History Forum / General / British History / November 2006

Anchovies are optional in Caesar Salad.

However, vide infra for _Aviator's Salad_ and Alex Cardini.

Salads

Caesar Salad - The salad consists of greens (classically romaine lettuce)
with a garlic vinaigrette dressing. In the 1930s, Caesar Salad was voted by
the master chefs of the International Society of Epicures in Paris as the
"greatest recipe to originate from the Americas in fifty years."

1903 - George Leonard Herter, is his book Bull Cook and Authentic Historical
Recipes and Practices, Volume II, gives his account on who invented the
Caesar Salad. NOTE:  As I can not find any historical references to back
this story, is it a myth or fact? Definition of myth - A story containing
within and having about it certain identifiable characteristics that are
sometimes use to designate a story or the understanding of some matter as
fictional and even downright false. You be the judge:

"Caesar salad was invented in about 1903 by Giacomo Junia, an Italian cook
in Chicago, Illinois. Giacomo Junia was the cook in a small restaurant
called The New York Cafe. He catered to American tastes as spaghetti and
pizza in those days were little eaten by anyone including Italians. It is
sometimes falsely stated that this salad was invented in Tijuana, Mexico
during the prohibition period and also in San Francisco. Nothing could be
further from the truth. The only thing invented in Tijuana were the finest
methods every produced to clip tourists.

Giacomo Junia called the salad Caesar Salad. He put a few pieces of Cos
lettuce (romaine) in the salad to add a slightly bitter touch to it. . .
Giacomo called the salad Caesar Salad after Julius Caesar, the greatest
Italian of all time. . . . Junia never thought that the salad would be
popular and was more surprised than anyone when people began to ask for it.

Many itinerant cooks learned how to make the salad and soon it was made all
over North America and even in Europe."

1924 - Most historians believe that Caesar salad honors restaurateur Caesar
Cardini (1896-1956), who invented it in Tijuana, Mexico in 1924 on the
Fourth of July weekend. It is said that on this busy weekend, Cardini was
running low on food and he put together a salad for his guests from what was
left over in the kitchen. His original recipe included romaine, garlic,
croutons, and Parmesan cheese, boiled eggs, olive oil and Worcestershire
sauce. The original salad was prepared at tableside. When the salad dressing
was ready, the romaine leaves were coated with the dressing and placed stem
side out, in a circle and served on a flat dinner plate, so that the salad
could be eaten with the fingers.

In 1926, Alex Cardini joined his brother, Caesar, at the Tijuana restaurant.
Alex, an ace pilot in the Italian Air Force during World War I, added other
ingredients, one of which was anchovies, and named the salad Aviator's
Salad" in honor of the pilots from Rockwell Field Air Base in San Diego. It
is reported that Alex's version became very popular, and later this salad
was renamed "Caesar Salad." Caesar was said to be staunchly against the
inclusion of anchovies in this mixture, contending that the Worcestershire
sauce was what actually provided that faint fishy flavor. He also decreed
that only Italian olive oil and imported Parmesan cheese be used in the
dressing.

Over the years, it became quite the thing to do - to drive to Tijuana for a
Caesar Salad. Californians, including Hollywood celebrities such as Clark
Gable, Jean Harlow, and W.C. fields dined at Caesar's to escape the
Prohibition laws in the U.S. In Europe, Caesar's Salad was also appearing in
restaurants. Julia Child, famous cookbook author, wrote about Caesar Salad
in her cookbook From Julia Child's Kitchen:

One of my early remembrances of restaurant life was going to Tijuana in 1925
or 1926 with my parents, who were wildly excited that they should finally
lunch at Caesar's restaurant. Tijuana, just south of the Mexican border from
San Diego, was flourishing then, in the prohibition era. . . Words spread
about Tijuana and the good life, and about Caesar Cardini's restaurant, and
about Caesar's salad.

My parents, of course, ordered the salad. Caesar himself rolled the big cart
up to the table, tossed the romaine in a great wooden bowl, and I wish I
could say I remembered his every move, but I don't. They only thing I see
again clearly is the eggs. I can see him break 2 eggs over that romaine and
roll them in, the greens going all creamy as the eggs flowed over them. Two
eggs in a salad? Two one-minute coddled eggs? And garlic-flavored croutons,
and grated Parmesan cheese? It was a sensation of a salad from coast to
coast, and there were even rumblings of its success in Europe.

Almost 50 years later, when we decided upon Caesar Salad as one of events
for our program "Kids Want to Cook," I had, as usual, studied all the
sources and found, as usual, there was no agreement among any of them. I
evolved what most appealed to me but it lacked a certain authenticity, and
it had no drama. Then my producer, Ruthie, suggested we try to locate
someone from that era who knew Caesar and really knew that salad. Was there
anyone? Indeed there was, Ruthie found Rose Cardini, his daughter, was
living in the Los Angeles area, and was the head of a successful spice and
salad dressing business. I had a long Boston-to-Los Angeles telephone
conversation with her, taking copious notes. She was born five years after
her father created his masterpiece, she said, but she knew every detail
because it had been so much discussed and remembered."

In the book In Search of Caesar, The Ultimate Caesar Salad Book by Terry D.
Greenfield, it is stated:

"In Europe, Caesar's Salad was also beginning to make an appearance. The
legend attributes the salad's debut across the ocean to Mrs. Wallis Warfield
Simpson (mistress and ultimately wife of Prince Edward VIII of Wales, former
King of England). Mrs. Simpson often visited and partied in the San Diego
and Tijuana areas in the 1920s. It is said that Mrs. Simpson met the prince
of Wales there, at the Hotel Del Coronado. During this time, Mrs. Simpson
visited Hotel Caesar's Place and became fond of Caesar's Salad and was
sometimes an overbearing guest demanding that Caesar himself toss his salad
at her table-side, creating quite a fuss

It is also that as a result of Mrs. Simpson's extensive world travels,
Caesar Salad was introduced to many of the great European restaurants by her
instructing international chefs as they struggled to recreate the dressing
to satisfy the soon-to-be-Duchess of Windsor's discerning palate.
Legend has it that she was the first to cut the lettuce into delicate
bite-sized pieces with a knife and fork rather than indulging in the finger
food Caesar had intended, and as others had simply done. In spite of her
reputation and escapades, her manners exemplify the etiquette of a fine lady
who preferred not to eat food with her finger. The knowledge of Caesar's
Salad quickly spread throughout Europe."

In 1948 Caesar Cardini established a patent on the dressing (which is still
packaged and sold as "Cardini's Original Caesar dressing mix," distributed
by Caesar Cardini Foods, Culver City, California.

http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/SaladHistory.htm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_salad

DSH

Lux et Veritas et Libertas