WEBVTT - Dissecting the Salad 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:05.520 My name is Eva Longoria and I am my de 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:10.760 Remezracon and welcome to Hungry for History, a podcast that 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:13.760 explores are past and present through food. On every episode, 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:17.160 we'll talk about the history of some of our favorite dishes, ingredients, 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:19.960 and beverages from our culture. So make yourself at home, 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:24.280 even broche. 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.080 I feel like today we're throwing everybody in a curveball. This 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:30.600 episode is all about salad. 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:34.280 I love a good salad. I love a good Caesar salad. 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:37.040 It's one of my favorites, and I love that it 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:38.159 has Mexican roots. 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.320 So let's kick things off of the history of this Caesar. 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:45.000 This one's super interesting because it has Mexican roots, but 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:49.440 it was an Italian immigrant who was working in Tejuana. 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:54.880 Tell me about its history. It's so interesting. It's always 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:57.120 like the immigrants that make things better, right. I feel 0:00:57.120 --> 0:00:59.760 like it's been this through line this season. 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:03.680 But most historians have traced the creation to the Caesar 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:08.960 salad to Tijuana to nineteen twenty four at Hotel Caesars. 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.000 And it was this hotel that was run by an 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:14.000 Italian immigrant named Caesar. 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:15.360 Garvini sa ser Garvigni. 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:18.479 He and his brother Alex opened up a restaurant Sacramento, 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:22.600 San Diego and Tijuana in the early twenties, and legend 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:26.720 has it that it was invented on Fourth of July 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:29.680 weekend when the kitchen was running low on ingredients, and 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:32.039 so all of the ingredients for the caesar salad came 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:37.040 together improvisationally. And these included like romaine, lettuce and garlic 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:42.640 and coudled eggs, olive oil, wooster sauce, parmesan cheese, and croutons. 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:46.440 And then now it has anchovies, but those were added later. 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:49.120 Not very happy that the anchovies were added later. 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:51.120 You're not a fan of anchovies. 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:54.600 Now, I'll use a paste and addressing sometimes, But sometimes 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:58.800 I do think caesar salads anchovies are too it's too strong. 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:02.280 They are strong. Oh, I think that they make everything 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:04.920 taste better. But I love a good anchovy. 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:08.440 But when we think of Tijuana in the nineteen twenties, 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:11.800 this was the prohibition era in the States, so a 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:16.000 lot of Hollywood stars and wealthy Americans were going across 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:21.000 the border to drink legally. And Garni was a professional, 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:23.880 you know, he was all about hospitality and he wanted 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:27.400 to cater to them, and so he started tossing these 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:31.080 ingredients table side from this big wooden bowl, and it 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:31.760 added to. 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.880 The drama and the allure of this salad. 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:39.200 So it was like the performance right the spectacle table 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:44.040 side and people like Jeane Harlow and Clark Gable and like, oh, 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:48.040 they just fell in love with this, this flavor and 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:49.160 this experience. 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.959 So it was table side in Tijuana. But how does 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.280 that make it worldwide? How does that become a global 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:00.560 salad that is now on every menu and every restaurant. 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:02.720 How did it go from their little restaurant. 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:03.280 To the world. 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:07.200 So they he sold the restaurant in the nineteen thirties, 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:10.840 moved to la and he focused on marketing the salad dressing. 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:14.120 So he trademarked the dressing in nineteen forty eight, and his. 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:18.600 Daughter Rosa began bottling the dressing at home and labeling 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:22.360 it and selling it at farmers' markets, and they started 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:23.880 this Ceesa Gardini Foods. 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:26.519 And then the nineteen forties. 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:32.280 Lettuces like iceberg lettuce and remain became the favorite because 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:35.680 it could survive sort of cost country travel because they 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:39.000 were so hardy. It kind of went hand in hand 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:42.880 with the salad dressing that was being then marketed around 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:44.680 the country and it. 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:46.680 Became this wow. 