Beware the Ides of March Meal: Caesar or Brutus Salad, Cleopatra's Dulcis Coccora, Caesar Cocktail

Summary: Beware the Ides of March meal calls for food and beverage that have the same names as three people touched by the prophecy for March 15, 44 BC.

Unchopped Romaine lettuce leaves characterize Cesare "Caesar" Cardini's original recipe for Caesar Salad: Andrew Zimmern @andrewzimmern, via Twitter June 10, 2021

Beware the Ides of March meal spotlights, via food and beverage, three historical figures who were affected by the accurate, fatal prophecy for the Ides of March, March 15, 44 BC. Gaius Julius Caesar (July 12, 100 BC-March 15, 44 BC) was assassinated on that day. His friend, Marcus Junius Brutus (85 BC-Oct. 23, 42 BC), numbered among his assassins. After Caesar's assassination, his Hellenized Egyptian lover, Cleopatra VII Philopator (69 BC-Aug. 10, 30 BC), began an eventually fatal relationship with her murdered lover's friend, Marcus Antonius (Jan. 14, 83 BC-Aug. 1, 30 BC).

The phrase "Beware the Ides of March" originated in a dire prophecy given prior to March 15, 44 BC, by a soothsayer to Julius Caesar. The soothsayer was unnamed in Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, commonly known as Parallel Lives, by Greek biographer Plutarch (46 BCE-ca. 122 CE). The soothsayer was identified as Spurinna in De Vita Caesarum (About the Lives of the Caesars), commonly known as The Twelve Caesars, by Roman historian Suetonius (Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus; ca. AD 69-after AD 122).

Beware the Ides of March meal: Little Caesars® Pizza; Caesar's Salad or Brutus Salad; Cleopatra's Dulcis Coccora (Sweet Honey Balls); Caesar Cocktail

Beware the Ides of March meal consists of food and beverage with the names of three historical figures whose lives were affected by the fateful prophecy for March 15, 44 BC, issued by Spurinna the soothsayer. Julius Caesar was assassinated; his friend Brutus participated in the assassination; Caesar's lover, Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, fatefully replaced her dead lover with her dead lover's friend, Marcus Antonius.

A Beware the Ides of March meal could begin with a pizza from Little Caesars®. The husband-and-wife team of Michael Ilitch Sr. (July 20, 1929-Feb. 10, 2017) and Marian Bayoff Ilitch (born January 7, 1933) founded the pizza chain May 8, 1959, with the original store located in a strip mall in Garden City, Wayne County, southeastern Michigan. The name of Little Caesar represents Marian's nickname for her husband, according to writer Rebecca Henderson's Sept. 5, 2018, Rewind & Capture post.

A Beware the Ides of March meal calls for Caesar Salad. As with Little Caesars®, Caesar Salad is not a Julius Caesar's namesake, but, rather, honors its creator, Italian-naturalized American restauranteur Cesare "Caesar" Cardini (Feb. 24, 1896-Nov. 3, 1956). Created in 1924, universally popular Caesar Salad celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2024. Variations of Cardini's elegantly simple salad abound.

In the 11th episode of the 10th season (1972-1973) of her television cooking show, The French Chef, American cookbook author and television personality Julia Carolyn McWilliams Child (Aug. 15, 1912-Aug. 13, 2004) presented the original recipe, which Chef Julia had verified with the creator's daughter, Rosa Maria Cardini (March 23, 1928-Sept. 3, 2003). Cesare Cardini's original creation featured whole-leaf romaine hearts, garlic-flavored croutons, grated Parmesan cheese, coddled eggs and Worcestershire sauce, served on a chilled platter. Chef Julia included Caesar Salad in her fourth cookbook, From Julia Child's Kitchen (1975).

Alternatively, a Beware the Ides of March meal could feature a Brutus Salad. An online search reveals a number of versions of the Brutus Salad, including a recipe featuring anchovies and boneless shell steaks by American cookbook author and television personality Rachael Ray (born August 25, 1968).

Two recipes specifically link the salad's name with Julius Caesar's murderous friend Brutus. American chef John Armand Mitzewich (born July 11, 1963), known as Chef John, explains in the June 20, 2017, post, "The Brutus Salad -- Watch Your Back, Caesar!," of his Food Wishes blog that his recipe takes inspiration from a salad that he discovered at Willis's Seafood in Healdsburg, Sonoma County, Northern California. The restaurant's unnamed salad was described as “Little Gem Salad, Dijon Vinaigrette, Fuji Apples, Aged White Cheddar, Fresh Herbs, Fried Pecans.”

