Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published October 29, 2007 Underrated Main Ingredients In a very fancy restaurant one night, the soup du jour was cream of celery. When the waiter announced this, my first thought was, "My, they're not trying very hard." But the waiter continued to say that the soup had blue cheese in it, as well as dashes of a few other things. My wife ordered it. She said it was one of the best soups she'd ever had. I thought it was good, too--although it had to compete with better soups at this restaurant. Celery. A bunch of years ago, at the old Crozier's, Chef Gerard Crozier often served braised celery as a side vegetable. I haven't seen him do that lately. It could be that he got tired of people saying, "Celery is your vegetable? Cooked celery?" Knowing the extent to which Chef Gerard ignores this kind of thing when he knows he's serving something good, that may not be it. But it might. Now that I think of it, a lot of minor vegetables are sitting out there waiting for a spotlight. When's the last time a chef did anything with carrots? He might have had an idea for that, but probably transferred the idea to something hip. Like parsnips or salsify. But why not carrots as an appetizer? I can think of six or seven ways just right off the top of my head. And I'm not even a chef. © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com