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.280 In nineteen fifty three, the International Society of Epicure, which 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:53.760 is a group of professional chefs based in Paris, proclaimed 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:57.320 the caesar salad the greatest recipe to originate from the 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:00.480 Americas in fifty years. 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:02.600 It's the only recipe forrig. 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:08.080 I'm kidding because the Americas include Mexico, and so I 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.560 will not I will not want to disparage the Americas, 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.680 but like from the US, since they went to la 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:17.039 and then that's where it was bottled and then went 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:19.719 hand in hand with this like lettuce transit. I don't 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:23.400 know what else has surpassed this recipe. I try all 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:27.200 kinds of caesar salad dressing recipes, and some have the 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:29.640 raw eggs and some don't, and some have olive oil, 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:32.159 and sometimes they put the angoby sometimes I don't. I 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:34.000 just think it's I really agree. I think it's one 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:37.560 of the best recipes ever. So Joya Child wrote about 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:41.000 the caesar salad from her Julia Child's Kitchen cookbook, and 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:44.440 it said she said, one of my earliest remembrances of 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:48.000 restaurant life was going to Tijuana in nineteen twenty five 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:51.160 or twenty six with my parents, who were wildly excited 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:56.159 to lunch at Caesar's restaurant. How crazy that joya Child's 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.400 went and ate there as a child, and that the 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:03.159 parents went there specifically to order the Caesar salad that 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:07.159 Caesar himself used to toss at the table. Of course, 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:09.480 Julia Child's experience to this. 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:12.640 Of course she did as a child, and it's stuck 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:15.440 in her brain. And she goes on to say in 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:17.680 that same quote that it was a sensation of a 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.880 salad from coast to coast, and there were rumblings of its. 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:22.200 Success in Europe. 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.839 Right, So even before the Society of the Epicures called 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:29.000 it the greatest salad, the greatest invention from the Americas, 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:31.840 there were rumblings of it in Europe. 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:33.920 So I think it's so cool. 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.039 I've been the deep one of many times, but I've 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:38.560 never been I've never been to this one because it 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:41.799 got taken over, like a whole group took over Caesar's 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:43.480 in two thousands. 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:44.320 I don't know. 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:48.000 It reminds me like another example where an immigrant makes 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:51.080 things better is that Chinese chicken salad, that which is 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.680 not a traditional Chinese dish, but that one wood that 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:58.240 was created with shredded chicken and cabbage and crispy noodles 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:03.040 and sesame soybase dressing. But it was adapted to Western tastes. 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.279 But it was invented by a Chinese emigrant who moved 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:09.840 to the US Duran World War two. So to me, like, 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:12.080 I'm like, oh my god, that's the like Asian and 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:16.280 Caesar salad story. Is the Chinese chicken salad story. And 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:18.320 then that one became famous because it was at a 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:22.359 restaurant called Wolves Garden in Santa Monica, which became a 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:26.839 favorite of Freight Sinatra via Pharaoh, Elizabeth Taylor, Carrie Grant. 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:28.400 And even Wolfgang Puck. 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.800 This Austrian immigrant, he created his own version at his 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:36.719 Santa Monica restaurant, the Chinese chicken pilla salad at this restaurant, 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:40.080 Shinoa on Maine in Santa Monica, down the street from 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:43.320 Wo's Garden, which was also this hot spot in. 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:44.359 The nineteen eighties. 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:47.520 Well, humans, it feels like humans would have been eating 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.720 leaves for a long time, So if humans have been 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:55.520 eating raw plants for millennia, the idea of a salad 0:06:56.279 --> 0:07:00.000 as more of a deliberate mix of greens and vegetables 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:00.800 and dressing. 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:03.600 That's more specific. I love how you call it the leaves. 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:05.760 People have been eating leaves like leap be pa. 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:08.359 We've been eating leap be things for a very long. 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:08.920 Time, forever. 