Salad pancake
A temple abbess in Seoul transforms wilted oak leaf lettuce into a warm savory pancake that impressed chef Eric Ripert.
In "Mindful Cooking" (Random House, 2026), the chef Eric Ripert recalls that when he met with Gyeho Sunim, the chief abbess of the Jingwansa Temple in Seoul, she remarked that while some ingredients are seen as more beautiful than others, "everything is beautiful." To prove her point, she took up a wilted head of lettuce and made this pancake. When Mr. Ripert tasted it, he thought, "Whoa, this is really, really special." This recipe works especially well with oak leaf lettuce, whether wilted or fresh, because the batter can cling to the spaces between the leaves.