MovieChat Forums > Fawlty Towers (1975) Discussion > Where did Sybil get the...

Where did Sybil get the...

posted 9 years ago by detune
9 replies | jump to latest

...Waldorf Salad?

Surely she wasn't able to make it herself(?) She had five minutes and was still rounding up ingredients which they supposedly didn't even have. Then she manages to make the recipe which requires a fair amount of chopping of vegetables and fruits, and make a sauce which has to be mixed with honey. That's assuming she would have a recipe, which she would have to search through cookbooks to find.

I suppose the joke was how in the hell did she get it, right?

[–] MtnMan13 9 years ago

You've way over analyzed it. The joke is that Sybil was calmly making Waldorf salad while Basil was making a fool of himself insisting that the hotel couldn't make Waldorf salad.

[–] PurpleProseOfCairo 9 years ago

I don't know, MtnMan, I think it's a good point. There's quite a lot about Fawlty Towers that's slightly shonky and slipshod (shaky walls, missed cues, and THAT RAT!!) It doesn't make me love it any the less.

Awight we're The Daamned we're a punk baand and this is called Carn't Be Appy T'day!

[–] tyroth67 9 years ago

Good question and I respect it. But this was not a documentary.

[–] deem_bastille 9 years ago

who said the sauce has to be mixed with honey? surely, not the American! nor his wife. not the waldorf for that matter.

and the recipe is relatively simple: celery, apples and walnuts. god knows where the hell he got grapes from, although raisins /craisins sound good.

Reading the paper can really be depressing. Mr. Dithers fired Dagwood again.

[–] detune 9 years ago

About half the recipes on the web call for honey.

Simple or not, one of the plot points is that they didn't have the ingredients on hand to make the salad.

[–] deem_bastille 9 years ago

you are reading too much into this. you can't watch this show with a 2015 mentality. they did not have the internet back then!

what about if she knew where chef kept the walnuts???? the way basil was rummaging through that box, throwing things left and right? of course, he could not find anything. he was freaking out!

Reading the paper can really be depressing. Mr. Dithers fired Dagwood again.

[–] detune 9 years ago

I'm saying that I don't have a 1970's cookbook, so I had to look up the recipe. Some people do make it with honey. I'm middle-aged, so I think I'd know when the internet came around.

Anyway, someone already said I'm reading too much into it. No need to quote him verbatim. In the episode, it was fresh produce that was the issue, which couldn't hide too many places.

[–] deem_bastille 9 years ago

but you are reading too much into this! I am not quoting anyone verbatim, this is the truth. for god's sake, it doesn't matter when the internet was around, nor does it matter if you had a 1970's cookbook on hand or not! what matters is that you are relying too much on the internet to look up things and then applying it to television shows from all over the world and time.

who cares what people use to make it now? she was going on how he said to make it. celery, apples, walnuts, grapes in mayonnaise. he said nothing about honey.

and on that note, he has to understand that this place is more of a hotel than a restaurant. the restaurant is not a diner. it does not have the facilities to house all the foodstuffs in the world at any given time.

Reading the paper can really be depressing. Mr. Dithers fired Dagwood again.

[–] 9 years ago

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