Chef Joshua Clever was in the CUESA kitchen this week to show us a simple bread salad recipe featuring ingredients that embody the market in early fall. Joshua had stopped by to join us at Tuesday’s Food Wise Booth-- one of two free cooking programs offered at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market each week.

For the past several months Joshua, a certified natural chef and author of the book Pesto: Simples et Bons, has been involved with a project with his friends Stephen Roberts and Ségolène Cazenave. The trio spent the past several months travelling, discovering native foods, and becoming acquainted with the small farms and artisanal producers who are part of the rich heritage of the Italian and French Riviera. The results of their hard work is chronicled on their website Riviera Kitchen where you’ll find photos and stories of some of the markets they visited and adaptations of traditional regional recipes reinterpreted to emphasize sustainability and seasonality.

The salad Joshua created and sampled at this week’s Food Wise Booth is a dish that can be tailored to any season. While this week he used some late season tomatoes, lemon cucumbers and roasted beets Joshua says that later in the fall the tomatoes and cucumbers can be swapped out for roasted winter squash, root vegetables and winter chicories. In spring, the salad also works well with asparagus, green garlic and spring onions.

Joshua opted to use the Edible Schoolyard Levain from Acme Bread, which is mixed and shaped by hand and includes rye, pumpernickel and local organic whole wheat. The rustic malty flavor of the bread was a nice accompaniment to the earthy beets, the sweetness of the cherry tomatoes and the delicate flavor of the cucumbers. While shopping the market he also found baby Asian mustard greens at the County Line Harvest booth that he added to the salad for color and a hint of spicy bitterness. The greens were pleasantly tempered by the honey and sage vinaigrette that he created to dress the salad.

Joshua’s Fall Bread Salad recipe and other recipes from some of our favorite chefs can be found on the CUESA website. For more seasonal recipes inspired by Joshua, Ségolène, and Stephen’s adventures in the Mediterranean check out the Riviera Kitchen’s website.