Cobb Salad

Hard-boil the eggs: lower them into already-boiling water and cook for 9 minutes, then move them straight into iced water.

💡 Nine minutes gives a firm but still-golden yolk. The iced water stops the cooking dead and prevents the grey-green ring that forms around an overcooked yolk.

Lay the bacon in a cold pan, then turn the heat to medium. Cook for 8–10 minutes, turning, until it is brittle. Drain on kitchen paper.

💡 Starting in a cold pan lets the fat render out slowly, so the bacon crisps evenly instead of curling and burning at the edges.

If the chicken is not already cooked, poach it: simmer gently in salted water for 12–15 minutes, then cool it completely before dicing.

Make the vinaigrette: whisk the vinegar, Dijon, a pinch of salt and plenty of pepper together, then pour the olive oil in a thin stream while whisking constantly.

💡 Adding the oil slowly while whisking is what emulsifies it — the mustard holds the oil and vinegar together so the dressing turns creamy instead of splitting into two layers.

Dice the chicken, tomato and eggs to roughly 1 cm — as close to the same size as you can manage.

💡 The uniform dice is the definition of the dish, not fussiness. Every forkful is supposed to carry a bit of everything, and that only works if nothing is bigger than the fork can gather.

Seed the tomato before dicing — scoop the watery pulp out and discard it.

Chop the salad leaves finely and spread them across the base of a wide, shallow bowl or platter.

💡 Wide and shallow, not deep. A Cobb is laid out to be looked at before it is tossed, and a deep bowl hides the whole arrangement.

Halve, stone and dice the avocado last, and toss the cubes with the lemon juice straight away.

💡 Cut avocado browns within minutes as it oxidises. The lemon's acid slows that down — and it is why avocado is the last thing you prepare, not the first.

Crumble the blue cheese and the cooled bacon into rough pieces.

Lay each ingredient across the leaves in its own straight row: chicken, bacon, egg, avocado, tomato, blue cheese — each row touching the next.

💡 Alternate colours as you go — pale chicken next to dark bacon, yellow egg next to green avocado, red tomato next to white cheese. The stripes are the signature of the salad.

Scatter the chives over the whole surface and grind black pepper across it.

Bring it to the table intact, show it, then pour the vinaigrette over and toss it thoroughly in front of everyone.

💡 Dress it any earlier and the leaves wilt and the rows bleed into each other. The salad is arranged to be destroyed — but only at the last moment.