The basics of the chef's salad is a combination of strips of cold meats, usually turkey, ham roast beef and chicken with crumbled bacon and cheeses, served on a bed of tossed leafy greens. The additional ingredients are typically sliced tomato, cucumber,and hard boiled eggs. the salad is then topped with croutons and Thousand Island Dressing. For a more exotic flavor some people add anchovies, garlic and ripe olives.

Versions of a salad with meat and cheese added date back to the 1600's and the grand sallett. The 17th century English grand salett included vegetables, fruit, roast meat and lettuce.Epicurious.com: Chef's Salad http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodsalads.html#chefsalad

Some food historians credit Louis Diat, who was a chef at the Ritz Carlton hotel in New York City in the early 1940s, with the origin of the modern chef salad. Diat's version had a base of watercress, topped with slices of smoked ox tongue, ham, chicken and hardboiled egg, topped with French dressingEpicurious.com: Chef's Salad The Food Timeline: Chef's Salad Others maintain that Victor Seydoux, of the Hotel Buffalo in New York State, may have created the modern chef salad when he placed slices of meat and cheese on lettuce to create a low-cost dish.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef_salad

Each restaurant may have some slight variations in their chef salad ingredients to create their own unique house special. Each person also can put their own variety of dressing on the salad.