Composed salad (1972)

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:07 AM -0500 1/10/05, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>COMPOSED SALAD--973 Google hits,   40 Google Groups hits
>(Not in the OED, "miserable on food")
>...
>Before choosing Vincent's yesterday, I was thinking of eating at Tai, 223
>Mulberry Street (_www.velvetnyc.com_ (http://www.velvetnyc.com) ).
>However, it
>seemed to be less of a Thai restaurant than a dark bar or  lounge.
>...
>On the Tai menu was a "Composed Salad" ($7.50) of "Grilled calamari,
>calamata olives, oven roasted tomatoes, chick pea vinaigrette."
>...
>Composed? Who is doing the cooking, Julia Child or Beethoven? Waiter! I
>ordered this "composed salad" _mezzo forte_, and it's _pianissimo_!
>Take it  back!
>...
>...

Isn't this a calque of Fr. _salade composée_?  I didn't check all the
sites below, but that's my understanding.

larry

>(GOOGLE)
>...
>_Composed Salad - Food Edviser -  Glossary_
>(http://www.hormel.com/kitchen/glossary.asp?id=35334&catitemid=)
>... Composed Salad A  type of salad prepared with a number of ingredients
>that are all
>arranged  neatly and symmetrically on the plate instead of being tossed ...
>www.hormel.com/kitchen/  glossary.asp?id=35334&catitemid= - 32k - _Cached_
>(http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:AbLPhZc0uDcJ:www.hormel.com/kitchen/glossar
>y.asp?id=35334&catitemid=+"composed+salad"&hl=en&ie=UTF-8)  - _Similar pages_
>(http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&c2coff=1&q=related:www.hormel
>.com/kitchen/glossary.asp?id=35334&catitemid=)
>