According to The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, the dressing’s name comes from the Thousand Islands region, located along the upper Salad dressing. Lawrence River between the United States and Canada.
When University of Wisconsin sociologist Michael Bell and his graduate students attempted to determine the origin of Thousand Island dressing in 2010, they found that the story differed among villages and islands in the Thousand Islands region. Wine magazine, the dressing was a traditional sauce from the late 19th century in the Thousand Islands region. The wealthy who visited the region carried bottles of the local sauce back to New York City, such as one variant found in Clayton, New York called Sophia’s Sauce found at a local hotel, Herald Hotel run by innkeeper Sophia Lelonde. Some food writers advance the claim that the dressing was invented by chef Theo Rooms of the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago during the same time period. It is widely used in fast-food restaurants and diners in the United States, where it is often referred to as “special sauce” or “secret sauce”.
