Caesar salad turns 100
A celebration in Tijuana honors the 100th anniversary of the Caesar salad
Hola friends! I’m still smiling from all the amazing sports victories for Spain—between my friend, Sergio Garcia, winning the most recent LIV golf event, Spain becoming the Euro 2024 champion, and Carlos Alcaraz taking home his second consecutive Wimbledon trophy, I’m so proud of my home country!
Today, I want to talk about a very interesting anniversary that was just celebrated on July 4th (no, not America’s birthday)! I’m talking about the 100th anniversary of the creation of one of the most famous salads, if not THE most famous salad in the world…the Caesar salad! There is something that is always so satisfying about a pile of ice-cold, crispy romaine leaves coated in a tangy, garlicky, savory, light but also just creamy enough dressing. Maybe you add some croutons for crunch, maybe you add some thickly sliced parmesan. Maybe you “hug” the salad to bring it all together, like my friend Jamie Lee Curtis, or maybe it’s prepared for you tableside at a steakhouse.
However you Caesar, let’s raise a glass to 100 years of this amazing salad, and let’s learn a little more about where it came from.
Like so many things with legendary status, there are still some questions around the origin of Caesar salad. Counter to what some might think, It’s not named for the famous Roman emperor, Julius Caesar. The Caesar in question here is Cesare Cardini, an Italian immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1913 from a small town in Piedmont, in northern Italy. He worked in a few different restaurants in California before moving to San Diego. When he arrived in San Diego, he noticed lots of Americans who were crossing the border for nice dinners with cocktails and wine, which was illegal in the US because of Prohibition. So he saw an opportunity to open a restaurant in Tijuana.
The most widely accepted version of the Caesar creation story took place on July 4, 1924, when Caesar’s restaurant was so full of customers that ingredients began to run out (just imagine that party! I’m sure so many Americans were escaping to Tijuana to party like it was 1919…). As legend has it, Caesar used what ingredients he had—which turned out to be romaine lettuce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic oil, lemons, eggs and Parmesan cheese—and created the salad in the middle of the dining room. It was such a hit that word spread quickly, and even more Americans crossed the border to enjoy the tableside show at Caesar’s. People loved it so much that in 1953 it was crowned, by the International Society of Epicures in Paris, “the greatest recipe to originate in the past 50 years.”
The culinary origins of this famous salad lean on ingredients widely used in Caesar’s home country…while anchovies weren’t in the original recipe, bagna cauda, a hot dip of anchovy and garlic, comes from the Piedmont region of Italy, where Caesar grew up. Pinzimonio, a simple dressing of lemon and olive oil, is also popular, so you can start to see what might have inspired him.
Of course, there is still a little controversy around who actually invented the salad. Some people say the recipe came from the mother of Livio Santini, one of Caesar’s chefs. Caesar’s brother Alex also claimed to invent it, naming it “Aviation Salad” because he served it to hungry airmen from a San Diego air base. In an attempt to solve the mystery, journalist and food writer Claudio Poblete teamed up with the current head chef of Caesar’s, Javier Plascencia, to write “Caesar, La Ensalada Más Famosa.” In the book, they invite a team of chefs (including a few of our own!) to present their interpretations of the dish. The book launch coincided with the 100th anniversary of the Caesar salad.
It was a three-day party in Tijuana, kicking off on the famous Avenida Revolución with an unveiling of a new sculpture of Caesar. Three chefs from my team, Claudio Foschi, Nico Lopez, and Hector Contreras—you already know two of them from earlier stories!— attended the celebrations and submitted our version, which was first developed for minibar. The celebration version included jicama-wrapped romaine with anchovies, topped with either quail yolk or parmesan, and finished with a Caesar dressing ice cream! People, how good does that sound? “The experience was amazing. Being in the space where the salad is served daily tableside with all the history on the walls make it even more special. I felt honored to be a part of the event to celebrate the creation of the Caesar salad exactly 100 years later,” said Chef Hector. And you can still experience the magic of the original tableside Caesar salad if you go to Tijuana, where ensaladeros—salad masters—carefully prepare it as you watch! If you go, you know you are witnessing history.
Today, Caesar salad is as popular as ever, and so many creative cooks have put their own spin on it. I love it for that reason (of course if you wanted a Spanish touch, you could add boquerones!) Its story is one of many different places—Italy, Mexico, the United States, and the people who came together to create something lasting. So, in a way, it really belongs to all of us!
Thanks for sharing this Jose! My favorite version is the version in Julia Child’s cookbook From Julia Child’s Kitchen, in which she describes going to TJ with her parents “in 1925 or 1926” and watching “Caesar” himself making the salad table side. Later, she worked with Caesar’s (that’s the spelling Julia uses in the book) daughter, Rosa to recreate the recipe based on Rosa’s input. Julia’s recipe was what she used on her show and has been a staple in my repertoire since 1982 when my husband gave me the cookbook.
I was fortunate enough to celebrate my birthday on July 5 at Caesar’s in Tijuana. It was a wonderful experience and the salad was perfect, as well as all the other dishes we had. The pulpo was exquisite as was the flan at the end. A memorable day!