Cobb salad

The Cobb salad is a main-dish American garden salad made from chopped salad greens (iceberg lettuce, watercress, endives and Romaine lettuce), tomato, crisp bacon, boiled, grilled or roasted (but not fried) chicken breast, hard-boiled egg, avocado, chives, Roquefort cheese, and red-wine vinaigrette. Black olives are also often included. One way to remember the components is to use the mnemonic EAT COBB: Egg, Avocado, Tomato, Chicken, Onion, Bacon, Blue cheese—then add lettuce.

Origin

Various stories exist recounting how the salad was invented. One says that it came about in the 1930s at the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant, where it became a signature dish. It is named for the restaurant's owner, Robert Howard Cobb. Stories vary 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 the television comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm (season 2, episode 3), when Larry David searches for evidence to prove that another character, Cliff Cobb, has falsely claimed that his grandfather invented the salad.