The 100-Year-Old Mexican Origins Of The Caesar Salad

A FAMILY FOOD FEUD, a spontaneous recipe, and an origin that can be traced to the time of Prohibition —  the history of the Caesar salad, a ubiquitous item on menus at eateries around the world, is spiced with a liberal helping of such serendipitous ingredients.

Its story is set during the era when America banned the production and sale of alcohol from 1919–1933. At this time, two brothers —  Caesar (Cesare) and Alex (Alessandro) Cardini —  had moved to the United States from Italy. Caesar opened a restaurant in California in 1919. In the 1920s, he opened another in the Mexican border town of Tijuana, serving food and liquor to Americans looking to circumvent Prohibition.

NECESSITY: THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

On the 4th of July 1924, so the legend goes, Caesar Cardini was hard at work in the kitchen of his restaurant, Caesar’s Place, packed with holiday crowds from across the border looking to celebrate with food and drink.

He was confronted with a chef’s worst nightmare: running out of ingredients in the middle of service. As supplies for regular menu items dwindled, Caesar decided to improvise with what he had on hand. He took ingredients in the pantry and cool room and combined the smaller leaves from hearts of cos lettuce with a dressing made from coddled (one-minute boiled) eggs, olive oil, black pepper, lemon juice, a little garlic and Parmesan cheese.

The novel combination was a huge success with the customers and became a regular menu item: the Caesar salad.

SEED OF DOUBT

There is another version of the origin of the famous salad, made by Caesar’s brother, Alex, at his restaurant in Tijuana. Alex claims Caesar’s “inspiration” was actually a menu item at his place, the “aviator’s salad”. It was so named because Alex made it as a morning-after pick-me-up for American pilots wishing to recover from a long night drinking.

Alex's version had many of the same ingredients as Caesar's, but used lime juice, not lemon, and was served with large croutons covered with mashed anchovies. When Caesar’s menu item later became famous, Alex asserted his claim as the true inventor of the salad, now named for his brother.

CELEBRITY INFLUENCE

To add to the intrigue, two celebrity chefs championed the opposing sides of this feud. Julia Child backed Caesar, and Diana Kennedy (not nearly as famous, but known for her authentic Mexican cookbooks) supported Alex’s claim. By entering the fray, each of these culinary heavyweights added credence to different elements of each story and made the variations more popular in the US.

While they chose different versions, the influence of major media figures contributed to the evolution of the Caesar salad beyond its origins. The original had no croutons and no anchovies. As the recipe was codified into an “official” version, garlic was included in the form of an infused olive oil. Newer versions either mashed anchovies directly into the dressing or added Worcestershire sauce, which has anchovies in the mix.

Caesar’s daughter, Rosa, always maintained her father was the original inventor of the salad. She continued to market her father’s trademarked recipe after his death in 1954. Ultimately she won the battle for her father’s claim as the creator of the dish, but elements from Alex’s recipe have become popular inclusions that deviate from the purist version, so his influence is present —  even if his contribution is less visible.

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DID YOU KNOW? The Caesar salad was originally meant to be eaten as finger food, with your hands, using the baby leaves as scoops for the delicious dressing ingredients. For presentation in a restaurant, the salad was also created in front of the diners’ table, on a rolling cart, with some recommending that a “true” Caesar salad should be tossed only seven times, clockwise.

Garritt C Van Dyk teaches history at the University of Newcastle. This essay originally appeared in The Conversation and has been republished here under the Creative Commons Licence.