We’re thrilled to welcome back DFB guest chef Carol E.! This week, she shows us how to create the famous Cobb Salad from The Hollywood Brown Derby. Get your forks ready!

One of our favorite parks at Walt Disney World is Disney’s Hollywood Studios (or MGM if you still can’t get over the name change ;). And the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant is one of the main reasons we LOVE this park.

You walk in and it feels like old Hollywood! It’s fun to see all the sketches of famous celebrities lining the walls.

Stars like Lucille Ball, Bette Davis, Charlie Chaplin, John Wayne, and hundreds of other actors of an era gone by have dined at the original restaurant in Hollywood and made it the place to be in that town.

The sketches lining the walls are one of the things that made the original Hollywood Brown Derby famous worldwide!

But it’s not a trip to the Hollywood Brown Derby without trying the Cobb Salad! As the story goes, owner Robert Cobb was raiding the fridge at the restaurant late one night seeking to put together a midnight snack for theater magnate Sid Grauman (you know, the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theater).

He chopped up a little bit of this lettuce and that lettuce. Then he took leftovers of bacon, egg, avocado, blue cheese, turkey, and whatever he could find in the kitchen. He chopped it all up, mixed up his own dressing, and threw it all into a bowl. Cobb’s salad became an overnight sensation when Sid came in the next day to order it again!

I was so excited to find the original Hollywood Brown Derby Cobb Salad recipe in the Cooking with Mickey and the Disney Chefs Cookbook! Let’s make it!

Salad Ingredients

*See below for the A Few Lessons I Learned section for more about these ingredients.-1 cup chopped iceberg lettuce leaves, washed and spun dry -1 cup chopped chicory leaves, washed and spun dry* -1 cup tender sprigs of watercress, washed and spun dry -1 pound poached turkey breast, finely chopped* -2 medium-sized, ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and finely chopped -1 avocado, peeled, seeded and finely chopped -½ cup crumbled blue cheese (about 2 ½ ounces) -6 strips bacon, cooked crisp, drained, and crumbled* -3 hard boiled eggs, peeled and finely chopped -2 tablespoons snipped fresh chives -1/2 cup bleu cheese, crumbled -½ cup The Hollywood Brown Derby Old Fashioned French Dressing (not the orange French dressing we are used to, more like a vinaigrette). See Recipe below. -Chicory and watercress sprigs for garnish!Yield:

4-6 Servings

Salad Dressing Ingredients

-2 tablespoons of water -2 tablespoons red wine vinegar -1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice -½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce -½ teaspoon salt, or to taste -½ teaspoon minced garlic (one clove) -¼ teaspoon of sugar -1/8 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper, or to taste -1/8 teaspoon dry English mustard -1/3 cup vegetable oil -2 tablespoons olive oilYield:

About ½ Cup

Instructions

Step 1-Bacon and Hard Boiled Eggs:

-Definitely start by getting your bacon and hard boiled eggs finished. Skip to the bottom of this post to the A Few Lessons I Learned section to find a quick and easy way of making bacon in the oven. You have a lot more important stuff to do than stand over a [Read more…]