Richard Hoelzel, CCC, executive chef for Morrison Management Specialists, based in Douglassville, Georgia, oversees menus at many of the contractor’s senior-living communities in the South. He finds that residents request mustard greens and collards on the menu daily. “We haven’t gotten them away from wanting them simmered for long periods of time even though when they’ve lost their color, they’ve lost their nutritional value,” he says. “The question is how to get the next generation into changing the dynamic of getting vitamins naturally through food.”

Hoelzel figures that trendy quick-serves are poised to lead the change. He suggests, for example, substituting the Iceberg lettuce used in lettuce wraps with chard for more flavor and vitamins. “We the people are nonstop today and want grab ’n go,” Hoelzel says. “So why not burritos, like those at Chipotle Mexican Grill, using brown rice, plus a large leafy green that’s been blanched, then dice and sauté kohlrabi—which is so popular in Europe and Asia—and use it as part of the filling?”

Get Marjorie Druker, the chef and owner of The New England Soup Factory going on leafy greens and you’ll quickly learn that for her there are no shortcuts even though quick service is the objective.

Affectionately known as The Soup Lady, Drucker often incorporates collard greens, Swiss chard, kale, and escarole in soups. “These greens are too difficult to digest raw, but man, are they good in soup. When we add greens to soup, such as escarole, an excellent source of calcium, in Tuscan Ribollita, we add it during the last 10 minutes.”

And Druker takes a traditional route, too.

“We serve many, many gorgeous salads.” Druker says. “I think some restaurants have become lazy; it’s easy to take a box of mesclun greens and call it ‘salad.’ But there’s not enough texture and crunch and buttery flavor so add it to romaine, radicchio, Boston or butter crunch.”

Drucker is scrupulous about soaking greens, then spinning them to remove all moisture, and uses an industrial-size “washing machine” to do the job. Before serving, greens need to be “revived” in ice-cold water, she says. “It’s like a plant; it perks up so there’s a crunch and spring to its bite.”

Perhaps the quintessential Guru of Greens is Deborah Madison, founding chef of Greens, the noted San Francisco restaurant, and writer of more than nine cookbooks. She’s also an occasional consultant to Cal Dining at the University of California at Berkeley where recipes are often multiplied 1,000 times. Those roles have made her familiar with the economics of serving fresh produce.

For example, Madison doesn’t suggest using spinach since one pound generally cooks down to one cup. Swiss chard, on the other hand, is an inexpensive vegetable. Like spinach, it’s neutral in taste. “Chard is nice with olive oil, garlic, lemon, and red pepper flakes. Not [raw] on sandwiches or in a salad, but it can fill a crêpe or combine with pasta,” Madison says.

Madison is especially partial to broccoli raab (a.k.a., rape or rapini). A bitter green, it needs to be parboiled, drained, then tossed in olive oil or sautéed in garlic and olive oil. Her biggest leafy green tip? “Greens are good if mixed with something starchy, perhaps kale or chard with diced potatoes and a bit of Gruyere.”