Grey Poupon wants in on Olivia Wilde’s salad dressing scandal
L.A. Weekly, August 23, 2012
L.A. Weekly’s first annual “Sexiest Man Alive” winner has been accused of dressing up like Olivia Wilde for her appearance on The Today Show.
Now former Grey Poupon CEO Edward Levy has revealed his own secret ingredient for the perfect salad dressing: a “secret” cheese and onion blend.
The actor-filmmaker’s concoction was inspired by his love for salad and his mother’s recipe from 1973 for the secret blend. It contains a secret secret ingredient: a secret cheese and onion mix. That’s right, his secret ingredient is, in this case, a secret cheese and onion mix. But what is it and why would Levy want to share it with the world?
In fact, he’s been trying to get his mitts on it ever since. Not only is Levy the person who has made L.A. the top seed for “Sexiest Man Alive,” but he’s also been trying to land his own secret ingredient since before the “Sexiest Man Alive” ceremony in 2007.
So why is Levy so obsessed with a secret cheese and onion mix? He explains: “There’s cheese and onions. There’s not. There’s a cheese and onion mix. I’d like to make a salad dressing like I did for The Today Show. But I’d like to call it by its real name, not as a Grey Poupon secret. I’m a big fan of dressing. It would be fun to call it something that says, ‘I’m not Grey Poupon anymore,’ with a lot of other ingredients and flavors. I would call it by its name.”
Levy says he’s a cheese and onion lover himself, but he’s never been able to find his own secret ingredient. Still, he was willing to make an exception for L.A. to win the “Sexiest Man Alive” title “because I think it’s one of the most exciting things going on in L.A. right now.”
So what exactly is the secret ingredient? According to Levy, it’s a secret cheese and onion mix he created in 1974. He says it was the inspiration for his L.A. original but admits, “I’m just the tiniest bit ashamed of it.”
