KISSIMMEE, Fla. — The chef at the new Ette Hotel’s Salt & the Cellar deftly creates Spinach Oshitashi, a salad that looks like an appetizer but actually is a dish for four.

“This is a traditional Japanese spinach salad,” Chef Alex Mayfield said. “Oshitashi just means spinach mixed with sesame seeds and blanched.”

Chef used to work for the same company out in Las Vegas. He moved to Central Florida recently to bring the vision of celebrity chef Akira Back to fruition at the restaurant in Kissimmee.

Salt & the Cellar makes scent, wellness and immersion part of the dining experience.

“You can express yourself day by day,” Mayfield explained and then starting making the meal.

“It’s about half a bag of spinach,” Mayfield said. “Quite a bit of spinach in this little footprint. “Once we start to mix it up, in the end, you’ll see it expand and get into quite a large salad.”

The boiled-down spinach is packed and dusted with sesame.

Mayfield then rolls it in cucumber, thinly sliced lengthwise.

“It gives it a little more dimension,” he said.

Roasted sesame dressing is used to help create the salad’s bed.

“It’s comfort in a whole new way in terms of the healthfulness of it,” Mayfield said.

He garnishes the salad with edible flowers.

“We need to spice everything up a bit, right?” he added.

The table-side presentation starts with the unrolling and slicing of the cucumber.

“Then we’ll start mashing it together, so you can see how much spinach we pack into this dish,” Mayfield said.