The rise over the previous twenty years of Little Gem lettuce, which mixes traits of butter and romaine lettuces and resembles the smaller, tender interior leaves of a romaine head, might need been much less splashy than these of its forebears. But it appears to be like like this petite inexperienced is staying in the image. Since its introduction to American diners in the final quarter century, now you can discover Little Gem on restaurant menus from Atlanta to Los Angeles. And it’s more and more exhibiting up on grocery retailer cabinets.
To hear cooks clarify what they like about the selection is to understand the lettuce — but additionally the care and consideration they offer to the smallest particulars of the elements they use to assemble dishes.
Chicago restaurateur Paul Kahan says the taste of a lettuce is perhaps delicate, nevertheless it’s not insignificant. “Romaine can have a little astringency, but with Little Gem, you don’t get that,” he says. “It’s sweet and grassy to me.”
Laurence Jossel, chef and proprietor of San Francisco’s Nopa, says the selection balances effectively with a French dressing. “The sweetness means it can take an acid nicely,” notes the chef, who instructs his employees to barely overdress Little Gems as a result of he finds the “juiciness” of the leaves barely dilutes the dressing.
Kahan additionally likes how Little Gems soften simply the correct quantity when dressed, not like romaine, which “can take a half-gallon of olive oil and still stay as stiff as cardboard.”
Both Kahan and Jossel additionally like that the selection generates much less meals waste — one thing cooks recognize for environmental and bottom-line causes. Unlike another varieties of lettuce, you don’t should trim a lot at the root, there are not any powerful outer layers to discard, and contemporary heads maintain up comparatively effectively, lasting a couple of days with out wilting or browning in a walk-in fridge.
Little Gem’s origins are a bit murky, nevertheless it seems to have come from France, and first turn out to be fashionable in Europe and in the United Kingdom. It generally goes by the identify Sucrine, which is rooted in the French phrase for “sugar.” Mentions of Little Gem in the English-language media earlier than the early 2000s are principally present in the British press. In a uncommon exception, a neighborhood news story from 1989 mentions Little Gem as an obscure addition to the Cornell Cooperative Extension checklist of really helpful vegetable varieties for New York.
It’s nigh not possible to pinpoint a “Patient Zero”-style second when the lettuce hopped the pond into U.S. eating places. But the story of how Kahan was launched to the product tracks with the obvious migration sample: Not lengthy after he opened the first location of Avec in 2003, he invited his pal, the influential British chef Fergus Henderson, to guest-host a dinner. Henderson despatched him the menu forward of time, and Kahan set about procuring provides, together with the specified Little Gems.
“I had no idea what the hell they were,” he mentioned. “They were hard to find, but I eventually got some for the dinner.” The Chicago chef wound up liking them a lot he put a Little Gem salad on his personal menu, after enlisting a neighborhood farmer to develop them for him. Kinnikinnick Farm, situated simply south of the Wisconsin border in Illinois, tried out the selection and has been rising them ever since, he says.
The selection loved early recognition in California, too, the place so many vegetable tendencies take off; Alice Waters, the chef and proprietor of Chez Panisse and the lady in line for canonization as the patron saint of salads, was one other early adopter. So was Judy Rodgers of the legendary San Francisco restaurant Zuni Cafe. A 2004 journey story in the Los Angeles Times described a salad there: “Slices of Saveloy sausage were complemented with pristine little gem lettuce, fava beans and tiny radish discs, all bathed in a caper-shallot vinaigrette.”
And Jossel has had a salad that includes Little Gem on his menu repeatedly since Nopa opened in 2006. His preparations range relying on the season and what’s accessible. An early iteration was “loosely inspired” by meals author Elizabeth David, he remembers, together with her English-style complete egg dressing represented by bits of hard-boiled eggs, mixed with such spring elements as radish and chives wearing a creamy herb French dressing with toasted breadcrumbs. He’s now serving it in a easy preparation atop an avocado puree, he says.
Now, residence cooks are discovering its versatility. Robert Schueller, director of public relations at nationwide distributor Melissa’s Produce, has seen elevated demand from cooks in the final three years, and notes that much more just lately, extra grocers have been stocking it, too. “In the last year consumers have really started to become more familiar with the item at retail supermarket stores,” he says in an e-mail.
While restaurateurs usually enlist native suppliers to develop Little Gems, large-scale industrial manufacturing is centered in Salinas, Calif., Schueller says.
Beloved by cooks and more and more by residence cooks, Little Gem additionally has traits growers like, as effectively, says Joe Masabni, an affiliate professor and extension vegetable specialist at Texas A&M University. He notes that it’s compact and reaches maturity extra rapidly than many different lettuce varieties, which means producers can flip round extra of it. “It’s ideal for hydroponics,” Masabni says, “which is the way a lot of commercial lettuce is grown.”
Like many who encounter the selection, Masabni additionally delights in the aptness of its identify. In many instances, “Each leaf is like the size of a tablespoon,” he notes, and for many who haven’t tried rising or consuming it, “it’s an undiscovered gem.”
For Jossel, the proof that Little Gem has arrived? “Nobody has to ask what they are anymore,” he says. “We don’t even have to say ‘Little Gem lettuce’ — it’s just ‘Little Gem.’”