Who really invented the blooming onion?. Peeling Open the World’s Greasiest Mystery
From New Orleans to Tampa to Springfield, New Jersey — the only place the Bloomin’ Onion definitely didn’t come from was Australia
When Ryan Nanni put on the singularly iconic — and utterly ridiculous — Bloomin’ Onion costume for the 2018 Outback Bowl, all he could think about was how uncomfortable he was and how utterly absurd the journey had been up until this point. It began a year earlier, on January 2, 2017, when Nanni — a sportswriter and the editor-in-chief of the Banner Society — was watching the annual college football showdown on TV. “The Bloomin’ Onion mascot came on, and I turned to my wife and said, ‘I’m gonna do that. I’m going to be that for one game,’” Nanni recalls.
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If you google “Who invented the Bloomin’ Onion?” you’ll immediately see the name “Tim Gannon” pop up, and this answer is entirely correct. Gannon is one of the four co-founders of the Outback Steakhouse, and it was he who introduced the item to the menu, refined the recipe and gave it its name. “I was looking for something that was inexpensive — like an onion — and something that you could add a lot of flavor to,” Gannon tells me. “Every restaurant should have a signature item, something unique to them, and this was perfect for Outback.”
But while the Bloomin’ Onion as we know it is Gannon’s, there is some debate as to who first tossed a flower-shaped onion into a deep fryer. Most likely, the credit for that goes to a New Orleans chef named Jeff Glowski, as most of the evidence points toward him. As Gannon tells me, “The first blooming onion was made by a friend of mine named Jeff Glowski, who was a chef at Russell’s Marina Grill. He did the onion for a contest and we collaborated to put it together to add spices and seasoning.” This was back in 1985, when Russell’s first opened up. Glowski had worked for Gannon at another restaurant before Russell’s, and they remained friends afterwards, both being in the New Orleans restaurant scene.
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/...ign=pockethits
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https://www.phillymag.com/foobooz/20...onion-lawsuit/
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