Chef Juliette
The Seasoning of Salads
Five dressings, one governing lesson: match fat and acid to the salad itself, from tender lettuce under fresh cream to bitter dandelion leaves glossed with hot bacon fat.
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Salade Opéra
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2016, Salade Opéra, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
White chicken, scarlet tongue, celery, and black truffle stand in disciplined heaps around green asparagus, with a barely-there mayonnaise that seasons the salad without dimming its Parisian colour.
Salads
French
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
Celebration
50 min
Active Time
25 min cook•1 hr 45 min total
Yield4 servings
Salade Opéra (an arranged Parisian salad of chicken, tongue, truffle, and asparagus) teaches one true thing: distinction is flavour. Its ingredients share the platter but never lose themselves in it. The julienne must be regular, the heaps separate, and the mayonnaise thin enough to season every mouthful without painting the whole affair white.
The brigade formula assumed a cold larder holding cooked chicken and vivid cured tongue, asparagus trimmed by another pair of hands, cocks’ kidneys ready for garnish, and a saucier on staff to send the mayonnaise at precisely the right consistency. A stockpot and salamander had other work that night; this salad needs neither. At home, one saucepan cooks the chicken, asparagus, and quail eggs in sequence, while a small bowl and whisk replace the sauce station. One cook, one stove, one evening.
Here cocks’ kidneys become quail-egg roundels because an ordinary home market does not supply the original garnish. The flavour is not identical, and we won't pretend it is, but the eggs preserve its small, pale, rich counterpoint and regular alternating border. Brigade mise en place is scaffolding and can go. Equal finished weights, clean julienne-fashion cutting, distinct heaps, and very thin mayonnaise are the dish and must stay. Before you begin, sharpen the knife and chill every component thoroughly; the exact cut is the step that matters most.
Salade Opéra belongs to the Parisian classical repertoire of salades composées, arranged salads made for formal cold tables rather than tossed in a bowl. It traveled from banquet and hotel cold rooms to celebration tables with its visual grammar intact: pale chicken, red cured tongue, green celery and asparagus, black truffle, and a precise alternating border. The order is not plating theater; regular heaps and thin mayonnaise keep every ingredient distinct in flavour as well as colour.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
skinless, boneless chicken breast
Quantity
1 small, about 6 oz (170 g), yielding ¾ cup (180 ml / 100 g) cooked white meat
cold water
Quantity
6 cups (1.4 L / 1.4 kg), plus more for chilling
divided
fine sea salt
Quantity
1 tablespoon plus ¼ teaspoon (16 ml / 20 g)
divided
asparagus
Quantity
1 large bunch, about 12 oz (340 g), yielding 1½ cups (350 ml / 180 g)
tips and tender upper stems trimmed
cooked very red cured beef tongue
Quantity
¾ cup loosely packed (180 ml / 100 g)
chilled in one piece
celery sticks
Quantity
1 cup loosely packed (240 ml / 100 g)
trimmed
fresh or whole preserved black truffle
Quantity
¾ cup loosely packed (180 ml / 100 g)
drained well if preserved
quail eggs, the home equivalent for cocks’ kidneys
Quantity
8
small cornichons
Quantity
8, about ⅓ cup (80 ml / 60 g)
drained
large pasteurized egg yolk
Quantity
1
Dijon mustard
Quantity
1 teaspoon (5 ml / 5 g)
white wine vinegar
Quantity
2 teaspoons (10 ml / 10 g)
divided
grapeseed or sunflower oil
Quantity
½ cup (120 ml / 110 g)
ground white pepper
Quantity
⅛ teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.3 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| skinless, boneless chicken breast | 1 small, about 6 oz (170 g), yielding ¾ cup (180 ml / 100 g) cooked white meat |
| cold waterdivided | 6 cups (1.4 L / 1.4 kg), plus more for chilling |
| fine sea saltdivided | 1 tablespoon plus ¼ teaspoon (16 ml / 20 g) |
| asparagustips and tender upper stems trimmed | 1 large bunch, about 12 oz (340 g), yielding 1½ cups (350 ml / 180 g) |
| cooked very red cured beef tonguechilled in one piece | ¾ cup loosely packed (180 ml / 100 g) |
| celery stickstrimmed | 1 cup loosely packed (240 ml / 100 g) |
| fresh or whole preserved black truffledrained well if preserved | ¾ cup loosely packed (180 ml / 100 g) |
| quail eggs, the home equivalent for cocks’ kidneys | 8 |
| small cornichonsdrained | 8, about ⅓ cup (80 ml / 60 g) |
| large pasteurized egg yolk | 1 |
| Dijon mustard | 1 teaspoon (5 ml / 5 g) |
| white wine vinegardivided | 2 teaspoons (10 ml / 10 g) |
| grapeseed or sunflower oil | ½ cup (120 ml / 110 g) |
| ground white pepper | ⅛ teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.3 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •2-quart (2 L) saucepan
- •Instant-read thermometer
- •Small heavy mixing bowl and balloon whisk
- •Sharp chef's knife
- •Digital kitchen scale
- •Large oval platter, about 16 inches (40 cm), chilled
Instructions
- 1
Poach the white meat
Put the chicken breast in a 2-quart (2 L) saucepan with 3 cups (700 ml) of the cold water and 2 teaspoons of the salt. Bring it slowly to the barest simmer, then lower the heat so the surface only trembles. Poach for 10 to 14 minutes, turning once, until the thickest part reaches 165°F (74°C). A hard boil tightens the fibres and makes the finished julienne fray, so keep the water calm. Lift out the breast, pat it dry, cool it promptly, and chill it for at least 30 minutes.
