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This wonderfully simple and scrumptious salad is anything but boring. Once you try it, I believe it will become an essential addition to your recipe arsenal because a simple salad that tastes more like fine dining can elevate an entire meal. I dare you to serve this salad alongside instant macaroni & cheese see if your diners question their palates.

Bibb lettuce salad found its way to our menu awhile back after looking for the most approachable recipe from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon cookbook. The vinaigrette comes together with little effort. It makes ample amounts for several meals and, most important, makes us feel like chefs. “The vinaigrette may be the most important sauce in the cook’s repertoire,” Keller shares, “the idea behind it – combining fat and acid, is simple and the variations are endless.”

I chose to post this recipe during our trip to France because it exemplifies the essence of French cuisine which, at its core, is about enhancing the natural taste of fresh real food with some well-chosen ingredients and a deft hand. I’m writing from a high-speed train traveling between Paris and Aix-en-Provence. Although I’m munching hard a stack of Pringles Originals at the moment, we have just spent five days gorging our way through Paris. I rented an apartment imagining that I’d whip up meals relying on Parisian produce markets and fresh fish stands. Because there are 14,000 restaurants in Paris ready to fill our mouths, I barely made coffee.

Guys, I have to share that this trip exploited all that is perfect about French cuisine and Paris – high end, low end and anything in between is très manifique. After a pastry classwhere my French failed and my appetite succeeded, I learned that butter is as essential as oxygen and sarcasm in France and that powdered food coloring is used in all pastries to appeal to our visual appetite. Say it ‘aint so, Julia. A luxury in Paris is knowing that nearly every restaurant is committed to good food and service – a cultural expectation much like loud talking and over-screening is in the U.S. WHO HAS THE FRIGGIN’ ADAPTER?

Pain du chocolate for breakfast, salade chevre chaud for lunch and dinner at some blogger faves might include a poulet rôti at night. Our first dinner at Bistrot Paul Bert a included a Grand Marnier soufflé that I will not long forget. Predictable, perhaps, but insanely satisfying. We discovered a handful of neighborhood gems and then capped the five-day feast with at a Michelin 3-star restaurant, which is one of ten 3-stars in Paris alone. To put it into perspective, there are just 12 Michelin 3-star restaurants in all of the US. We were awestruck by every course. Our tastebuds high-fived us at least seven times while our wallets wept.

Food has been the celebration here, but also a diversion because it’s been cold and rainy. We’ve nearly frozen our arrondissements off. Spring has not arrived in France, but we’re heading south to visit family and to the ten-degree improvement in temperature we say bienvenue.