18 April 2024

HAIL CAESAR: The Greatest Recipe to Originate in The Americas in The Last Half-Century. . .Origin Stories Get Tossed

There are several legends about how the Caesar Salad was invented, but nearly all of them revolve around Caesar Cardini - a French-inspired Italian chef who immigrated to America before moving to Mexico to escape Prohibition.

Whatever the exact origin story, the salad gained popularity at Caesar’s Tijuana establishment and became a tourist attraction on its very own.

In her book From Julia Child’s Kitchen, famed chef Julia Child wrote about her family’s highly anticipated lunch at Caesar’s restaurant in the mid-1920s, “Caesar himself rolled the big cart up to the table, tossed the romaine in a great wooden bowl and I wish I could say I remembered his every move, but I don't... It was a sensation of a salad from coast to coast, and there were even rumblings of its success in Europe.”

It became so popular - and so copied - that in 1948 Caesar had to patent his recipe. In 1953, Paris’s International Society of Epicure named the Caesar Salad the greatest recipe to originate in the Americas in the last half century.
Caesar Salad may be served everywhere today, but only one place features the original—Caesar’s Restaurant in Tijuana.

Caesar’s daughter offered a convincing origin story in later years, and even an exact date, made memorable as Americans rushed south of the border to celebrate Independence Day on foreign soil.

Tijuana exploded as a hotspot for American tourists and day-trippers when the U.S. embarked on the 14-year experiment of Prohibition in 1920.

The ban on alcohol is what actually drove the Cardinis of California to open restaurants in Mexico.
The border city of Tijuana offered easy access to gambling and cheap, legal booze, among other things.

Yanquis flooded Caesar’s to celebrate on July 4, 1924, according to the restaurateur’s daughter, Rose Cardini.
“Overrun by Americans and running short of supplies in the kitchen, her father threw together what was left,” Food & Wine Magazine reported in 2017.

“Stalks of lettuce, olive oil, raw egg, croutons, Parmesan cheese and Worcestershire sauce.

Originally intended as a finger food rather than a salad and prepared tableside for flair, it was a hit.”

Caesar salad grew famous almost overnight.
It left quite an impression on a young girl and future celebrity chef from Pasadena, who visited Caesar’s with her family around 1925 or 1926.

“My parents, of course, ordered the salad,” Julia Child, who would have been 12 or 13 at the time, wrote many years later.

New York Post

Blood feud,' booze, and Tijuana — inside the wild origin story of the Caesar Salad

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Something Weird Is Happening With Caesar Salads
With chefs tossing in pig ear, tequila, and other wacky ingredients, when does a classic dish become something other than itself?

By Ellen Cushing

"On a July weekend in Tijuana, in 1924, Caesar Cardini was in trouble. Prohibition was driving celebrities, rich people, and alcoholics across the border from San Diego, and Cardini’s highly popular Italian restaurant was swamped. Low on ingredients, or so the legend goes, he tossed together what he had on hand: romaine lettuce, Parmesan cheese, and croutons, dressed in a slurry of egg, oil, garlic, salt, Worcestershire sauce, and citrus juice. It was a perfect food.

On a November evening in Brooklyn, in 2023, I was in trouble (hungry). I ordered a kale Caesar at a place I like. Instead, I got: a tangle of kale, pickled red onion, and “sweet and spicy almonds,” dressed in a thinnish, vaguely savory liquid and topped with a glob of crème fraîche roughly the size and vibe of a golf ball. It was a pretty weird food. . ."

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