The Brown Derby Cookbook
Cobb, Robert H. The Brown Derby Cookbook. First Edition. 1949. Book is in very good condition; dust jacket is in very good minus condition—jacket shows fading to the spine, minor edge tears, and mild fraying.
The Brown Derby was a symbol of midcentury glamour on par with Dior’s New Look, Pan Am Airways, and Palm Springs. It was where those in Hollywood who were successful went for the food, and where the upwardly mobile went to hobnob with those were successful, or at least be within their vicinity. This book offers not only the restaurant’s signature recipes—Cobb Salad, Spaghetti Derby—but also recalls the vibrant social history of the famous restaurant. This copy is in unusually well-preserved condition—the jacket for this title is almost always in tatters (suggesting most copies got plenty of use in the kitchen).
“The acoustics of the original Hat were unusual and entertaining [for] a man sitting on one side could whisper an amusing story to his pal across the table and on the punch line a group of girls sitting forty feet away would burst into laughter.”
--Robert H. Cobb