“Caesar Salad’s History, Review and Recipe”

What comes in your mind when you heard the name Caesar salad? A Caesar salad is a dish having romaine lettuce and croutons dressed with Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, olive oil, egg, Worcestershire sauce, and black pepper. It maybe prepared as a side dish. I did the research on this after reminiscing my college years which has given me the opportunity to know the recipe. This article was from my college  jot down notes.

HISTORY:

The history of this popular and delicious salad is a controversial issue because of the spelling of the name. Cause you can see that it was written as caesar and not Ceasar as it should be. There was a widely held misconception that the name was derived from the great roman Julius Caesar, but actually the salad’s name was taken from the restaurateur Cesar Cardini an Italian-born as Mexican and the real author and maker of this dish.

Cesar Cardini was living in San Diego while working in Tijuana where he avoided the restrictions of prohibitions. Rosa Cardini, daughter of Cesar Cardini was the one who reported that it is her father who invented the dish back in July 4, 1924 so it’s almost ninety-three years already today and the dish is still circulating around the world as well known salad of all time. Never got the taste out of my tongue when I think of it.

Another story is that the salad was made or created for Hollywood stars after a weekend party but that was not yet proven. The brother of Cesar, Alex was also the one who made the same recipe but with a twist and named it as Aviator’s salad. Others who worked with Chef Cardini or his personnel also claimed the authorship but unluckily it didn’t succeed. The menu appeared in a restaurant in Los Angeles in October 1946.

The original Cesar salad recipe doesn’t have pieces of anchovy; instead of using the anchovy, Cesar used the Worcestershire sauce because he opposed to use it in his salad. Originally the salad was to be eaten by hand because the lettuce should be served whole on the plate and not by pieces of slices or chopped leaf.

According to my research, Cardini family trademark the original recipe in 1948. Some recipes include one or more of mustard, avocado, tomato, bacon bits or garlic cloves.  Many restaurants offer the salad by topping with grilled chicken, steak, salmon and even shrimp. Some restaurants in Mexico even tried to improvise on items such as using tortilla as a substitute for croutons or adding some tomatoes which is not from the Cardini recipe.

RECIPE: INGREDIENTS are from the Hotel Cesar’s recipe from about 2006.

romaine lettuce

olive oil

fresh crushed garlic

salt

fresh ground black pepper

wine vinegar

lemon juice or lime juice, freshly squeezed

Worcestershire sauce

raw egg yolk

freshly grated Parmesan cheese

prepared croutons

VARIATIONS: choice of add ups

mayonnaise

variations of lettuce

chicken

capers

Romano cheese

anchovy

shrimp

salmon

PROCEDURE:

1. Mix the lemon juice, egg yolk, garlic, vinegar and olive oil. Stir until mix properly. Add the salt and mix.
2. In a separate pan, mix the black pepper and the Worcestershire sauce.
3. Mix the romaine lettuce (you can slice it into bite size pieces if you like) then put the first  mixture which is the lemon juice and add the Worcestershire sauce mixture. Mix properly and add the croutons and the cheese.
4. Mix well and serve.

Photo by: Leggende Metropolitane