Just for this one line: “It’s like taking a perfectly fine bag of Chex Mix and stomping on it, just so as to not be taken off guard by a rye chip”

Ha!

Sometimes I chop my salad to get the perfect blend of ingredients and dressing. But it should never look like dog food. I serve it on top of whole romaine leaves or something attractive. 

Ha, I never have time for ugly food. Garnishes are a sore spot...my husband likes "food not art," so one of the ways he might know if I'm annoyed is I will make 5 star garnishing, bento, and translate food into French. 

The Montage in Laguna Beach has the best chopped salad ever. It's beautiful and you can fill forkfuls any way your heart desires while looking out at the sunsets and surf.

I work at a school w a culinary dept. Chef used to say the "f" word a lot around me. So, I tried hard to improve on my knife work. It worked over time. 

Knife work is one of those things that improves with practice.

Are your knife skills better a year later?

Love this quote: "Traditional salads require leaves that are larger than the other ingredients because the greens serve as a levee against the spread of the dressing."

A salad is as much about creating a harmony of texture and shape as it is about taste and application of dressing. I'm all for innovation in food, but just taking a Nicoise salad and running it through a shredder is not innovation.

Well said, Gammy.

And that's a great quote. But you're right that the best salads have subtlety, texture, shape.