More than dried bread

By now, a regular Signatures’ blog reader would see that it’s all in the details when it comes to preparing each and every dish on our menu. Exactly how far do we take it? Down to the bread crumbs.

Each house fresh garden salad is adorned with homemade croutons–extra crunchy, herby cubes of starchy bliss to dip into one of our house-made dressings; (try the lemon-parsley vinaigrette yet?!) The process may be simple, but it’s one that the garmache chefs take on regularly during their nights behind the line.

According to Andrew Smith, garmache chef at Signatures, making croutons was one of the very first jobs he learned as a new chef, and he eagerly demonstrated the process Monday night to a garmache trainee just notching Day 2 off of his training list.

Smith said that they make croutons about two times per week, but during the busy season, they could bake off fresh croutons each day.

First, they begin by taking a whole ciabatta bread loaf and cutting it down into bite-sized pieces. The bread cubes are then coated in olive oil, herbs, garlic, onion powder, salt and pepper and baked off at a low heat. Why not crisp them up in 2 minutes flat at 450 degrees? Because the croutons need to cook all the way through and not have a hard exterior and a soft interior. The secret behind a perfect crouton is all in the crunch throughout.