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The Cobb salad was a signature menu item of the legendary Brown Derby in Hollywood, a landmark restaurant in Los Angeles, California. Variations of the salad are now served in restaurants world-wide. The original recipe contained:

1. Lettuce (head lettuce, watercress, chicory, and romaine)
2. Tomatoes
3. Crisp bacon
4. Chicken breast
5. Hard-cooked eggs
6. Avocado
7. Roquefort cheese
8. Chives
9. Special Cobb salad vinaigrette

The salad was presented to the customer on a plate, then chopped fine with knives before serving.

In 1937, Brown Derby owner Robert H. Cobb went into the restaurant's kitchen to fix a late night snack for Sid Grauman, operator of the Chinese Theater of the same name. He combed the refrigerator for what ingredients he could find and chopped them up finely because Grauman was suffering from a terrible toothache. Thus, the Cobb salad was born. From then on, Grauman would always request that a Cobb salad be prepared for him. The news about this wonderful creation spread quickly throughout Hollywood making it an instant hit, therefore it was added to the menu.

The Hollywood Brown Derby Restaurant at Disney-MGM Studios in Walt Disney World, a 90% accurate replica of the original, serves Cobb salad.

Cobb salad dressing

Although there are many variations on the dressing used for a Cobb salad, this one is purported to be the one originally used at the Brown Derby.

• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon dry English mustard
• 1 small clove garlic, finely minced
• 1/4 cup full-flavored olive oil
• 3/4 cup salad oil

The Cobb salad in popular culture

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (July 2007)

• The origin of the Cobb salad was also the subject of the 'Trick or Treat' episode in season two of Curb Your Enthusiasm. One of the characters, Cliff Cobb, claims that his grandfather invented the salad in the Drake Hotel in Chicago, Illinois and that Robert H. Cobb stole the idea from his grandfather. Larry David, the show's creator and star, does not believe him.

• Jennifer Aniston, who acted in the popular TV sitcom Friends as the character "Rachel" from 1994 to 2004, said in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that she ate a Cobb salad for lunch every day for the whole duration of the show, "mixing it up a little" by adding onions on Thursdays and Fridays. Coincidentally, while portraying Rachel in Season 2 on Friends, Aniston asks Ross' new girlfriend Julie in a rambling conversation, "What is in a Cobb salad?

• The Cobb salad was a staple on the show Sex and the City. The Cobb salad was one of Carrie Bradshaw's favorites.

• The Fox TV series Action! included references to Cobb salad in its first episode. A kitchen worker on the studio lot objects when a hot shot producer parks in his employee-of-the-month parking spot. After some verbal abuse including discussion of special ingredients one might add to a Cobb salad the scene ends. At the end of the episode the producer is enjoying a Cobb salad when he notices who is serving him.

• The 2006 Broadway play The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane includes a lengthy monologue and running joke about the way people in Hollywood order Cobb salads.

• The Showtime series The L-Word features a scene in which two former lovers order a Cobb salad at exactly the same time (air date February 11, 2007).

• In the episode, "Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty" of the television series "Monk", Natalie is bringing a Cobb salad to Adrian Monk who is sequestered with the jury on an assault case. He shouts to her from the upstairs window that (he believes) there is a body in the dumpster below and she mishears him to be saying, "There's a hot toddy at Munster" to which she replies, "I just brought the Cobb salad.."

• Articles with trivia sections from July 2007
• Salads