The unique origin story of the Cobb Salad

This garden salad consists of eggs, bacon, chicken, tomatoes, and more!

The Cobb salad is a main-dish American garden salad typically made with chopped salad greens like lettuce, tomato, crisp bacon, boiled, grilled or roasted (but not fried) chicken breast, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, chives, Roquefort cheese, and red-wine vinaigrette. Black olives are also often included.

One way to remember the components in the cobb salad is to use the mnemonic EAT COBB: Egg, Avocado, Tomato, Chicken, Onion, Bacon, Blue cheese--then add lettuce.

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One of the things that make the cobb salad unique is its origin story. It has been said that the first Cobb salad was made from leftovers.

the story goes like this: In the late 1930s, LA's famous Brown Derby restaurant owner Bob Cobb went to fix a late night snack for Sid Grauman, the owner of Grauman's Chinese Theater. He took leftovers from the refrigerator and chopped them up finely because Grauman was suffering from a toothache. Grauman loved the salad so much that Cobb added it to the menu.

 

One of my favorite #salads to throw together #cobbsalad what's yours ?

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Another legend of the story 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.