One century ago, the now world-famous Caesar salad saw the light of day in Mexico. On 4 July 1924, Italian immigrant Caesar Cardini put together the first rendition of the dish in Tijuana and served it to a group of hungry Californians escaping the Prohibition in their country. What once began as a leftover-backup plan is now a staple in many restaurants around the world and is being celebrated with a statue and a four-day festival.
Fourth of July celebrations have been around for a long time and the 1924 get-together of Americans at the Alhambra restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico, is proof of that. As the owner of the restaurant, Caesar Cardini, wasn’t prepared for such an influx of guests, he had to get creative with whatever leftovers he had laying around in order to satisfy everyone’s appetite.
Romaine leaves, garlic-flavored oil, Worcestershire sauce, lemons, eggs and Parmesan cheese were tossed together and an all-time favourite dish was born. Cardini prepared the dish at the table of the American guests, not just to entertain the guests, but also to show the freshness of the ingredients.
One century later and the dish is still being prepared the same way at Caesar’s restaurant in Tijuana, which was founded by Cardini a couple of years after creating the famous dish. According to its current owner, Mexican chef and restaurateur Javier Plascencia, 2,500 Caesar salads are being served every month in a decor that hasn’t changed much over the years.
However, there has been some speculation about the origin of the salad. Some claim the dish was actually created by an employee of Cardini’s, Livio Santini, while Caesar Cardini’s brother, Alex, claims responsability for the addition of anchovies to the recipe.
Over the years, the Caesar salad has evolved. Cardini later moved to Los Angeles and founded Caesar Cardini Foods Inc, bottling his very own Caesar dressing. The company was then taken over by his daughter Rosa, who kept the legacy alive and built an empire with 17 other dressings. Nowadays, 43 million bottles of Caesar salad dressing are sold in the US every year and around 35% of US restaurants have Caesar salad on their menus, according to Technomic, a restaurant consulting firm.
Whatever the true story behind the dish a four-day festival with a recreation of the original 4th-of-July party and multiple events took place in Tijuana to celebrate the dish’s centenary and Mexican food critic and writer Claudio Poblete published a book called “Caesar: La Ensalada Más Famosa del Mundo 100 años” (Caesar: The most famous salad in the world 100 years). According to the writer, “This is the first time in the 100 years of this Caesar salad that the world is going to know it’s from Mexico”.