Finding the salad so amazing that he jokingly assessed it as replacing Caesar Salad as "America's favorite tossed salad," he then ensuingly, with the help of "a few beers," contrived the obvious name of Brutus Salad. His recipe calls for a salad of cut or torn romaine hearts, extra-sharp aged cheddar, apple, tarragon leaves, dill springs and toasted pecan halves. His "sharp and acidic" dressing consists of French Dijon mustard, rice vinegar, vegetable oil, Worcestershire sauce and freshly ground black pepper.

English chef, broadcaster and writer Allegra McEvedy (born Nov. 23, 1970) offered a "quick, healthy take on the caesar salad" in her Jan. 17, 2011, Guardian article, "Brutus Salad Recipe." She described the Brutus as equally flavorful as "his old boss" but with a less bothersome dressing. McEvedy's Brutus Salad incorporates a salad of garlic-seasoned croutons, ribboned cos (American: romaine) or Little Gem leaves and pomegranate with a dressing of lardons (fatty bacon bits), feta cheese, Greek yogurt, olive oil, garlic cloves, lemon and black pepper.

A Beware the Ides of March meal offers a dessert of Cleopatra's Dulcis Coccora (Sweet Honey Balls). Susanna Cutini (born 1962), chef and researcher of gastronomic traditions and historical recipes, identified the ancient Egyptian sweet as favored by Queen Cleopatra in her April 18, 2012, post, "Cleopatra's Dulcis Coccora: Sweet Honey Balls Recipe," on S. Pellegrino and Acqua Panna's magazine for foodies, Fine Dining Lovers (FDL). The recipe shapes balls from flour, water, dried figs, walnuts and honey and decorates them with pomegranate seeds or fruit slices. Cutini explained pomegranate seeds or fruit slices as substitutes for coccora, which, in antiquity, designated seeds of Mediterranean plants that were added to sweets.

A Beware the Ides of March meal ends with a Caesar cocktail. During his 35-year career with the Westin Hotel chain, Walter Silin Chell (April 26, 1925-March 30, 1997) numbered among his accomplishments the creation of a cocktail in 1969 that celebrated a 50-year milestone, in 2019, as a Canadian cultural icon, according to the April 19, 2019, Toronto Sun article, "The Caesar: Celebrating a Canadian Cultural Icon's Milestone Birthday," by SUN Media chain's National Lifestyle and Food editor, Rita DeMontis. The Montenegro-born, Italian immigrant to Canada first named his creation Caesar in recognition of his Italian ancestry, according to his granddaughter Sheena Jay Parker in a May 13, 2009, CBC News article, "Calgary's Bloody Caesar Hailed as Nation's Favourite Cocktail." Chell embellished his creation's name with the adjective "bloody" in response to a British customer's approving the cocktail as "a bloody good Caesar." The Bloody Caesar calls for clam juice, tomato juice, vodka, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce over ice. The cocktail's attractive presentation entails a cold glass, rimmed with celery salt and decorated with a celery stalk and a lime slice.

Chell did not explain whether his cocktail's name specifically designated Julius Caesar. Or, he could have intended the name as generally encompassing generations with the hereditary cognomen (third of the conventional tria nomina, "three names," in ancient Rome) of Caesar.

Thus ends a Beware the Ides of March meal. The meal's food and beverage, however, are not restricted to consumption on March 15.

Created in Canada in 1969 by Westin Hotel employee Walter Silin Chell, Caesar Cocktail, also known as Bloody Caesar, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019; May 30, 2017, image of Caesar Cocktail: A Minty Penguin, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Unchopped Romaine lettuce leaves characterize Cesare "Caesar" Cardini's original recipe for Caesar Salad: Andrew Zimmern @andrewzimmern, via Twitter June 10, 2021, @ https://twitter.com/andrewzimmern/status/1403036794782949380

Created in Canada in 1969 by Westin Hotel employee Walter Silin Chell, Caesar Cocktail, also known as Bloody Caesar, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019; May 30, 2017, image of Caesar Cocktail: A Minty Penguin, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bloody_Caesar.jpg

For further information:

Andrew Zimmern @andrewzimmern. "Caesar salad has found a home on nearly every kind of restaurant menu. This beloved, ubiquitous dish was invented nearly a century ago in Tijuana by a chef name Caesar Cardini, who threw together a salad with the only ingredients he had on hand after the… https://instagr.am/p/CP8o30FpQ2d/." Twitter. June 10, 2021.
Available @ https://twitter.com/andrewzimmern/status/1403036794782949380

Block, Stephen. "The History of Caesar Salad." The Kitchen Project > Food History. April 11, 2018. Page updated: July 12, 2018.
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Bon Appetit Wednesday! "National Dessert Day: Tiger Nut Sweets (Dulcis Coccora)." AntiquityNOW > Blog. Oct. 14, 2015.
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CBC News. "Calgary's Bloody Caesar Hailed as Nation's Favourite Cocktail." CBC > News > Canada > Calgary. May 13, 2009.
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