Andrew Scrivani/The New York Times
The original Waldorf salad is simply made with lettuce, diced apples and celery tossed in a good-quality mayonnaise. The Waldorf Astoria hotel, birthplace in 1893 of the iconic salad, will close indefinitely for renovations, amid reports that only a small portion of the hotel will remain, making way for luxury apartments.
Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017 | 2 a.m.
After the Waldorf Hotel opened in March 1893, writer Oliver Herford quipped that it “brought exclusiveness to the masses.” The same could be said for the famous Waldorf salad, a dish that was made for New York City’s elite but that became, through the 20th century, a staple of Americana.
Wednesday, the Waldorf Astoria will close indefinitely for renovations, amid reports that only a small portion of the hotel will remain, making way for luxury apartments. Yet, the Waldorf salad, which is currently served at two of its three restaurants and on the room-service menu, lives on — in cookbooks, at diners and even at restaurants known for ambitious cooking.
The salad, originally a mix of diced apples and celery tossed in a good-quality mayonnaise, was created for the hotel’s debut event, a charity ball in honor of St. Mary’s Hospital for Children on March 14, 1893. The menu was developed by the hotel’s first executive chef, Edouard Beauchamp, and its maître d’hôtel, Oscar Tschirky, who became known as “Oscar of the Waldorf.”
Tschirky wasn’t a chef, but he is nevertheless credited with creating the Waldorf salad, having published the recipe in his 1896 cookbook, “The Cook Book, by ‘Oscar’ of the Waldorf.” (The updated version was given to The New York Times in 1956, accompanying an article about Tschirky’s replacement, C.C. Philippe. “A juggler trying to keep six plates in the air has it easy compared with C.C. Philippe of the Waldorf Astoria,” it began.)
Through his 50 years at the hotel, Tschirky — a Swiss immigrant who was a busboy at the Hoffman House, then a waiter at Delmonico’s before landing the job at the Waldorf — became a celebrity, just slightly less famous than the people he waited on. He loved nothing more than coordinating the details of a lavish party. In 1899, when mining heir Daniel Guggenheim described the dinner he wanted to throw for his 40 closest friends, Tschirky reveled in the challenge. He transformed a hotel ballroom into an enchanted forest, carpeting the floor in sod, hanging fresh grapes from a trellis and borrowing cages of nightingales from the Central Park Zoo.
But it was in an unassuming salad that he found longstanding fame. The simplicity of the original Waldorf salad has encouraged improvisation, almost since the dish was introduced. Soon after, chopped walnuts became an accepted topping. Historical recipes for home cooks play up the sweetness, suggesting ingredients such as mandarin oranges and marshmallows.
Today, the Waldorf Astoria serves a contemporary version — updated in 2011 by its culinary director, David Garcelon, and the executive chef, Pete Betz — made with julienned Granny Smith and Fuji apples, halved red and green grapes, and candied walnuts. The dressing has evolved from simple mayonnaise to crème fraîche in the 1990s to an emulsified mixture of Dijon mustard, olive oil, champagne vinegar, egg yolk and white truffle oil.
Other restaurants have taken even greater liberties with the recipe. Garcelon said he had seen many different versions in his travels, and most of the time he thinks, “That’s not a Waldorf salad.”
Butter Midtown has had a fried chicken Waldorf salad on the lunch menu since it opened in its original location in 2002, made with apples, endives, raw and roasted grapes, candied walnuts and a blue cheese dressing. The executive chef, Alex Guarnaschelli, called it the restaurant’s most popular lunch item.
She attributed the dish’s success to its potent flavors: “There’s the duality of the raw and cooked grapes, and the walnuts are textured with sugar but also quite savory.”
Eleven Madison Park’s twist involves grated Granny Smith apples, marinated celery root, dehydrated grapes soaked in simple syrup, candied walnuts and Middlebury Blue cheese. It’s prepared tableside.
“We always wanted the dish to retain its simplicity, to really showcase the chosen ingredients,” chef Daniel Humm said. “Serving it tableside brings a little bit of fun to something so common, and it allows us to put our own stamp on an iconic dish.”
At the Waldorf Astoria, the salad remains as popular as ever. Garcelon estimated that the hotel sold 20,000 a year, not including that ones prepared for special events. As for the salad’s future, he said that new restaurants were still in the “conceptual stages” but that the hotel’s signature dish would almost certainly remain on the menu.
“I would be shocked it if didn’t happen,” he said.
The original Waldorf salad
Yield: 1 serving (as a main course)
Total time: 10 minutes
1 medium ripe apple
1 stalk celery, chopped
1/4 cup mayonnaise
Salt and pepper
2 cups lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
1. Peel apple and cut into halves. Remove core and slice halves into 1/4-inch thick slices. Reserve 4 slices. Cut remaining slices into thin strips.
2. In a medium bowl, mix celery, mayonnaise and apple strips; season with salt and pepper to taste. Arrange on lettuce and top with apple slices.
