It is interesting how a bowl of salad can entail a rich history. Generally, a quick and simple dish, a salad like the Cobb is proof of how inventions take place in times of need. A salad is a mixture of several vegetables put together and served raw with some dressing. Cobb salad is one such salad that is believed to have been invented at a restaurant. A type of American salad that features not on the side but as the main dish, the Cobb salad is a garden-fresh salad that layers greens and tomatoes besides chicken, eggs and bacon. Unlike some salads that are tossed together, the ingredients of this salad are layered in adjacent rows on a plate.
For a lot of salads, dressing is an important component to complete the meal. The Cobb salad was originally paired with a French dressing, made of red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and a few other ingredients but you would find ranch dressing to be commonly used on this salad these days. Did you know that the word salad was also derived from the dressing of the earliest salads? The word ‘sal’ in Latin refers to salt and that was the inspiration behind naming the dish as salad. This was because the ancient Romans and Greeks generally used salt as a dressing for raw vegetables.
However, the Cobb salad was named after the creator of this dish. Legend has it that the salad was born out of a restaurant in Hollywood, California in the year 1937. The owner, Robert Cobb, was looking for something to prepare a midnight snack for his friend. In order to make a dish, Cobb pulled out everything he could find in the refrigerator, from lettuce to avocado, hard-boiled eggs and tomatoes, he tossed all the ingredients together and served with a piquant vinaigrette. His friend, Sid Grauman, loved the dish so much that he ended up ordering it the next day too.
That’s how the Cobb salad was born at The Brown Derby Restaurant. Since then, several variations have taken place, from the ingredients to the dressing. Blue cheese and ranch dressing are commonly used for the salad these days. Chicken, bacon and eggs continue to find a place in the Cobb salad even today, making it a rich and hearty meal. What makes this salad so special and interesting is the way all the ingredients complement each other.
The crunchiness of fresh green vegetables works well with the strongly-flavoured herbs. While the crispy bacon and creaminess of blue cheese seem like a match made in heaven, the addition of protein-rich chicken breasts with soft and chunky eggs lends the salad a wholesome flavour. Drizzled with a red wine vinaigrette, the taste of the salad is enhanced with these tangy flavours. The key to making a good Cobb salad then, is to ensure that each component is well-cooked and the texture is apt so that when it comes together with the rest of the ingredients, the dish is flavourful and unique.