Chilled chicken cuts cleanly. Warm chicken tears into fibres, which is perfectly good for another supper but wrong for Salade Opéra. - 2
Set asparagus and eggs
Refresh the saucepan with the remaining 3 cups (700 ml) water and 1 teaspoon salt, then bring it to a full boil. Add the asparagus tips and tender upper stems and cook for 2 to 4 minutes, until brilliantly green and just tender when pierced. Reserve ½ cup (120 ml) of the cooking water and chill it. Move the asparagus straight into ice water, then drain and dry it thoroughly. Return the cooking water to the boil, lower in the quail eggs, and cook for 4 minutes. Chill, peel, and refrigerate them whole.
- 3
Whisk the mayonnaise
Whisk the egg yolk, Dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon of the vinegar, the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt, and the white pepper in a small heavy bowl. Add the oil first by drops, whisking each addition fully into the yolk; once the emulsion has body, pour the oil in a slender stream while whisking steadily. If oil gathers in beads or the sauce separates, stop. Ça se rattrape: whisk 1 teaspoon cold water in a clean bowl, then beat the broken mayonnaise into it one teaspoon at a time until smooth before continuing more slowly. Finish with the remaining vinegar and 3 tablespoons of the chilled asparagus water, adding more water by the teaspoon until the sauce falls from the whisk in a narrow ribbon and leaves only a light veil on a spoon.
- 4
Cut the julienne
Pat every component dry and keep four bowls beside the board. Weigh 100 g each of cooked chicken, tongue, celery, and truffle after trimming so the original equal proportions remain exact. Cut each julienne-fashion, into match-shaped rods about 2 inches long and ⅛ inch thick (5 cm by 3 mm), and keep each ingredient separate. Slice the chicken and tongue across their grain before cutting the rods. Precision matters here because even pieces dress evenly and form clean heaps; this is structure, not fuss.
- 5
Season without masking
Stir the mayonnaise and check its fall once more. Fold about 2 teaspoons through each bowl of julienne and 1 tablespoon through the asparagus, using just enough to give the surfaces a soft gloss. The white chicken must remain white, the tongue red, the celery pale green, and the truffle black. If the mayonnaise sits in opaque ridges, it is too thick; whisk another teaspoon of chilled asparagus water into the sauce, lift any excess coating from the ingredients, and dress them again lightly.
- 6
Build the heaps
Set a chilled oval platter before you. Place the asparagus in one compact, generous heap at the centre. Arrange the chicken, tongue, celery, and truffle in four equally regular heaps around it, leaving a narrow line of platter between them so the colours remain distinct. If any component has released water, drain it and blot gently before it reaches the plate; liquid underneath will loosen the arrangement and dilute the mayonnaise.
- 7
Finish the border
Cut the quail eggs crosswise into neat ¼-inch (6 mm) centre roundels, reserving the rounded ends for another plate, and slice the cornichons into roundels of the same thickness. Lay egg and gherkin roundels alternately around the outer border. Spoon one narrow ribbon of mayonnaise over the central asparagus and pass the remainder separately. Let the salad lose its deepest refrigerator chill for 10 minutes, then serve it promptly. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Ask the butcher or delicatessen for cooked cured beef tongue from the centre, cut in one thick piece. Its deep red colour is part of the composition; gray uncured tongue or sliced ham changes both the flavour and the design.
- •Fresh black truffle is magnificent when the season offers it. At other times, whole preserved black truffle is the honest classical pantry answer. Drain it thoroughly and weigh the flesh after draining; truffle oil cannot supply the required texture or black julienne.
- •Weigh the chicken, tongue, celery, and truffle after every scrap and tough edge has been removed. Their volumes differ, so the scale is what preserves the source formula's equal quantities.
- •If a specialist poultry butcher can supply prepared cocks’ kidneys, use about 16 poached roundels in place of the quail eggs. Quail eggs are the practical home translation, not a claim that the two ingredients taste alike.
- •Serve Salade Opéra with brut Champagne or a taut, dry white Burgundy. The acidity cuts the mayonnaise and cured tongue while leaving the truffle audible.
Advance Preparation
- •Poach the chicken and cook the asparagus and quail eggs up to one day ahead. Chill them promptly in separate covered containers, with a dry towel beneath the asparagus to catch moisture.
- •The mayonnaise can be whisked one day ahead with a pasteurized yolk. Press reusable wrap against its surface and keep it cold; thin it with reserved asparagus water only shortly before dressing.
- •Cut the tongue, celery, and truffle up to 4 hours ahead and refrigerate them separately. Dress and compose the salad no more than 30 minutes before serving, because salt and mayonnaise draw water from the celery and asparagus.
- •Refrigerate leftovers promptly and eat them within one day. Do not leave the dressed salad at room temperature for more than 2 hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 215g)
Calories
425 calories
Total Fat
37 g
Saturated Fat
6 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
29 g
Cholesterol
255 mg
Sodium
850 mg
Total Carbohydrates
5 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
18 g
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