William Waldorf Astor was angry with his Aunt Caroline; angry enough to build the 13-storey Waldorf hotel next to her home in 1893. His cousin John Astor talked Caroline into moving uptown, and he built the Astoria Hotel on the site of her former mansion in 1897. When the two hotels became one, the Waldorf-Astoria was the largest hotel in the world. The original buildings were demolished to make way for the Empire State Building, but not before giving us this recipe:
Classic Waldorf Salad
1 cup coarsely chopped toasted walnuts
1 cup coarsely chopped celery
1 cup seedless grapes
2 peeled, cored and coarsely chopped apples
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Lettuce
Whisk together the mayonnaise and lemon juice. Add salt and pepper. Mix in the apple, celery, grapes, and walnuts. Serve over a bed of lettuce.
I read this and was reminded of an episode of the British Comedy "Fawlty Towers" in which John Cleese, the proprietor of a small hotel, let his cook leave for the night and then tried to serve dinner to an American couple who wanted Waldorf Salad, which John Cleese had no idea how to make. I've always loved John Cleese :-)
ReplyDeleteI believe I've seen the very same episode: "Well, I think we just ran out of Waldorfs!"
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