Microgreens Provide a Macro Taste

New Trend in Salads Now Available in Missouri

Some years ago I worked for a large international restaurant chain that was about to introduce a line of fresh salads to their menu. The restaurant, up until that time, had been a real “meat and potatoes” type of place that was all about taste and market share and wasn’t health conscious at all. The salads were viewed as a big gamble by most of the upper management, one vice-president referring to them as “rabbit food.” The trend at that time, like a lot of other food innovations, came out of California.

Two early innovations in salad history-crab Louis and green goddess dressing came from restaurants in San Francisco. Hollywood’s Brown Derby takes credit for creating the cobb salad in 1926. This was basically a chunk of iceberg with the only variety being the choice of dressings offered. Then, in the 1970’s varieties of lettuce like mesclun, radicchio, and lamb’s lettuce became available in California and slowly spread to the rest of the country. In the 1980’s growers in California began responding to the ever- greening market by diversifying on a large scale. Some of the first pre-washed and bagged baby greens were shipped. This market has grown to sales of about $400 million annually in the last few years.