Cobb salad
Encyclopedia
The Cobb salad is a main-dish garden salad
made from chopped salad greens (iceberg lettuce, watercress
, endives, and Romaine lettuce
), tomato
, crisp bacon
, boiled or roasted chicken
breast, hard-boiled egg
, avocado
, chives
, red-wine vinaigrette
and Roquefort cheese.
restaurant, where it became a signature dish. It is named for the restaurant's owner, Robert Howard Cobb. Stories vary as to whether the salad was invented by Cobb or by his chef, Chuck Wilson. The legend is that Cobb had not eaten until near midnight, and so he mixed together leftovers he found in the kitchen, along with some bacon cooked by the line cook, and tossed it with their French dressing. This version of the story (dated to 1937) is retold in episode 3, season 2, of comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm
, when Larry David
searches for evidence to prove that another character has falsely claimed that his grandfather invented the salad.
Another version is based on one of the characteristics of the salad itself: All of the items are chopped into small pieces and aligned in a circular array on the plate. The story is that Mr. Cobb had come into the restaurant after closing, having just that day been to the dentist where work being done on his teeth prevented him from being able to open his mouth very wide. He told his chef the problem and asked him to fix something light to eat since it was so late. The chef gleaned what he could from the refrigerator and chopped everything up into small pieces to accommodate.
There has also been discussion of a possible origin in the Midwest, most notably Nebraska
. In 1917 a similar recipe (though not containing red wine vinaigrette and with spinach as opposed to iceberg lettuce) was served as a main dish at a local country club outside of Lincoln
.
Garden salad
A garden salad is a salad consisting mostly of fresh vegetables. The base for the salad are greens such as lettuce or mesclun....
made from chopped salad greens (iceberg lettuce, watercress
Watercress
Watercresses are fast-growing, aquatic or semi-aquatic, perennial plants native from Europe to central Asia, and one of the oldest known leaf vegetables consumed by human beings...
, endives, and Romaine lettuce
Romaine lettuce
Romaine or cos lettuce is a variety of lettuce which grows in a tall head of sturdy leaves with a firm rib down the center. Unlike most lettuces, it is tolerant of heat...
), tomato
Tomato
The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...
, crisp bacon
Bacon
Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon . Fresh bacon may then be further dried for weeks or months in cold air, boiled, or smoked. Fresh and dried bacon must be cooked before eating...
, boiled or roasted chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
breast, hard-boiled egg
Egg (food)
Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...
, avocado
Avocado
The avocado is a tree native to Central Mexico, classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceae along with cinnamon, camphor and bay laurel...
, chives
Chives
Chives are the smallest species of the edible onions. A perennial plant, they are native to Europe, Asia and North America.. Allium schoenoprasum is the only species of Allium native to both the New and the Old World....
, red-wine vinaigrette
Vinaigrette
The word vinaigrette or vinegarette can refer to:*Vinaigrette, the salad dressing or sauce...
and Roquefort cheese.
Origin
Various stories of how the salad was invented exist. One says that it came about in the 1930s at the Hollywood Brown DerbyBrown Derby
The Brown Derby was the name of a chain of restaurants in Los Angeles, California. The first and most famous of these was shaped like a men's derby hat, an iconic image that became synonymous with the Golden Age of Hollywood....
restaurant, where it became a signature dish. It is named for the restaurant's owner, Robert Howard Cobb. Stories vary as to whether the salad was invented by Cobb or by his chef, Chuck Wilson. The legend is that Cobb had not eaten until near midnight, and so he mixed together leftovers he found in the kitchen, along with some bacon cooked by the line cook, and tossed it with their French dressing. This version of the story (dated to 1937) is retold in episode 3, season 2, of comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO, which premiered on October 15, 2000. As of 2011, it has completed 80 episodes over eight seasons. The series was created by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself...
, when Larry David
Larry David
Lawrence Gene "Larry" David is an American actor, writer, comedian and producer. He is best known as the co-creator , head writer, and executive producer of the television series Seinfeld from 1989 to 1996, and for creating the 1999 HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a partially improvised sitcom in...
searches for evidence to prove that another character has falsely claimed that his grandfather invented the salad.
Another version is based on one of the characteristics of the salad itself: All of the items are chopped into small pieces and aligned in a circular array on the plate. The story is that Mr. Cobb had come into the restaurant after closing, having just that day been to the dentist where work being done on his teeth prevented him from being able to open his mouth very wide. He told his chef the problem and asked him to fix something light to eat since it was so late. The chef gleaned what he could from the refrigerator and chopped everything up into small pieces to accommodate.
There has also been discussion of a possible origin in the Midwest, most notably Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
. In 1917 a similar recipe (though not containing red wine vinaigrette and with spinach as opposed to iceberg lettuce) was served as a main dish at a local country club outside of Lincoln
Lincoln, Nebraska
The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....
.
External links
- Cobb salad recipes (original and seafood)