The Caesar salad or ‘Caesar’s’ celebrates this year a century after being created in Tijuanathe largest city on the northern border of Mexico, where current chefs fight to protect the recipe and claim the Mexican origin of the dish with world fame.
What is the origin of the Caesar salad?
Javier Plascencia, international chefis one of those who have been in charge of keeping present the history and tradition of this dish created in 1924 by the Italian Caesar Cardini in his restaurant Caesar’s, in the center of Tijuana, which is why he seeks to respect the precise shape of its preparation.
Plascencia told EFE that the members of his family are now “the guardians of the recipe,” which implies “a very great responsibility due to the fact that keep this traditionso that it is not lost and continue preparing and promoting how it should be done.”
This year, the Caesar salad celebrates a century since it was created in Tijuana. Today’s chefs are fighting to protect the recipe and claim the Mexican origin of the world-famous dish. (Photo: EFE/Joebeth Terriquez). (Joebeth Terriquez/EFE)
The chef, recognized with Michelin stars, highlighted the importance of celebrating the centenary of the salad, whose original name, he says, is “Caesar’s and not Caesar”, since it is an international dish.
“It is a very important celebration for Tijuana, it is 100 years of one of the most important recipes in world gastronomy, a Mexican recipe that was created here in Tijuana for very mexican italian”he recalled.
He added that “it is a recipe that Caesar’s restaurant continues to prepare just as Cardini created it and that has traveled all over the world.”
What does the traditional Caesar salad contain?
In the traditional way, the lettuce already cut into a boat shape is bathed with the ingredients, the garlic with anchovies and oilWorcestershire sauce, apple cider vinegar, Mexican lemon, pieces of toasted bread and Parmesan.
The new version begins with a base of garlic, anchovies and olive oil, to which are incorporated the juice of Mexican lemons, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, parmesan cheese, the yolk of a couple of eggs, pepper and salt .
The pieces of oven-dried bread are added to this vinaigrette and at the end the lettuce is added, previously disinfected, cut into a boat shape and refrigerated to maintain its freshness and prevent it from softening before eating it.
The traditional Caesar salad has lettuce, garlic with anchovies and oil, Worcestershire sauce, apple cider vinegar, Mexican lemon, pieces of toasted bread and Parmesan cheese. (Photo: EFE).
Historian José Fernando Escobedo de la Torre told EFE that “around the creation of this salad there are many myths”.
For this reason, the graduate of the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) has been carrying out in-depth research since 2016 that will be captured in a book that commemorates this centenary.
“I took on the task of studying this dish together with Armando Avakian Gámezwho owns the hotel and Caesar’s restaurantwhich he rents to the Plascencia family, who have maintained it as a cultural and tourist icon of Tijuana“, he said.
Who was Caesar Cardini?
After eight years of research, the specialist assured that they can “point out that the origin of the salad is July 4, 1924, created by Caesar Cardini, originally from Italywho came to Tijuana in 1920 due to the prohibition of alcohol in the United States.”
The historian detailed that the Cardini family, with the tradition of wine, sought to continue their businesses and Tijuana was the closest place to where they were, San Francisco, California.
“Caesar Cardini and his brother They open a restaurant, Caesar’s, located on the legendary Revolución Avenue, and they also open the first beer factory and whiskey distillery, as well as a wine producer, and thus their adventures begin,” he indicated.
But the scholar warned of “many myths around this dish“, like the one who says that the salad was prepared spontaneously because, due to the lack of food, they grabbed the few products left in the kitchen to prepare it.
Caesar salad was invented on July 4, 1924. (Photo: EFE).
“But that story is not true, the same Caesar Cardini’s daughter, Rosa Cardinidenies it, highlighting that his father was not an improvised person in the kitchenbut rather that he was a specialist chef with a long career and that he created the salad with his own conscience,” he explained.
Escobedo de la Torre explained that this story will be captured in a book by Editorial Larousse divided into a first part about history, and the second dedicated to the present of the salad with recipes that have been configured around the world on its preparation, of which Chef Julián Plascencia was in charge of part of it.
The text will be launched on July 5 during the Caesar’s Salad Festival in Tijuana to celebrate the centenary.
