Cobb Salad was the invention of restaurateur manager, Bob Cobb, who in 1926 at The Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles, California, found a way to use up leftovers.

Cobb Salad Recipe

Ingredients

Salad
1/2 head of romaine & 1/2 head of Boston lettuce (I use all romaine), coarsely chopped
6 slices of bacon, fried crisp, cooled and crumbled
2 ripe avocados, seed removed, peeled, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 whole skinless boneless chicken breast (about 3/4 pound total), halved, cooked, and diced
1 tomato, seeded and chopped fine
2 hard-boiled large eggs, chopped

Roquefort cheese, shredded and added to the dressing is traditional, but I like my blue cheese crumbled on the salad with the other ingredients. Any blue cheese will do.

Oil and Vinegar Dressing

1/3 cup red-wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
1-2 teaspoons sugar
Salt and pepper
2/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup finely grated Roquefort, whisked into the dressing

Fill a large salad bowl with the chopped romaine and any other lettuce you choose

Cook the bacon in a skillet on medium heat until crisp on both sides. Remove from skillet and lay out on paper towels to absorb the excess fat. Allow the bacon to cool. Crumble the bacon and set aside.

Compose the salad. Arrange the chicken, the bacon, the tomato, and the avocado decoratively over the greens and garnish the salad with the grated egg and the crumbled blue cheese.

In a small bowl whisk together the vinegar, the mustard, and salt and pepper to taste, add the oil in a slow stream, whisking, and whisk the dressing until it is emulsified. Stir in the grated Roquefort if you prefer – I just crumble blue cheese on top of the salad and leave it out of the dressing.  Add sugar to taste, 1/2 teaspoon at a time. Whisk the dressing. Serve separately or toss in with the salad.

Serves 4.

The Original Brown Derby Restaurant

The first Brown Derby, also known as the “Little Hat”, was opened in February 1926 across the street from the Ambassador Hotel. The Derby was often the site of afterparties following bashes at the Ambassador Hotel's Cocoanut Grove nightclub. This was the only Derby that was actually built in the shape of a hat. In 1937, it was moved one block up the street.

The restaurant closed its doors in 1985 after earthquake renovations were determined to be too costly.  On May 19, 2006, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to designate the entire structure an official Historic Cultural Monument of the City of Los Angeles.