Two Sides to Every Story

It’s not hard to balance side-dish staples with innovative updates.

By Melanie Wolkoff Wachsma

When we talk about favorite side dishes, mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese—those ultimate comfort foods—are high on the list. But today, traditional sides often share menu space with modern versions of, well, themselves. And side dishes no longer stand in the shadow of center-of-the-plate items; it’s actually the opposite.

“The protein is no longer the main consideration on the plate,” says Scott Fetty, chef/instructor at Pennsylvania Culinary Institute in Pittsburgh. “Side dishes—vegetables and starches—offer an array of colors, textures and sensations that proteins can’t offer. For example, there are only a couple of textures you can express with chicken.”

“Protein is a garnish for me. It gets on the plate once everything else is done,” says Anette Grecchi Gray, chef at Jiko-The Cooking Place at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom Lodge in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

This is not to say old stand-bys such as rice pilaf and steamed veggies should be ignored. It’s all about compromise.

At Talula in Miami Beach, roasted-garlic whipped potatoes, chorizo/Carr Valley Wisconsin-aged cheddar smashed potatoes, and peanut-butter whipped potatoes sit together on the menu.

Frank Randazzo wouldn’t have it any other way. “Our menu is split 50/50 between more-creative side dishes and traditional sides,” says Randazzo, who is co-chef/co-owner of Talula with his wife Andrea Curto-Randazzo.

Turning the side dish on its side

While mashed potatoes scream “safe” and “likeable,” chefs offer many alternative side-dish contenders.

“Mashed potatoes are the bane of our restaurant’s existence. We either make too much or not enough,” says Brenton Hammer, executive chef of Phillips ChopHouse located in the Phillips Hotel in Kansas City, Mo.

This season, winter-friendly vegetables inspire Hammer’s side-dish creations. He marries lamb chop and breast with white beans. Venison shares the spot-light with white-corn grits, trumpet mushrooms, braised greens, Medjool dates and date sauce, while veal rib chop mingles with savory pain perdu, turnips, prunes, bananas and cilantro.

“I’m big into storage vegetables, such as beets and turnips. I’m also into celery root, leeks, mushrooms, beans and lentils,” Hammer says.

He’s not the only one who sees side-dish opportunity with winter-seasonal ingredients. Fetty wishes root-vegetable-inspired sides appeared more on menus.

“We’re still locked into green beans and asparagus sides, but root vegetables can be done extremely elegantly,” he says. “Winter squashes are great, too. Caramelizing squash brings out its natural sugars that make a great side-dish foundation.”

During the winter, Fetty composes side portions of cassoulet that he cooks in miniature cast-iron Dutch ovens. He varies the stew by adding predictable meats such as sausage or duck confit, or sometimes something nontraditional. “People really crave comfort food. I like to take a simple item, like cassoulet, and introduce another element, like lamb or crawfish,” he says.

Executive chef/owner Kevin Rathbun of Rathbun’s in Atlanta substitutes cabbage for pasta in his carbonara-cabbage side dish that he pairs with roasted pork tenderloin. Rathbun thinly chiffonades cabbage, blanches it and tosses it with cream, artichokes and pancetta. “I’m taking an old standby and dressing it up for the low-carb guy,” he says.

During avocado season, Rathbun pairs avocado griddle cakes with sun-dried-tomato vinaigrette with pan-seared lamb loin. “I try to use avocados in a creative, edgy way,” he says. “The beauty of the avocado is that it has so much fat it lends itself to become a mock starch.”

Go for the grain

Stepping out of the ordinary is exactly what the side dishes do at Jiko-The Cooking Place, where the menu focuses on African ingredients prepared with a modern twist. Grecchi Gray uses African products such as millet, teff, spelt, quinoa, wheat berries, amaranth and kamut.

“Wheat berries, kamut and spelt are unbelievably underutilized,” she says. “Quinoa is loaded with protein.”

Menu items include broiled fillet of wild king salmon with roasted curried ratatouille, edamame, black chickpeas and cucumber yogurt. “Black garbanzo beans don’t lose their color when cooked, and are great folded into rice pilafs or grain medleys,” says Grecchi Gray.

Seared jumbo scallops with golden-brown mealie papand spicy tomato/onion chaka-laka displays African tribal cooking techniques. “Mealie papis a version of white grits. Chaka-lakais like a spicy tomato stew,” says Grecchi Gray.

