Hot Horseradish Summer

Why it rocks, how to use it, where to buy it, and a recipe from Chloe Walsh. Spicy summer has commenced.

I haven’t stopped thinking about horseradish since I ate it with steak at The River Cafe. The catalyzing dish, to be specific, was a thinly sliced chargrilled ribeye served with braised cicoria, wood-roasted tomatoes, and fresh horseradish cream. A pea-sized amount of the spicy white condiment lent a punchy edge, a flaring of the nostrils, and a palpable feeling of excitement to each bite. “I want to make this at home,” I told David, and he agreed. As we spoke about our shared love for the fierce root vegetable, I realized that I’ve naively shied away from cooking with it (outside of Passover applications and

Alison Roman

’s cocktail sauce).

A second epiphany arrived the week before last, at Horses, over a bowl of orecchiette with pig’s tail ragu. When the pasta appeared on our table alongside a zesty aroma, we quickly identified the white shavings on top as not Parmesan, but horseradish. “Most people think it’s microplaned cheese… and we don’t warn them otherwise,” says Brittany Ha, Horses’ executive chef. “When the astringent burn of fresh horseradish cuts through the collagen-rich pig tails, it just pairs perfectly.” 

The dishes that did it for me: steak at The River Cafe and Horses' orecchiette with pig's tail ragu.

Then, as these things go, I started noticing horseradish everywhere. Shaved on top salmon carpaccio at Dunsmoor. In a white barbecue sauce paired with cider-braised ribs at Pinyon. A friend recounted a palette-bending experience similar to my own at The River Cafe at Mirabelle Wine Bar in Valley Village, where a 45-day dry-aged rib eye is served with bordelaise, smoked baby carrots, and horseradish cream. 

I spoke of horseradish to anyone who would listen. Victoria Fayad of Bucatini reminisced about a Horseradish Challenge she once partook in at The Red Lion (“Order a big side of horseradish, bets at the table, who will be the top dog? Bites get bigger and bigger, whoever takes the last bite wins.”) And

Chloe Walsh

and I spent a good 20 minutes gushing over the ingredient. She spoke dreamily of a horseradish-topped scallop crudo she had at Cervo’s during a recent New York trip, which she’s since recreated in her own kitchen.

Chloe Walsh’s scallop crudo with shaved horseradish, texts with Javier Ramos.

All this to say, horseradish is the ingredient of the summer.

To properly equip you, I’ve rounded up chefs’ tips on how to use it, intel on where to buy it, and a recipe from Chloe.

But first, I’m passing the baton to farmers’ market expert, produce professional, and all-around agriculture whiz

Sam Rogers

for the nitty gritty on the high-octane, underrated ingredient. (If you don’t subscribe to Sam Loves The Market, you should change that!) Here she is: