Cowboy Caviar was created around 1940 by Helen Corbitt from New York, who later became director of the food service for the Zodiac Room at Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Texas. She served the dish first, on New Year's Eve at the Houston Country Club, but it wasn't until she later served it at the Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas, that it was given its original name "Texas Caviar." The name was intended as a funny comparison to real caviar, which is an expensive delicacy of salt-cured roe that looks like small, dark gray balls—not dissimilar to the black beans in this salad dip.