Cobb Salad

Tinseltown provided the recipe for tonight's dinner.

Legend has it that late one night in 1934, Bob Cobb, the owner of the famous Brown Derby restaurant at Hollywood and Vine, was hanging out with Sid Grauman, who apparently wasn't needed over at his Chinese Theater. They got hungry, so Cobb decided to make a salad and raided the fridge for as many ingredients as he could find, even swiping some bacon from a busy chef nearby.

Grauman enjoyed it so much, he ordered one of "Cobb's salads" when returned to the restaurant the following night, and it was officially added to the menu not long after. The Cobb salad was born.

We tried a few markets in the area and couldn't find any watercress, which really stinks because I love the stuff. So, since it wasn't going to be authentic, I didn't worry about buying the precise lettuces either. You couldn't see it under all those delectable toppings anyway! Guess I should have used a bigger bowl...

I made the dressing cited in the article, too, but didn't follow that recipe to the letter for that either. I also didn't make nearly as much in volume. So, I won't bother reporting it here, mainly because I didn't really keep track of measurements and couldn't begin to guess now what they were. I will say, though, that I used garlic powder instead of fresh and Dijon mustard instead of dry English, since that's what we had on hand. And, it came out wonderfully!

As for the salad, the eggs were still warm and I used grilled chicken (also warm) instead of boiled or poached, which imparted more flavor in my opinion. It's a hearty salad and easily made a fresh and satisfying meal.

Here's how I made it:

Iceberg lettuce
Baby Romaine
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
2 hard-boiled eggs, diced
1 avocado, diced
6 strips of bacon, chopped
1 grilled chicken breast, sliced
Crumbled blue cheese
Fresh chives, minced
Original Dressing, to taste

Spread all the ingredients in rows on top of the lettuces. Drizzle with dressing, sprinkle with chives and dig in!