Caesar Salad : Fresh Romaine Lettuce tossed with Caesar dressing, Croutons and Parmesan cheese

The History of Caesar Salad

To the untrained eye, Caesar Salad looks simple—little more than lettuce, cheese and croutons.Caesar salad is one of the most popular and well known salads in the world. The ingredients and preparation are very simple yet to be correct a balance of all the ingredients and order of assembly must be followed So who made the the first Caesar Salad. This is a fun but controversial topic, a story of brothers from Italy that stumbled upon something that would become the emperor of all salads.Who Invented the Caesar Salad?

The Original Classic Cease Salad is not just a recipe but there is a special technique to tossing it. The Original Recipe for Caesar Salad

The popularity of this salad around the world is most likely due to a man that bears the salad’s name, Caesar Cardini, NOT Julius Caesar as many people believe……or maybe it was his brother Alessandro (Alex)……? Caesar Cardini  (1896-1956)

More about Caesar Cardini

Caesar Cardini

Who invented the Caesar Salad?

There are many claims as to who invented Caesar salad. Caesar (Cesare) Cardini Caesar was born near Lago Maggiore, Italy, in 1896; he and his brother Alex emigrated to the U.S. after World War I. The Cardini’s lived in San Diego but operated a restaurant in Tijuana to circumvent Prohibition.

According to Caesar’s daughter Rosa, on July 4th 1924 the salad was created on a busy weekend at Caesar’s Restaurant. It is said that Caesar was short of supplies and didn’t want to disappoint the customers so he concocted this salad with what was on hand. To add a flair to this he prepared it at the table. This story is not certifiable however but it very well could have happened.

I can vouch for the fact that this happens frequently in the restaurant business. The salad soon became a hit and people came to the restaurant just to get the salad. In particular the Hollywood set loved Caesars.

Some of Caesar’s friends and family dispute this claim. Paul Maggiora, a partner of the Cardinis, claimed to have tossed the first Caesar’s salad in 1927 for American airmen from San Diego and called it “Aviator’s Salad. Caesar’s brother Alex had claimed to have developed the salad (he too allegedly called it “aviator’s salad”). Livio Santini claimed he made the salad from a recipe of his mother, in the kitchen of Caesar’s restaurant when he was 18 years old, in 1925, and that Caesar took the recipe from him.