen. Garnishes would change, but the base was always the same. Sometimes there would be a light dumpling or simple cracker to go with the meal. This hearty soup kicked off the meal, along with an acidic vinegar-based salad.
A lot of times we started with the soup, allowing the salad to marinate while we feasted. Even as a kid, I enjoyed eating my salad last, now realizing that the acid from the vinegar was helping me to digest all of the turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy that I had just gorged on.
the recipes
Bibb Winter Fruit and Goat Cheese Salad
Inspired by Helen Corbett's 1950's classic cookbook.
Gnocchi alla Sorrentina
My mother, Concetta Cadolini, also known as Nonna Rosa, made from scratch this delicious dish every holiday. ...
Cream of Broccoli Soup
My oma would make cream of broccoli soup around the holidays and throughout the winter months. The texture...
Communities Near You
Related Stories & Recipes
Gnocchi alla Sorrentina
My mother, Concetta Cadolini, also known as Nonna Rosa, made from scratch this delicious dish every holiday.
Cream of Broccoli Soup
My oma would make cream of broccoli soup around the holidays and throughout the winter months. The texture and subtle curry flavor of this soup really hits home and takes me back to my childhood in he...
