
That’s a quality we always admire in food stars. The Caesar maintains its classic status by lending itself to irresistible versions of the original.

In the nearly 60 years since then, that simple salad has become world-famous and still wows admiring appetites at home dinners and restaurant tables. Her brief and delightful memoir seems to confirm the origins of this classic dish that still centers around pale, slightly sweet hearts of romaine lettuce. Julia Child often shared a wonderful story about her first Caesar salad and how she enjoyed it with her family at a Tijuana restaurant. If you’re developing a restaurant menu that showcases guest-pleasing, veggie-centric choices, this premium produce serves up delicious versatility.

If you’re designing a healthy diet around veggies that deliver plenty of natural goodness, romaine lettuce belongs at the top of your grocery list. It’s an appetizing source of vitamins A, C and K as well as protein, iron and calcium.
#ROMAINE LETTUCE OR ROMAINE HEARTS FULL#
The popular lettuce scores very high marks per 1-cup serving with 8 calories and a full gram of dietary fiber. Romaine hearts and heads boast the same impressive nutritional profile. The outer leaves on whole heads enjoy more exposure, and that increases chlorophyll production while the hearts remain a pale shade of green. It’s simply the result of California sunshine. The color of romaine’s components doesn’t affect the levels of healthy goodness served up by either hearts or heads. This contrast may be the source of some nutritional confusion. The outer wrapping sports a rich, dark green color while the inner core reflects softer, paler shades. The obvious difference between hearts and heads comes clearly into view when you peel open a head of romaine. How are romaine hearts and heads different? Individual hearts are prepped by trimming the whole head down to its crispy inner leaves.Īfter a good field rinse and close inspection, we transfer the romaine heads and hearts to cool storage.įrom there, we pack and ship the harvest fresh from our fields to your table. Romaine heads are harvested by cutting each one at its root base. Our teams do the bulk of the work by hand. Here at Hitchcock Farms, we grow and harvest premium romaine year-round. How are romaine heads and hearts harvested? The sturdy heads and crisp hearts offer a wide range of culinary possibilities that make this salad green tastefully unique. You can purchase a similar variety of Lactuca sativa today as whole heads, or you can buy the hearts already trimmed of their outer leaves. Their hieroglyphics from 4500 BC are graced with leafy vegetables that strongly resemble our modern romaine. Whole romaine lettuce boasts a proud heritage that dates back to the ancient Egyptians. Romaine offers both the nutritional value of leafy lettuces and the juicy crispness of head lettuces.Īs you consider tender romaine hearts and their flavorful outer leaves, these five food facts carry significant weight. We prefer to cheer on both because they combine to deliver the best of two lettuce types. Today, many growers and shippers of fresh vegetables include romaine hearts as part of their rundown, but no one has surpassed the quality and value of our Garden Hearts® - the original foodservice romaine heart.When it comes down to romaine hearts vs. This was the start of the romaine heart “trend,” which has remained strong for the past 25 years. They were intrigued by the idea of being able to purchase a true romaine heart that would arrive ready for their prep team. Over time, we developed relationships with many premier restauranteurs and foodservice professionals throughout the culinary world. We worked diligently to select romaine varieties that produced a true solid heart when mature. Eventually, we needed to plant fields dedicated to growing the romaine only for hearts. Not all romaine varieties have a heart, so that was a monumental task! That all changed when Hitchcock Farms began to grow and pack romaine hearts into cartons specifically designed for the foodservice industry.Īt first, we gleaned fields of romaine, looking for heads left behind after the regular romaine harvest crew had passed over the field.

Chefs knew about hearts of romaine, but could only get them by peeling down each head of romaine hoping to find a heart inside.
