Gourmet Coffee Corner

When I was going up, I always loved ordering Caesar salad at restaurants. I certainly wasn’t a vegetarian or health nut—far from it. Sure, I liked the taste of the salad and everything, but what really attracted me to it was the fancy cheese and pepper. Now I know it’s just grated parmesan and cracked pepper, but at the time, it seemed like a special production.

I used to think that this whole dog and pony show was just to make the affair seem more upscale, but there’s actually a reason—and it’s not just to subject the wait staff to manual labor. Freshly grated parmesan is obviously superior to the cheap, pre-grated stuff, but freshly cracked pepper from a pepper mill has its benefit too. The flavor is more pronounced and the grains are larger, which is good for dishes with big flavor like Caesar salad.