Caesar Salad Recipe: Named for Chef Cesare Cardini, Not Julius Caesar

Summary: Caesar Salad recipe, named for Chef Cesare Cardini, not Julius Caesar, enjoys universal popularity as a simply elegant salad that welcomes variation.

Caesar's Restaurant is located in Hotel Caesar's, Avenida Revolución 1079, Tijuana, Mexico: FateClub at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Caesar Salad recipe, named for Chef Cesare Cardini, not Julius Caesar, enjoys year-round universal popularity as an elegantly simple salad that is receptive to variation.

Julia Child and Caesar Salad:

American cookbook author and television personality Julia Carolyn McWilliams Child (Aug. 15, 1912-Aug. 13, 2004) mused about Caesar Salad (pages 431-434) in her fourth cookbook, From Julia Child's Kitchen, published in 1975. She recalled traveling in 1925 or 1926 (aged 13 or 14) with her parents, John McWilliams, Jr. (Oct. 26, 1880–May 20, 1962) and Julia Carolyn ("Caro") Weston (July 19, 1877–July 21, 1937), to have lunch at Caesar's restaurant. Caesar's was located south of San Diego, California, across the United States-Mexico border, in Tijuana, the largest city in Mexico's northernmost and westernmost state, Baja California.

Tijuana was thriving from "droves" of visiting, Prohibition-era (Jan. 17, 1920-Dec. 5, 1933) Los Angelenos attracted to the city's readily available alcohol, food, gambling and music. A popular destination was Italian immigrant restauranteur Cesare "Caesar" Cardini's (Feb. 24, 1896-Nov. 3, 1956) restaurant and his creation, Caesar Salad.

Julia Child remembered that her parents "of course" ordered the salad, which Caesar had created in 1924. The salad was served in the usual way. Caesar appeared at their table with a big cart for tableside preparation of romaine leaves, garlic-flavored croutons, grated Parmesan cheese, two one-minute coddled eggs and Worcestershire sauce in a large wooden bowl.

Almost five decades later, Caesar Salad was selected as one of the recipes for Julia Child's American television cooking show, The French Chef (Feb. 2, 1963, to Jan. 14, 1973). Julia's research uncovered a confusing multiplicity of purported Caesar Salad recipes. Ruth Lockwood, the series producer, located Rosa Maria Cardini (March 23, 1928-Sep. 3, 2003), Caesar's daughter.

Rosa explained that her father's original recipe called for hearts of romaine as whole leaves, served on a chilled plate. He later abandoned his original expectation of finger eating, with each dressing-soaked leaf held by its stem and eaten individually, and substituted bite-sized, torn leaves.

Contrary to a popular version of the salad, Caesar did not include anchovy fillets in his creation. Rather, his salad's anchovy flavor came from Worcestershire sauce, which, as a fermented condiment, contains anchovy specks.

Also, Rosa pointed out that her father had a special way of combining, or tossing, his creation. Caesar used a rolling, wave-like movement to scoop and turn over the ingredients.

Julia presented Caesar Salad on "Kids Want to Cook," which aired Dec. 10, 1972, as the 11th of 13 episodes in The French Chef's 10th season (1972-1973). WGBH, the Boston, Massachusetts-based public television station, produced and broadcast The French Chef.

Food and travel columnist John F. Mariani (born Aug. 27, 1945) included the "original" recipe in the "caesar salad" entry (page 67) of his classic reference on American gastronomy, The Dictionary of American Food and Drink (1983). Cardini patented his dressing as Cardini's Original Caesar's Dressing Mix in 1948.

Cardini's® Salad Dressing now includes 13 varieties of specialty dressing, according to Westerville, Ohio-headquartered T. Marzetti Company, the brand's owner since 1996: DrPopCultureBGSU @DrPopCultureBG, via Twitter Dec. 21, 2020

My family's basic recipe for Caesar Salad is similar to Julia Child's presentation of Rosa Cardini's Caesar Salad in her fourth cookbook, From Julia Child's Kitchen (1975). As with Julia's Rosa-inspired recipe and John Mariani's reference book entry, my family's Caesar Salad coddles, i.e., slightly boils, the eggs to achieve the texture of raw eggs while avoiding raw egg consumption's potential danger.