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:13.120 So the word salad comes from the Latin air of aasalata, 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:17.560 meaning salted herbs. So the salad as an entree or 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:21.360 a side dish composed of a mixture of vegetables intended 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:25.000 to be cold but sometimes warm, and the simplest formed 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:27.440 salad is one of the oldest dishes right. It's a 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:32.320 mix of raw or cooked vegetables, herbs, fruits, sometimes sometimes proteins. 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:38.000 But the concept stretches back thousands of years in the Mediterranean. 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:42.440 Evidence suggests that as early as ancient Greece around five 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:46.440 hundred BC, people are combining raw leafy greens with herbs 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:47.560 and oil and vinegar. 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:50.160 The ancient Romans. 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.200 Ate herb salads with like bitter greens like end dives 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:57.800 or chickory, and they season them with vinegar, olive oil 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:00.360 and garam, which was a fermented. 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:01.880 Fish, sauce, and salt. 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:04.960 So these were like an early I mean, it sounds 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.400 very similar to the salads that we have today, maybe 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:10.120 not the fish sauce so much, but everything else. And 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:13.559 so they were often really simple and they were either 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:17.440 a side dish or used as a digestive aid. 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:22.960 I would think that greens are medicinal, and I feel 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:25.160 like even me growing up on the ranch, I remember 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.080 my dad would like, give me some leaf ate this, 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:30.640 chew on this, This will fluttel your stomach. This will, 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:32.960 you know, get rid of your headache. This. My dad 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:35.800 was always giving me something, some sort of plant, and 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:37.800 so it's not it's not. I don't think it's a 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:40.480 surprise that they were seen as like a digestive aid. 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:44.600 And Northern Europe, I feel like salads were less common 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:49.040 because the cold tolerant greens were very, very limited, and 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:52.400 so more in Northern Europe they included root vegetables and 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:57.080 cabbage and preserved ingredients that were lightly dressed. And then 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.360 that teaged it in the Middle Ages too, because in 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:04.320 the Middle Ages in Europe, cooking techniques shifted toward heavy 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:10.160 cook dishes, hardy dishes, especially among upperplasts, right like greens 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:12.360 were eaten. I feel like you still can't find a 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:15.160 good salad in England. But the Renaissance came along and 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:15.960 what happened then. 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:19.880 It made salads fashionable again, right, So Italian and French 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:23.960 nobles served composed salads and they would art fully arrange 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:28.400 lettuce and herbs and fruits and flowers and then dressed 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:30.120 them lightly with vinegar and oil. 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:33.120 So it all it became this appeal again. 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:36.640 In each culture they have their own form of salad, 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:39.120 like I feel like in China, they're more like raw 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:43.720 vegetable dishes and they've been eating that since the Han dynasty, 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:50.480 like two hundred BC. Cucumbers, huge cucumbers, radish obviously dressed 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:54.959 with soy, sauce, vinegar, sesamese. It's super Asian influenced. And 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:58.679 then Japanese always had the Japanese culture always. It's so 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.079 funny because I just had sushi. They have the pickled things. 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:05.320 So it's all the pickle, the pickled onions, the pickled cucumbers, 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:08.840 and they don't dress, they don't do a lot of dressing, 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:14.280 but they do pickle and and you know, flavor rather 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:18.360 than mixing. They don't really like do these elaborate salad. 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:20.199 Yeah, it's not like a toss salad. 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:25.280 It's just a different I had a grey cucumber dish 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:27.559 last night in the Japanese vission. I was like, oh, 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:29.560 this is divine. It was so simple. It was just 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:32.400 cucumbers pickled in something. 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:35.080 Yeah, like some rice, vinegar or something right. 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:38.160 And and also like when we think of like Korean food, 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:40.599 like the kimchi and all of those sort of pickled. 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:45.040 So every culture has its own way of eating a salad. 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:59.440 When we come back, the ranch dressing becomes king. Let's 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.000 talk about then a great burnette. 