Mayonnaise de Volaille

Mayonnaise de volaille (cold chicken with mayonnaise) teaches the architecture of a composed salad: season the leaves before you cover them. The lettuce carries vinegar and salt, the poultry brings body, and the mayonnaise binds everything only when the serving spoons finally turn it together. If the leaves go in bland, no decoration can rescue them.

The classical entry assumed cold boiled or roast fowl waiting in the larder, a saucier's mayonnaise already finished, and enough hands to decorate a brigade-sized bowl. Your home equivalent is leftover chicken, one hand-whisked emulsion, and a broad salad bowl for four. The staff and grand quantity were scaffolding, so they go; no stockpot or salamander belongs here. The ciseled dome, skinned collops, smooth mayonnaise, garnishes, and toss at the table are the dish, so they stay.

Built properly, it comes cold and generous: an ivory dome set with briny capers, olives, anchovy, golden egg quarters, and crisp lettuce hearts, then broken open with serving spoons. One cook, one stove, one evening. Dry the lettuce completely before you season it; water dilutes the vinegar and makes the mayonnaise slide, and that is the one step to guard.