A sweet accompaniment

Simply turn a savory side sweet to avoid side-dish monotony. Hammer places carrot/cardamom griddle cakes with gooseberries and vanilla with his foie-gras au torchon, while Rathbun’s brown-butter cauliflower mash presents a sweet alternative to traditional mashed potatoes.

Randazzo’s yellowtail snapper with sweet-potato/wild-mushroom risotto, wilted organic arugula and kaffir-lime butter is Talula’s signature dish. “The combination of arugula, sweet potato and mushrooms might sound heavy, but it balances out and becomes a delicate, creamy dish,” he says.

Brian McManara, executive chef at Massa’s in Houston, places seared seasoned scallops atop watercress and baby mixed greens, with a side of spiced pears and rice noodles tossed in ginger/pear vinaigrette.

Lucia Watson, chef/proprietor of Lucia’s Restaurant and Wine Bar, Minneapolis, and co-author, with writer Beth Dooley, of Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland (Knopf, 1994), creates sweet-corn pudding with fresh sweet corn, shallots, Tabasco, Worcestershire, cream, eggs, herbs and Midnight Moon chèvre.

“It’s a delicious baked creamy, savory pudding,” says Watson. “It can go with anything—grilled steak or a grilled fish. It’s pretty versatile.”

“It’s all about taking a classic application, breaking it down and putting it back together,” says Fetty, who tweaked a corned-beef hash concept into a warm potato/apple hash, which accompanied his baked red trout.

“The trout was so simple, I didn’t want anything heavy bulking up the plate,” he says. “The sweetness with apple and soft texture is a contrast I love.”

Many chefs capitalize on the idea of reinventing a classic. Savory bread pudding is a great example. Hammer serves wild-mushroom bread pudding with pheasant and persimmon sauce. Porcini/leek bread pudding mingles with lavender-crusted New Zealand venison, ancho-glazed Japanese eggplant and smoked grape/pancetta vinaigrette at Talula.

Remember, preparing innovative side dishes with costly ingredients can hurt your bottom line, if you’re not careful.

“I ask, ‘What can I get? What’s the best way I can showcase an ingredient?’” says Kevin Zink, chef/owner of The Kitchen Zink in Carlsbad, N.M. “I buy what’s seasonal. It’s affordable, and helps your bottom line.”

What’s Zink’s best-selling side dish? Glazed carrots. “There’s nothing fancy about it. People won’t let me take it off the menu,” he says.

Side-dish Tips

“Sides such as the Asian pear/kiwi salsa and sweet-potato purée that accompany these lamb chops add a sweet alternative to the side-dish menu. Taste the vegetable or starch alone. Get a sense of what it is. What’s its texture? Do you use it for texture or flavor? Think about what goes with it, not just because it’s pretty and adds color. Don’t just throw things on the plate for color. That doesn’t make sense.” — Scott Fetty, chef/instructor, Pennsylvania Culinary Institute, Pittsburgh

“I’ve looked back at old menus I wrote, and it’s just adjective after adjective. Diners end up confused. If a diner sees a dish served with corn, and it’s got four or five items attached to it, they might not order it. The truer you are to the ingredient, the more people like it.” — Kevin Rathbun, chef/owner, Rathbun’s, Atlanta

“The connection between the front and the back of the house is crucial. Make sure servers understand how to sell the dish and understand the different tastes and textures in the ingredients.” — Anette Grecchi Gray, chef, Jiko-The Cooking Place, the signature restaurant at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom Lodge in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

À la carte Solution

Chefs share the same frustration: A diner orders one entrée, but prefers the side dish from another. “I got so upset, setting up the menu and then the guest would say, “I want the lamb, but I want the potato instead.’” says Kevin Zink. To accommodate, Zink’s menu offers guests five different sides from which they may select three to accompany their entrée. Offering À la carte side-dish options with regular menu selections provides a solution for indecisive diners or those who prefer customization. “Diners feel like they handcrafted their meals,” says Scott Fetty. “People get exactly what they want, and it becomes more interesting for diners,” says Brenton Hammer. At Phillips ChopHouse, À la carte options include acorn-squash purée, six-onion risotto and bleu-cheese pancakes. At Talula in Miami Beach, À la carte side dishes range from strozzapreti pasta and cheese with apple-smoked bacon and an aged manchego/Vidalia-onion tart, to sautéed grilled asparagus or sautéed spinach with garlic. “We’ve designed a menu for the guy who wants a hearty and simple meal and for the wife who watches the food channel all day,” says Frank Randazzo.

Melanie Wolkoff Wachsman is based in Louisville, Ky.