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:05.040 I love a vinagrette. Oh my god, I never buy 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.480 a salad dressing. By the way, it's cheaper to make 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:12.080 your own. It tastes better, there's no preservative. It's just 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:14.600 make your own vinaigrette, and it may so your own. 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:17.439 I agree, it's the best thing. I love to make 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:19.880 a good vineigrette. So let's talk about the roots of 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:23.319 the vinaigrette. So the modern sense of the word vinaigrette 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:26.840 was first recorded in the Dictionary of French Academy in 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:30.640 sixteen ninety four, which described it as a type of 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:34.520 cold sauce made with vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, and sometimes 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:39.360 fresh herbs like parsley and chives. And then Chef august 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:43.280 Escoffier who we talked about. We've talked about before. He 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:48.800 standardized the vinaigrette. He standardized the vinaigrette in his nineteen 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:51.160 oh three cookbook Leguide Quilli Nard. 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:53.079 I can't remember which episode we talked about this. 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:55.960 But yeah, the Culinary Guide. He created the Bible of 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:59.599 all Sauces, and this was in there as well. The 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:02.280 vinegar rat was like and he created the Bible of like, 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.000 this is the base, because you can have a champagne vinegrette, 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:07.559 you can have a balsamic vinaigrette, you can have a 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:11.880 sherry vinegrette. But this was like, this is a bit. 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:14.600 This base is the vinegrette that all other vinegrettes can 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:15.040 come out of. 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:18.120 Right, And it's three parts oil to one part's vinegar. 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:22.160 That's what he sort of standardized this. This ratio you 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:24.520 can do two to one for extra tag. 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:27.440 That's what I do. I do two. I like it. 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:32.200 So Eskofe's classic vinaigrette documented is three to on racial 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:34.880 oiled vinegar and an addition of mustard to eight in 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:35.480 the binding. 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:37.640 Oh okay, oh. 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.800 That's right, because most mustard then it moosifies it, right, 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:42.240 it makes it kind of creamy. 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:43.440 Yeah, nice. 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:48.280 So that is the classic French vinigrette is one part vinegar, 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:50.800 three parts oil and a teaspurn of Dijon mustard. 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:52.400 That is a vinagrette. 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:55.360 After that, if you had balsamicro champagne or orange or 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.800 garlic or whatever, then it becomes whatever you want. I 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:02.120 love it. But when did I guess? Why would did 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.040 we ever go away from this? And then bottle dressing took. 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:09.920 Over twentieth century, Right, everything starts changing companies, big companies 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:15.199 like Craft and Helmets. They began marketing mayonnaise based dressings 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:19.960 and they made by doing this, they made really creamy 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:25.680 salad dressings accessible in American supermarkets. So mayonnaise had also 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:28.680 been invented in France in the eighteenth century, and it 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:32.839 became the base for the most popular dressings in the US. 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:37.160 And these include, of course Thousand Island and Ranch and Green. 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:39.400 Goddesses and Thousand Island. 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:44.800 I don't I don't like the buff mayonnaise. Now, what 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:45.800 is your favorite? 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:51.920 N My favorite vinaigrette is probably a challotte vineagrette, Like 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:56.720 I always add challlettes to my vinaigrette. A lemon vinaigrette obviously, 0:13:57.000 --> 0:13:59.599 just squeezeing some lemon in there. I'll usually do a 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:03.160 lemon selly vinaigrette. I had a little honey in mine 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:07.000 as well. But I love one thousand alan. I love 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.960 me some ranch, but only if I make it. If 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:12.800 I make it like with the packet and all that. 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:15.319 I don't like ranch like in the bottle, already made. 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:18.960 And I love Caesar dressing. So I have many dressings. 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:20.400 I'm a dressing person. 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:23.600 I love dressings me too. I have my your go too. 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:26.560 My go to is I have a little mortar and 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:31.040 pestele and I smash anchovies and garlic like a lot 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:33.160 with salt, just like get it in there until it's 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:36.040 like a paste and my mouth is watering. 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:36.720 Just think about this. 