Help! Why Is Caesar Salad at Restaurants So Excruciatingly Bad?!
Caesar Salad is a delightfully simple salad that always makes an impression. But not always a positive one… Because why is Caesar Salad at restaurants so often made without care and so incredibly bad?
People sometimes mistakenly think that salads are simply a matter of throwing a few ingredients together. And although you certainly don’t have to overcomplicate things, anything made lazily and/or without care is a mortal sin when it comes to any dish. Including Caesar Salad.
We’ve already written about the story behind the famous Caesar Salad. As well as sharing the tip to add roasted garlic to your Caesar Salad. Now we need to talk about something else.
Caesar Salad at restaurants
It may well be the most common mistake on Dutch menus: writing Caesar Salad as ‘Ceasar Salad’. But that’s not the worst part. No, the bland taste and the lack of care with which it is so often served—that’s what’s truly awful. Especially when you consider how simple everything is with a salad that originated from leftovers.
The Caesar Salad is a great dish simply because of its legendary dressing—whisked from two egg yolks, a little olive oil and some Worcestershire sauce, optionally supplemented with anchovies (opinions differ on the latter in a classic Caesar Salad). But unfortunately, the dressing is often where things already go wrong, as culinary journalist Mara Grimm also noticed after a visit to Parkzuid in Amsterdam:
‘My Caesar Salad has little to do with the original, but all the more with a colorful collection of gloom. Between the lettuce with browned edges and shreds of chicken—which doesn’t belong in a Caesar anyway—there’s a glass jar of mediocre dressing that I have to mix in myself, which is nearly impossible without half the lettuce falling onto the table.’
Carelessly made crap
Personally, I think adding chicken is delicious, but it has to be good chicken—chicken with flavor. Juicy chicken thighs, grilled chicken breast; it really doesn’t have to be difficult, and if you want to freestyle a little and give the Caesar a twist, you have my blessing. But ingredients prepared without care and dumped onto a plate absolutely should not earn the title Caesar Salad. Unfortunately, that is often exactly what happens.
The menu will promise something mouthwateringly delicious like ‘Classic Ceasar Salad with crispy chicken thigh and anchovies’ (for which you’ll easily pay somewhere between 13 and 20 euros!), only for it to turn out to be a scant amount of lettuce with a stray anchovy, factory-made croutons and a little Parmesan dust scattered over a thick dollop of tasteless sauce.
Caesar Salad at restaurants has become such a disappointment that I hardly dare order it anymore. But I don’t give up that easily. From now on, I’ll order a Caesar wherever I see it on the menu. And as soon as I ‘bite’ into a good one, I’ll immediately let you know where to go for a genuinely delicious Caesar, promise!
