Quick Mock Caesar Salad

Sofia started summer cooking camp at the Scottsdale culinary school on Monday. Two weeks of professional instruction — knife skills, sauté technique, baking, plating, food safety. She is ten and she is the youngest student in the class (the program accepts ages ten to fourteen, and Sofia is exactly ten, which means she is the smallest person in a kitchen full of teenagers and she does not care because Sofia Rivera does not measure herself against other people — she measures herself against the recipe). She came home Monday afternoon and said, "Dad, the instructor says I have natural knife technique." I said, "You learned knife technique from Elena, who learned it from her mother, who learned it in Sonora. That is not natural. That is inherited."

Diego's summer started with three consecutive days of refusing to read his summer reading list and then reading the entire first book in one sitting because the book was about a boy who discovers a dinosaur skeleton in his backyard and Diego cannot resist a dinosaur narrative. The boy's relationship with reading is adversarial until the right book appears, and then it is total absorption. He will read anything with a dinosaur. He will read anything with a baseball. He will read anything with cooking. He will not read anything else. His literary diet is as specific as his actual diet: dinosaurs, baseball, cooking, and hot dogs.

At Rivera's, the summer surge has begun. Customers are up 15% from the spring — tourists, families on vacation, people looking for weekend lunch spots during the long Arizona days. We added a new item to the summer menu: a smoked watermelon salad with cotija cheese, lime, and Tajín. It sounds strange. It tastes like summer in the Sonoran Desert — sweet and savory and smoky and bright. The customers love it. Sofia tasted it at the restaurant and said, "This is sophisticated." She is ten and she uses the word sophisticated to describe food. I made a note in The Manual: "Smoked Watermelon Salad — Sofia-approved, therefore permanent."

The fire department cooking program update: Chief Rodriguez (Martinez's replacement) sent a report. The program is now in its third year. Meal quality across all twenty-six stations has increased measurably. Firefighter satisfaction surveys cite the cooking program as a top-five morale factor. The program I started with scrambled eggs at Station 19 is feeding the entire department. I did not build the program for legacy. I built it because hungry firefighters cook badly and well-fed firefighters cook well and the chain reaction of one good meal leads to another. But the legacy is there, quiet and permanent, in every firehouse kitchen in Phoenix.

Six months open. The fire burns. The summer heats. Rivera's endures.

The smoked watermelon salad lives on the Rivera’s menu now — permanent by Sofia’s decree — but it takes a smoker and a full line crew to pull off. What I can give you at home is the salad that runs alongside it on the summer menu: a quick mock Caesar that punches with the same clean brightness without a single complicated step. Sofia tasted this one too, standing at the pass in her chef’s camp apron, and she said it had “good acid balance.” She is ten. She learned that phrase on Monday. I am choosing to be proud.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 10 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

2 large heads romaine lettuce, chopped or torn into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 large lemon)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 cup croutons (store-bought or homemade)
Optional: extra lemon wedges for serving

Instructions

Make the dressing. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, and minced garlic until smooth and fully combined. Season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust — the dressing should be bright and tangy with a little sharpness from the garlic.
Prep the lettuce. Wash and dry the romaine thoroughly — a salad spinner works best. Dry greens hold dressing better and stay crisp longer. Chop or tear into pieces roughly 1 to 2 inches wide and place in a large salad bowl.
Dress and toss. Drizzle about two-thirds of the dressing over the romaine. Add half the Parmesan. Toss well with tongs or two large spoons until every leaf is lightly coated. Add more dressing as needed — you want coverage without pooling at the bottom.
Finish and serve. Top with the remaining Parmesan and scatter the croutons across the salad. Serve immediately so the croutons stay crisp. Pass extra lemon wedges at the table for anyone who wants an extra hit of brightness.

Nutrition (per serving)

Quick Mock Caesar Salad — The Salad Sofia Called Sophisticated