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:41.160 I add lemon juice, like fresh lemon juice, and then 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:45.720 whisk in some Dijeon mustard and then the olive oil 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:49.600 and just whisk it and it's just, oh, it's ridiculous. 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:53.400 From America, the most iconic dressing outside of the vinaigrette 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.160 has got to be ranch dressing. People love it so much. 0:14:56.600 --> 0:15:00.760 I use it on pizza, wings, fries, veggies. There's even 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:05.160 ranch tourritos. There's my protein chips come in ranch flavor. 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:08.480 My corn nuts come and ranch flavor. Like I it 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.800 is a flavor I really love. Where did it come from? 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:12.560 Because it is. 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.960 Pretty unique and it's I mean, you really can't find 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:17.560 it in Europe unless you go to an American store. 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:21.000 Yeah, I mean I've never looked, but yeah, it's like. 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:23.920 I mean, I think they the French pressure would forbid 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.440 a ranch dressing in other menu. 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:28.640 Unless you go to edge to American diner or something. 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:33.400 So ranch dressing is super interesting. It's credited to a 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:37.560 man named Steve Henson and who was born in nineteen eighteen. 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:38.440 He was a. 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:44.120 Black cowboy and plumber turned cook from Nebraska. So in 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:47.560 the nineteen forties he worked as a plumbing contractor in 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:50.600 Alaska and he had to feed his crews, and so 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:54.520 he began experimenting with seasoning mixes to make the meals 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:58.080 that he was serving much more appealing. And he came 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:02.600 up with this blend of mese, buttermilk and herbs, and 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:07.080 people flipped out because it was so good. And then 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:10.400 in the nineteen fifties he moved to Santa Barbara and 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:14.000 he and his wife brought He and his wife Gail, 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:17.480 they bought a ranch and named it Hidden Valley Ranch. 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:19.200 Oh my god. 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:22.040 So they ran it as a guest they served you know, 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.320 it was like a guesthouse, kind of the guest ranch, 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:27.760 and they had visitors and they served these amazing meals 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:31.920 and they topped these this food right with this signature dressing, 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:33.440 and people. 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:35.480 Raved about it, and it. 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:38.760 Was so popular they started selling the little seasoning packets 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:40.200 that people could make this at home. 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.360 So one I like, that's your that's the Steve Henson. 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:47.120 And in the nineteen sixties, Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing was 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:51.280 being distributed all over. But in nineteen seventy two they 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:55.440 sold the brand to Chlorox for eight million dollars, which 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:59.440 is around fifty million dollars today, and they reformulated it 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:03.000 for bottle ling and making it, you know, shelf stable 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.120 and easy to sell nationwide. And to date it is 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:12.440 the US's number one dressing, I'm sure, but not globally. 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.800 Globally is still the vinaigrette. Yeah, globally it's still the vinaigrette. 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:20.720 It's definitely the US. The US. That is an amazing story. 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:22.399 He was robbed by the way he should have gotten. 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:28.880 I believe it was a black cowboy, lack American cowboy 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:33.560 slash plumber slash cook. That's amazing cowboy. 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.040 Yeah, I know it's amazing, And yes he was robbed. 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:39.080 I agree, I agree. 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.679 So but vintagreats are still the global classics. But creamy 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:46.520 dressings like ranch dominate the US, and then sesame dressings 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:51.600 dominate Japan, and then the older based dressings dominate Middle 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:55.800 East South Asia, and then spicy citrus is like South 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:59.240 Southeast Asia. So I love, I love all the dressings. 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:01.040 I forgot HI about to tell you about my Asian dress, 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:02.480 my Asian spicy dressing. 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:04.280 What is it? 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:09.640 It's like based, and then I have a yogurt based 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:11.359 one that's really I use for eggs. 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:15.240 Anyway, I could go through so good. I love say oil. 