Classic: Caesar salad. But what’s the real way to make it?
Perhaps the most common mistake on Dutch menus: writing Caesar salad as ‘Ceasar salad.’ This simple salad, which wasn’t named after the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, is the ideal (quick) summer bite.
We’ve yet to come across the first iconic dish with an undisputed origin. From the sandwich to eggs Benedict, there’s always someone ready to challenge the origin story.
Tijuana, Mexico
As far as Caesar salad is concerned, things are fairly clear. As far as we know, no one disputes that this romaine-based salad originated on a summer 4 July in 1924. It was hot in Tijuana, Mexico, where San Diego-born chef Caesar Cardini had more guests in his restaurant than expected. At one point, he had too few ingredients left to continue serving his regular menu. What to do on this Fourth of July, with a restaurant full of American tourists who had escaped Prohibition at home to celebrate their national holiday? Caesar decided to make one simple dish for all his guests with everything he still had in stock: a salad of whole romaine leaves with garlic, croutons, Parmesan, soft-boiled eggs, olive oil and Worcestershire sauce.
Anchovies: yay or nay?
And that’s where the controversy begins. Not on the day itself. Customers were so delighted by this summer salad that they kept coming back for more. No, the problem arose when other chefs started making the salad. Because did it need anchovies or not? And what about the softness of the yolk?
According to the story, Cardini was adamantly opposed to anchovies. After all, the Worcestershire sauce already had that slightly fishy flavor. Precisely enough to finish the salad, he thought. So the story goes. And now it gets nasty. In 1926, Caesar’s brother Alex is said to have come to Tijuana and added anchovies to the salad, which had by then become a regular menu item. The addition was so well received that it was no longer the original version, but this one with anchovies, that would henceforth be known as Caesar salad. That’s the story.
Enter: Julia Child
We learn more about the second controversy surrounding ‘the best American dish of the twentieth century’ thanks to Julia Child’s account of her visit to the restaurant around 1925, recorded in her cookbook From Julia Child’s Kitchen: ‘Of course my parents ordered the salad. Caesar himself rolled the trolley over to our table. He put the lettuce leaves in a large wooden bowl. […] I can still clearly see him breaking two eggs over them and stirring them through the leaves, which became completely creamy. Two eggs in a salad? Two eggs that had been boiled for one minute? And garlic croutons, and grated Parmesan? It was a sensation of a salad.’
Since salmonella, many people no longer think barely cooked eggs are such a good idea. Julia Child, incidentally, remained neutral about anchovies. As long as the salad was prepared at the table.
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