The story behind Caesar salad

Crisp, fresh and satisfying, Caesar salad is a dish that’s conquered dining outlets the world over, from your neighbourhood bistro and Pret A Manger to Michelin-starred marvels like Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles. While mayonnaise-heavy iterations haunt room-service menus in hotels far and wide, Caesar salad purists live and breathe its original recipe: whole romaine lettuce leaves, crunchy garlic croutons tossed in a tangy, raw-egg-based dressing of minced anchovies and garlic, dijon mustard, lemon, salt and pepper, topped with shaved parmesan.

This punchy salad’s basic, accessible ingredients mean it’s a fabulously flexible dish, easy to spruce up, adding extras to the core ingredients. That’s maybe why, in 1953, the Paris-based International Society of Epicures hailed the recipe as ‘the greatest to originate in the Americas in 50 years’ and why it hasn’t fallen off the restaurant radar in its 101 years of existence.

Take LA’s Bar Etoile, where the salad is transformed into a mighty beef tartare hybrid. Thick slices of toasted bread are layered with the dressing and raw beef mixed with speckles of anchovy plus freshly grated lemon zest and parmesan. But if you’re a Caesar purist, you might want to instead sample the original at Quebec’s Le Continental, complete with the spectacle of it being put together tableside.

Origin

The Caesar salad was born in 1924 in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, where Italian immigrant Caesar Cardini had opened Restaurante Caesar’s to attract US visitors craving an escape from the prohibition laws. The story goes that on a bustling Fourth of July, the restaurant was running short on menu items, so Caesar snatched up the leftover ingredients, rolled them out in a dining cart in the presence of drunk, hunger-stricken Americans, and prepared an improvised salad with a theatrical flourish, tableside, distracting them from the random ingredients. It was an unexpected success.

Word spread to the US, then across the world. Silver-screen celebrities including Clark Gable and Jean Harlow flocked to the border town to try it. When legendary 1960s US food broadcaster Julia Child made a pilgrimage, she called the dish “a sensation of a salad from coast to coast”.

While Caesar is credited with inventing the dish, some historians credit his brother, Alex Cardini, with creating the definitive version. They say it was he who added anchovies and dijon mustard to the dressing of the original recipe — ingredients still used in the salad to this day. Livio Santini, a cook at Caesar’s restaurant, also threw his name in the ring, claiming that the original recipe was his mother’s.

The world may never know the true inventor, but historians do agree it’s a Tijuana creation. Visit Caesar’s today, and you’ll find a portrait of Cardini hung on the wall opposite Santini’s, commemorating the salad’s legacy. 

How is it made?

Traditionally, Caesar salad would be made tableside, showcasing the freshness of the ingredients, and adding dramatics to the diner’s experience.

In a large wooden bowl, the ensalador, or ‘salad maker’, adds each ingredient one by one. First, the diced garlic, then Worcestershire sauce, raw egg yolk, lime juice, cracked pepper and a pinch of salt. Next, the olive oil is slowly incorporated into the bowl while whisking, followed by grated parmesan. Once it’s thickened into a creamy, tangy dressing, whole romaine leaves are added and tossed, then the croutons. The lettuce is then laid out on a plate, then croutons, before more of that precious parmesan is grated on top.

Nowadays, most restaurants use Alex Cardini’s variation of the Caesar, swapping out the Worcestershire sauce for anchovies minced to a paste; dijon mustard and lemon instead of lime (which was probably a translation error by Americans who thought ‘limon’ meant ‘lemon’). And salad prep mostly stays in the kitchen, although those who revel in its history still offer the tableside show.

Where to try it

Caesar’s, Tijuana
While the exact original recipe is no longer offered – today, the dressing uses Worcestershire, anchovies, Tabasco and lemon along with roasted and raw garlic – foodies still flock to Caesar’s Restaurants to get the original tableside show. Last year, Caesar’s celebrated the salad’s 100th anniversary, with chefs including José Andrés and Dominique Crenn attending to honour the immortal dish.

Paradise Point Resort & Spa, San Diego 
Paradise Point Resort & Spa serves what it calls the ‘Original Caesar’. Romaine hearts and house-made croutons are tossed in a dressing that substitutes the minced garlic and lemon juice of the standard recipe for roasted garlic and lime. And it dares to test purists by offering additional protein: chicken, salmon or shrimp.

Lola 55 Tacos & Cocktails, San Diego
Tijuana native, Frank Vizcarra, is owner of this taco and cocktail joint that serves up a Caesar salad that’s seasoned with pasilla chilli salt for extra Mexican pizazz and accompanied by a whole grilled lemon on the side.

Dan Tana’s, LA
This stalwart Santa Monica Boulevard restaurant opened in 1964 and is one of few still offering the original tableside Caesar experience.