Oftentimes, we favor our customized version, which reflects preferences with respect to varieties of romaine, or cos, lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. var. longifolia), croutons and oil. Also, because the intensity of garlic (Allium sativum) distracts from the seasoned croutons that we prefer, we frequently eliminate the spice- and herb-masquerading vegetable from our ingredient list.

My family's recipe always calls for the original Caesar Salad's whole leaves or hearts of romaine. Romaine has a crunchiness that is enjoyably noticeable with whole leaves. If desired, however, leaves may be torn into bite-sized pieces.

In her travels across India, my sister, not surprisingly, encountered Caesar Salad, which enjoys an international appreciation. She discovered that Caesar Cardini's original intention of his salad as finger food enhanced her immediate enjoyment of the dish. The tactile aspect of holding each leaf at stem's end complemented the particular sensations of hearing (via leaf crunchiness), smell and taste that were present in eating with fingers and were absent in eating with a fork.

Caesar Salad's original ingredients were minced garlic in olive oil, raw eggs, croutons, Parmesan cheese and romaine leaves. Julia Child verified original recipe with Rosa Maria Cardini, Caesar's daughter: Deep Acres Farm @DeepAcresFarm, via Twitter Feb. 12, 2017

My Family's Recipe for Caesar Salad

Prep time 5 minutes -- Total time 15 minutes

Ingredients for four servings.

Serves four to six, according to portion size.

Ingredients

2 eggs

2 heads of organic romaine lettuce; Julia Child recommends 6 to 8 leaves per person;

Or: bag of organic romaine hearts

Or: 2 heads of organic Little Gem lettuce (cross between romaine and butter lettuces)

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

Or: substitute safflower oil or sunflower oil

peppercorns, freshly ground

1 lemon, for squeezing over lettuce leaves

Or: 3 Tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 pound Parmesan cheese for fresh grating or shredding (about 1 cup grated)

2 cups toasted, garlic-seasoned croutons

Or: 2 boxes (5.3 ounces each) of Lesley Stowe raincoast crisps®, broken in half;

select one of at least eight blends or mix and match; my current favorite is rosemary raisin pecan


Preparation

1. Coddle eggs: bring water to boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Gently lower eggs via large serving spoon into center of saucepan, making sure that eggs are completely covered by water.

Allow eggs to boil for one minute.

Remove pan from burner. Carefully transfer eggs for cooling, for one minute, in bowl of ice water. Set aside.

2. Place romaine leaves in large serving bowl. Drizzle with half of oil, i.e., 1/4 cup. Gently blend oil into leaves with rolling motion of salad utensils.

3. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper and rest of oil, i.e., 1/4 cup. Lightly toss.

4. Squeeze lemon over leaves. Sprinkle Worcestershire sauce. Lightly toss.

5. Break eggs over salad. Lightly toss.

6. Add cheese. Lightly toss.

7. Top with croutons (or Lesley Stowe raincoast crisps®). Lightly blend.


At serving time, transfer romaine, leaf by leaf, to dinner plates.

Makes 4 to 6 servings, according to portion size.

Caesar's Salad at Caesar's Restaurant, Tijuana, Mexico; Nov. 13, 2018: Keizers, 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:

Caesar's Restaurant is located in Hotel Caesar's, Avenida Revolución 1079, Tijuana, Mexico: FateClub at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HotelCaesar.JPG

Caesar Salad's original ingredients were minced garlic in olive oil, raw eggs, croutons, Parmesan cheese and romaine leaves. Julia Child verified original recipe with Rosa Maria Cardini, Caesar's daughter: Deep Acres Farm @DeepAcresFarm, via Twitter Feb. 12, 2017, @ https://twitter.com/DeepAcresFarm/status/830996819937259520

Caesar's Salad at Caesar's Restaurant, Tijuana, Mexico; Nov. 13, 2018: Keizers, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caesar's_salad_at_Caesar's_restaurant_2018.jpg

For further information:

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