It was around midnight on Vine Street, just south of Hollywood Boulevard, when Bob Cobb entered the kitchen of his restaurant, The Brown Derby, and he was looking for something different to eat. The year was 1936 or 1937 and Cobb raided the refrigerator of some salad greens, cooked breast of chicken meat, an avocado, a few hard-boiled eggs, a tomato and some Roquefort cheese.  A chef was grilling bacon, so he took some of that, too.  Before adding a traditional French salad dressing he chopped each of the ingredients into a fine dice and arranged them side by side on the plate on top of the chopped greens.  Some say that Sid Grauman, the Managing Director of Grauman's Chinese Theater, was at the restaurant that night, and the next day at lunchtime Grauman asked if he could order "Cobb's Salad."  That's the way the story goes, and, as they say, "The rest is history."

The Cobb was one of the earliest of the main dish salads to enter American menus and it continues to be one of the most preferred.  A truly satisfying meal, it has its variations, but fortunately we can approximate what was created that midnight  because the Brown Derby restaurant continued to serve the salad not only in the restaurant on Vine Street, but also in the original Brown Derby on Wilshire Boulevard which was shaped like a hat (see photo to the left), and later in Brown Derby branches in Beverly Hills and in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.   Today The Brown Derby restaurants in California are gone, but a replica "Hollywood Brown Derby" has been licensed at Disney-MGM Studios in Disney World, Florida, where they feature the Cobb Salad as well as the caricatures of the Hollywood stars which lined the walls of the original restaurants.

Among the variations of the recipe the most common are the substitution of  breast of turkey for the chicken and blue cheese for the Roquefort.  Often a waiter will ask if the patron desires the salad to be tossed in the kitchen.  However, it is traditionally served with the dressing on the side, to be added when the salad is tossed at the table.

COBB SALAD
(serves 4-6)
1/2 head of iceberg lettuce
1/2 bunch watercress
1 small bunch chicory
1/2 head romaine lettuce
2 medium sized tomatoes, peeled
2 breasts of boiled roasting chicken, boned
6 strips crisp bacon
1 avocado
3 hard-cooked eggs
2 Tablespoons chopped chives
1/2 cup crumbled imported Roquefort cheese
1 cup Brown Derby Old-Fashioned French Dressing

Cut finely lettuce, watercress, chicory and romaine and arrange in salad bowl.
Cut tomatoes in half, remove seeds, dice finely and arrange in a strip across the salad.   Dice the breasts of chicken and arrange over top of chopped greens. Chop bacon finely and spread over the salad.  Cut avocado in small pieces and arrange around the edge of the salad.  Decorate the salad by sprinkling over the chopped eggs, chopped chives and grated cheese.  Just before serving mix the salad thoroughly with French Dressing.

Blend together all ingredients except oils.  Then add olive and salad oils and mix well again.  Chill.  Shake before serving.

Who Cooked That Up? is copyrighted 2002
by J.J. Schnebel
all rights reserved for your pleasure and enlightenment

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