Last month I found The Gourmet Cookbook (edited by Ruth Reichl) at a thrift store for $3 — a massive hardcover of over one thousand pages in great condition. I’ve been slowly reading through the head notes of all the recipes. I’m especially interested when Reichl describes the origin of a well-known recipe. So let’s see what you know about the history of these three salad dressings!
Ranch
I knew about Hidden Valley brand ranch salad dressing, but I didn’t know that ranch dressing was developed at Hidden Valley Guest Ranch near Santa Barbara, California. Weekend guests of Steve Henson, an actual rancher, started taking home jars of his buttermilk salad dressing, spreading its fame far and wide.
Thousand Island
In the early twentieth century this dressing was created by Sophie LaLonde, the wife of a fishing guide in the Thousand Islands area of the St. Lawrence River. It was popularized at the Herald Hotel in the resort town of Clayton, New York and then at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.
Green Goddess
I didn’t grow up with this dressing, but several years ago I went through a phase of buying it at the grocery store. (Though I’m sure homemade is much better!) It turns out that the creamy herb-filled dressing is named after a 1920 play by Scottish drama critic and playwright William Archer. While The Green Goddess was on its run in San Fransisco, this dressing was created by the chef at the Palace Hotel, where George Arliss — the star of the show — was staying. (In case you are wondering, the play is about three English travelers taken hostage by a rajah after their plane crashes; the rajah’s subjects believe that the travelers were sent by the Green Goddess to take the place of the rajah’s three brothers who are about to be executed. It’s a melodrama!)