Salad dressing for seafood or at times also lettuce based salads incorporating anchovies, mayonnaise, chive, parsley, spring onions (green parts only), tarragon and vinegar into a thick, tangy, green dressing.
The creation of the dressing is credited to Philippe Roemer, Executive Chef of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, in 1923. Roemer created the dressing for a banquet in honor of George Arliss, which appeared in a stage play of “The Green Goddess” and stayed at the Palace Hotel during his appearance in the play.
Ultimately the dressing became the signature dish for the hotel and a classic in San Francisco’s cuisine and restaurants, especially for the famed seafood (Dungeness Crab).
Some recipes these days replace parts or all of the mayonnaise with sour cream, yoghurt or crème fraiche and the vinegar with tarragon vinegar in order to make the dressing lighter and less calorie rich, but it is still a standard in many traditional steak houses and grill rooms in the US.