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:18.719 I love dressings, but I don't drown my food. And 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:21.360 so I always say start like when you're when you're 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:26.159 doing your respect the greens. Respect the green, especially like 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:28.080 it depends if you have butter lettuce. I suppose you're 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:31.320 romain lettuce right now. In Spain they have these little 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.200 three packs. It's my favorite lettuce. It's like a mix 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:40.719 between butter lettuce and romain. It's like the perfect hardy green. Anyway, 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:44.160 Kale can really take on a lot of dressing you really, Yeah, 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:46.920 it's that you can. You got a massage your your kale. 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:51.679 But sometimes, like you know, rugula or butter lettuce just 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:54.000 like it can't handle a lot. It's kind of like pasta. 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:55.800 You got to figure out the sauce for the pasta, 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:59.200 the right pasta for the sauce, right, same with the dressings. 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:01.359 It's the same thing. Yes, you're right. You have to 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:05.320 really know your ingredients and treat them with respect. Yeah, 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:05.959 what if. 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:09.080 Some cultures eat salad at the beginning of the meal 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:10.600 and others toward the end. 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:15.280 So in the US and Latin America and Northern Europe, 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:20.080 salad is usually a starter to stimulate the appetite, and 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:24.000 in places like you know these are like Korea, leafy 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.560 grains and pickle vegetables are eaten alongside the main dishes. 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:31.160 But in other parts of Europe, like France and Italy, 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:36.399 each course has a specific purpose and rhythm. So a 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:40.280 salad with a light vineagrette comes after the main meal, 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:44.240 but before dessert, and the idea is that the salad's 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:48.080 fiber cleanses the palette and aids and digestion sort of 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:52.800 refreshing the stomach after these rich foods and eating before 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:55.080 my discourage overeating. 0:19:56.880 --> 0:19:57.520 After the break. 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:01.200 Let's talk about one of my favorite bars, the salad bar. 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:12.840 That's a good one. Can we talk about the salad bar? 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:16.960 My god, the evolution of the salad because of this 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:19.160 salad bar idea. When I think of the salad bar, 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:22.199 I think of high end restaurant. In my head, I 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:26.000 think of like staying and then I think back and 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:29.520 I'm like, no, that was Golden Corral and by the way, Wendy's. 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:30.360 I went to Windy's. 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:32.760 We had a salad bar, the salad bar that I 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:34.760 had to tend to when I worked at Wendy's. So 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:37.439 I don't know why my head it feels like an elevated, 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:43.920 sophisticated thing. But let's talk about how the salad bar 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:49.320 changed and evolved the salad as I guess a main course. 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:49.960 As a main course. 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:52.480 I have to say, when I think of the salad 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:57.480 bar growing up, I remember going to Pizza Hut and 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.000 having that's my first salad bar experience. 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:02.520 Yes, but I don't know why my hand, I think 0:21:02.560 --> 0:21:05.000 it's like elevated and sovistiated, But it wasn't it was Wendy's, 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:08.400 it was Pizza Hut, it was gral like there. 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:10.600 Wasn't Yeah, it wasn't a fancy steakhouse. 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:15.280 But there are several Midwestern restaurants that claim the salad bar, 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:19.639 and the earliest widely cited claim is the Cliffs Supper 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:24.720 Club in Springfield, Illinois, and they installed what they called 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:28.280 the first salad bar in nineteen fifty. And so this 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:31.560 post war health food movement of the sixties and seventies 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:36.400 made salads trendy, and restaurants saw the salad bar as 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:40.399 efficient as this really cost effective way to offer a 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:44.720 variety of foods of ingredients without a huge kitchen staff. 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:50.200 So steakhouses, pizza parlors and term pizza. 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:54.680 Hut, and just like family restaurants offered salad bars as 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:57.840 this sort of you know all you can eat for 0:21:58.080 --> 0:21:59.960 you know all, you can eat salads for the price 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:01.200 of your your meal. 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:05.640 But I guess was like the salad movement started in California. 0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:09.560 The guy that claims to have started the the salad 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:13.399 bar was in Illinois. But according to David Camp, the 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:16.239 author of the United States of Arugula, the idea of 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:20.479 a salad as a course came from California. Before the 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:24.240 mid century, salad was like Iceberg, or if you were. 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:25.119 Fancy, like Romance. 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:27.760