Cobb salad is named for which Hollywood Brown Derby owner?

Cobb salad is named for Robert Howard Cobb, the owner of Hollywood’s Brown Derby restaurant. The salad became associated with the restaurant and took its name from its proprietor.

The Brown Derby’s origin story places the salad’s popularization in 1937. One account says Cobb assembled chopped ingredients late at night from what was available in the restaurant kitchen, including greens, tomato, bacon, chicken, avocado, hard-boiled egg and blue cheese. Another version says he prepared it for theater owner Sid Grauman, who had recently undergone dental work and needed finely chopped food.

The salad’s creation is not entirely settled. Some accounts credit chef Paul J. Posti, while another attributes an earlier version to executive chef Robert Kreis around 1929. These stories concern who created or assembled the dish, but they do not change the answer to the naming question: the salad is named for Robert Cobb, not Grauman or one of the chefs.