Cooking Lesson #893: The Summertime Cobb Picnic Dip

…from the Perspectives’ Kitchen

How you doin’? Summertime is salad and dip time. One of my all-time favorite salads is The Cobb—I can eat one every day and never get bored because of the different and interesting ingredients. The varied flavors and textures give you what we call comeback flavor.
 
You might ask yourself, what’s the origin of this now most popular salad? Well, the story goes like this…
 
The Brown Derby-Beverly Hills was actually Perspectives’ first client. Sally Cobb, Bob Cobb’s widow, was trying to keep the Derby in Beverly Hills afloat at a time when the entire restaurant scene in Los Angeles was changing. I used to love the Brown Derby, and especially the classic Cobb Salad.  So, here's the recipe along with the Hollywood folklore of how it was invented as told to me by Sally Cobb.
 
One night in 1925—almost one hundred years ago!—Herbert K. Somborn was chatting with Abe Frank, the manager of the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel, and Sid Grauman of Chinese Theater fame; and as idle chatter goes he remarked, "You could open a restaurant in an alley and call it anything or you could even build it in the shape of a hat and if the food and service are good, the patrons will come flocking." To achieve the standards set for this little Derby, Somborn, the husband of the celebrated cinema star, Gloria Swanson, selected a young friend who had been raised in the restaurant business. This was Robert H. Cobb, a combination food checker, steward, buyer, cashier and occasional cook when the Brown Derby opened.
 
During its first four years, the original Little Hat Derby restaurant added only two items to its menu—a salad and a cake. The salad was almost an accident. Bob Cobb, growing weary of the steady hot-dog-hamburger diet, found an avocado in the icebox. He chopped it up, along with some lettuce, celery and tomatoes, plus a strip of bacon and some salad dressing, and had that for his dinner. Several days later he tried it again, adding other ingredients that he had purchased on his way to work—breast of turkey (some people claim it was chicken, but it was originally turkey), chives, hard-boiled egg, watercress and a wedge of Roquefort cheese for the dressing. And that's how the Cobb Salad was really born.

Everything was finely chopped and that was very laborious, so Mr. Cobb went  to an engineer who was able to invent a horizontal chopper. That device was later reproduced by Hobart Corporation and named the Buffalo Chopper (named for the city in which the concept was born).


Since it’s summer I decided that I wanted to invent a dip to bring to family picnics that emulated the flavors of The Cobb Salad.  With the help of Hidden Valley Ranch dip mix and all of the other Cobb Salad ingredients all chopped up it was like magic—the Cobb Salad Dip.
 
Prep Time:  15-20 Minutes
Yield:  8 to 10 servings
 
Ingredients 
1 packet Hidden Valley Original Ranch Dips Mix
16 ounces sour cream
3/4 cup shredded cooked chicken
1/2 cup crumbled bacon, plus 2 tablespoons more for garnish
1/2 cup crumbled hard-boiled eggs
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese, plus 1/4 cup more for garnish
3/4 cup diced avocado
1/2 cup diced tomato
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (optional)
 
Directions

1. Mix contents of dips packet with sour cream.
2. Add chicken, bacon, eggs, blue cheese, avocado, and tomato.
3. Stir well to combine.
4. Shake on the Tabasco, if using.
5. Refrigerate for 1 hour to thicken.
6. Garnish with reserved bleu cheese and bacon.
7. Serve with your favorite chips and/or crackers (Cheez-it or Ritz crackers work best)

ChefSecret:  Got leftovers?  Be safe—refrigerate within 2 hours after putting the dip out, or discard it.

Quip of the Day:  My friend ordered a cobb salad yesterday and was disappointed there was no corn or cobs in this iconic salad.
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Do you have a question or comment?  Send your thoughts to [email protected]. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to  Feeding America, Tunnel to Towers, Union Rescue Mission and/or American Red Cross.

#Appetizer #Dip #CobbDip #Salad #CobbSalad #BrownDerby #Brunch #Lunch #HiddenValley #Cheez-It #Ritz #2024Recipes #URM #T2T #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup 
 
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