Turning a New Leaf

It’s not every city council member who can invent and name a salad after his hometown, but Ventura City Councilman Sandy Smith is someone who knows his way around lettuce.

The former owner of the Rosarito Beach Cafe in downtown Ventura was a “foodie” before he became a restaurateur or a politician. Smith, who sold his interest in the restaurant, still likes to keep his hand in things and mix it up, salad-wise.

He dreamed up Ensalada San Buenaventura in five minutes flat on Wednesday morning, with ground rules to use only ingredients that Ventura County grows in abundance. “That part’s easy,” Smith said. “We have year-round crops and we’re a hotbed of greens growing, anyway.”

Smith quickly ticked off “four components that are musts in Ensalada San Buenaventura: diced, fresh Ortega chiles, diced navel oranges, diced avocados and honey-glazed walnuts.

“I’d do something with that combination of ingredients, and then for dressing, I’d make up a little orange-chili vinaigrette. I’d garnish it with endive.”

Just like that.

Smith said that to come up with amounts, he might need to experiment in the kitchen for a few minutes.

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Inventing salads is nothing new to Smith, who was putting julienned jicama in his restaurant salads 12 years ago. He still touts jicama with a little lime juice for salads. “In no other food area has there been such a burst of creativity in the last decade as in salads,” he said.

“When I opened Rosarito in 1986, there weren’t that many alternatives to iceberg lettuce. Maybe a few sprouts on the salad from the ‘70s.” Iceberg, or head, lettuce is the least healthy, he added--it’s all water.

Today, with California cuisine, he says, “all bets are off. Salads are main courses today. However, if I see one more grilled chicken on Caesar salad. . . . “

His favorite green, “the one I strictly used at the Rosarito, is green leaf lettuce. I like its taste the most.”

But Smith is also a mixed greens man--he particularly likes the greens produced by Underwood Farms out of Somis. “Think about flavors and textures that mix well. I use shredded green cabbage in salads for flavor. White cream-type dressings go good with cabbage.”

“Experiment” is Smith’s byword in salads. “Use arugula. Spinach. Roasted red peppers. When I was a kid, spinach was boiled. But there’s nothing like a spinach salad with a little bacon and feta or Gorgonzola [cheese].”

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Today, every chain grocery store in Ventura County carries what Smith calls “high-end greens” such as radicchio or arugula. “The key to greens is that the flavors accentuate the salads. Arugula is peppery. Play off that flavor with maybe a tangerine balsamic dressing.”

People expect to be challenged in a restaurant today, he said. “You expect a raspberry vinaigrette, with chili pecans and roasted yellow peppers. And not just any olive will do anymore.”

Smith considers the orange-chili salad dressing he invented his signature dressing. “Spicy sweet is a great thing,” he mused. Anything goes on top of greens now, he said. Smith does some restaurant consulting and is designing a signature salad for a restaurant that will open in downtown Ventura later this year.

“I’ll only say there’ll be a barbecue salad. Sort of California-cuisine- meets-Mississippi-delta-barbecue salad.”

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Smith spoke of what he does with various lettuces.

“With romaine, it’s a substantial green, a little peppery--still makes the classic Caesar. With endive, I like a touch of chicken salad with apples.

“Now radicchio--it’s great for dips, by the way. And with arugula, just balsamic vinegar and maybe some nuts.” (He likes toasted pumpkin seeds, by the way.)

“And nothing beats good butter lettuce with a buttery-rich dressing,” he said with a satisfied smile, in remembrance of meals past. He keeps returning to that word “creative.”

His case in point: the ubiquitous grilled chicken Caesar salad. “A good barometer is when something ends up on the menu at a chain restaurant such as Denny’s, it’s time for cooks and chefs to move on.”