"You eat with your eyes first," declares April Bloomfield, sorting through a jewel-like array of heirloom tomatoes to find the perfect green zebra. "Your food should look pretty." This is not surprising coming from a professional chef, as first impressions can make or break a restaurant meal. But she's talking about the priorities of a home cook. "You want people to be like 'oohhh, ahhh,' especially if you are cooking for friends at home," she says. In the veggie-centric world of April Bloomfield, executive chef and co-owner of The Spotted Pig, The John Dory Oyster Bar and various other New York hot spots, this isn't as hard as it sounds; no need for exotic or expensive ingredients. A great dish comes down to choosing perfect ripe ingredients and treating them with care, as she explains in her delightful, chatty book A Girl and Her Greens: Hearty Meals from the Garden. Eager to get a firsthand view of the English expat at work, we invited Bloomfield to Food Network Kitchen to prepare one of her quintessential summer dishes: Greek Salad. Here's how she does it. 

"Tomatoes should just slightly give when pressed with a finger. And they should smell amazing," says Bloomfield, prodding a craggy scarlet heirloom. "Take out the eye or stem first. Move your knife around in a circle," she instructs, deftly removing a stem. "Then cut the tomato in half. It should be shiny and bright — not mealy. If there are white bits, cut them out, because they are hard," says Bloomfield, who even trims the stem ends of little cherry tomatoes. "Take off what you need to." 

"I like nice sharp angles," says Bloomfield, whose precise knife work makes slicing through a tomato skin look as easy as cutting butter. "The more variety you get in your salad, the more fun it is to eat," she says. "When you stand the pieces on the plate you have peaks and troughs — it adds texture." She transfers a sheet tray full of vegetables to the refrigerator for 30 minutes. "I like tomatoes chilled," says Bloomfield, blithely breaking the "thou-shalt-not-refrigerate-tomatoes" commandment of storage. 

"The amazing thing about cucumbers is they are cool, crunchy and refreshing," says Bloomfield. "The last thing you want is to cut them too skinny — they will just wilt when you add salt. I like them chunky." Here again, she varies her shapes and keeps the edges sharp. "I cut some in half-moons, some into oblique pieces." She gently picks up each piece: "Don't just dump them in a bowl; keep them flat."