In each country there is a dish, which is a visiting card of modern culinary people. For Russia, this is Olivier, and for the USA, Caesar salad. These two snacks have long crossed the state border and began triumphantly marching around the planet. As a result, olivier is called “Russian salad” abroad. “Caesar” suffered a different fate: it was overgrown with such variations that the original recipe was nearly lost. This dish has an interesting story. Below we will tell who the Caesar salad is named after, under what circumstances this appetizer was born, and also give an authentic recipe for its preparation. Touch and variations. What to do? After all, they also have a right to exist. We will tell you some interesting facts from the life of the official creator of the snack. Let’s follow how the recipe developed further. We will not ignore the famous Worcester sauce, which, according to American cookbooks, is the key to the dish.
In whose honor is Caesar salad named
The official creator of the appetizer is Italian Cesare Cardini. After World War I, he, together with his brother Alessandro, a pilot, emigrated to the United States. In the new country, they changed their names to the American way. Cesare became Caesar, and Alessandro became Alex. Gentlemen Cardini were savvy people. In the 1920s, when the prohibition was introduced in the USA, they opened a restaurant with a hotel and a casino in the Mexican town of Tijuana. From the bustling city of San Diego, the institution of the brothers was separated only twenty kilometers and the state border. The Americans who were thirsty for a drink almost every evening got to the Mexican side - because there the dry law did not work. It was in the restaurant that Caesar salad was invented as a snack to the abundant outpourings.
Other options
But there is another version. A certain Livio Santini, who worked as a cook for Cardini, after Caesar salad earned fame, began to claim that it was he who invented the recipe, and the boss simply appropriated it to himself, calling the appetizer his own name. And finally, according to the third version, the dish was first served in 1903 in Chicago, in the small restaurant The New York Cafe. The appetizer was also Italian - Giacomo Junia, the owner of the establishment. The Roman emperor Gaius Julius, after whom Caesar salad is named, was the idol of this emigrant from the Apennine Peninsula.
Life and career of Cesare Cardini
The official author of the famous American salad was born in 1896 on the shores of Lago Maggiore. During World War I, Cesare fought in the ground forces, and his brother Alessandro - in aviation. After the war, both emigrated to the United States and settled in the extreme south of the country - in San Diego, California. As mentioned above, when at the beginning of 1920 the country passed a dry law prohibiting the sale of alcohol, Cesare Cardini, in whose honor Caesar salad was named, was not at a loss. He opened a hotel-restaurant, twenty miles south of San Diego, on the outskirts of Tijuana. The name Caesar's Place can be translated from English as "Caesar's." It was a dangerous venture. The crime in Tijuana was such that even traffic signs at the entrances to the city warned about it. The town was called "Satan's Playground" ("Satan's Playground"). And who watched films about the dashing years of the Great Depression, he knows how easy it was then to become a victim of gang warfare. But Caesar Cardini knew how to negotiate. He stayed in the shade, skillfully balanced on the verge of the law with his casino and did not really stick out. Even when he had money, he did not make a chic restaurant out of Caesar's Place, preferring that his establishment remain an ordinary roadside motel with a snack bar and a games room.
The history of the Caesar salad
The restaurant, as well as the Casino Nacional games room, are open all night. US citizens languishing for spirits crossed the border and a short distance and flew to Caesar's Place, like butterflies on fire. The audience in a two-story institution was going to be motley. Here, gangsters loved to play roulette and poke filmmakers from nearby Hollywood. In the institution of Cardini there was always something to drink, but there were interruptions in food. So it was at night on Independence Day 1924 (celebrated on July 4). A crowd of actors from Hollywood rushed into the restaurant, who ordered a drink and a snack. And of the products the owner (and the chef at the same time) only had eggs, bread, parmesan and romaine lettuce. And, of course, Italian seasonings with excellent olive oil. Without thinking twice, Caesar Cardini mixed all the ingredients and served a snack to unexpected guests. He did not expect that his invention would expect such a high-profile fame.
Authentic dish
Here's a story of the origin of Caesar salad. But what exactly did the resourceful Italian do to please the crowd of hungry guests from Hollywood? This is told by his daughter Rosa. Father rubbed a salad bowl with a slice of garlic. Then he laid out the lettuce leaves of the Romen variety. Poured them with olive oil. He lowered the eggs at room temperature into the dishes with boiling water just taken from the heat. He kept them there for exactly a minute, and then cooled them in water. These eggs only “grabbed”, acquired the consistency of a liquid sauce. Father beat them with olive oil, added grated parmesan. Sprinkled the dish with lemon juice. Toasted white bread croutons in olive oil and crushed garlic. Salted, sprinkled with seasonings. Everything! As you can see, there were no ingredients in the modern Caesar (chicken breast, Worcester sauce, boiled eggs, etc.) in the original recipe.
Aviator Salad
When the food was delivered, Alex Cardini decided to perfect his brother’s invention, which was so liked by the guests from Hollywood. For piquancy, he added Worcester sauce and anchovies to the above ingredients. On this occasion, the brothers had a quarrel. Cesare believed that the fishy flavor is enough thanks to Worcester sauce, and anchovies are clearly superfluous. And he didn’t allow his brother to amend his authentic Caesar salad. The history of the restaurant menu at Caesar's Place shows that soon guests began to offer another snack here. It was called "Aviator Salad." So Alex Cardini tried to perpetuate his glorious military past. Aviator Salad was very similar to Caesar's, only contained Worcester sauce and anchovies.
The flip side of fame
When, in 1948, Caesar Cardini and his daughter Rosa, having made a decent fortune in a predominantly gambling, as well as restaurant and hotel business, decided to receive dividends also for the origin of Caesar salad, it turned out that they could no longer register a brand name with this name . By this year, the snack has become a national treasure, in addition, somewhat modified. So the enterprising Italians had to confine themselves to registering the “Cardini” and “Original Caesar” brands. But from this, the inventor of lettuce did not die in poverty. Three years before his death (which began in 1956), the Epicurean Society in Paris noted Caesar salad as the most remarkable recipe that appeared on the continent of America over the past half century. A popular dish has repeatedly hit the Guinness Book of Records. So, in New York they created a Caesar salad weighing almost two and a half tons.
American classic dish
Why did the Americans modify Caesar salad? The recipe, the history of which was described above, involves a rather Spartan use of products. It is understandable: in the summer in hot regions I do not want to burden my stomach with something overly satisfying. However, in the northern states, salads have a different attitude. So, among its ingredients, quite high-calorie components appeared - fried chicken breast or hard -boiled egg. But even if you take the classic American recipe, then in it you can notice some differences from the authentic. Croutons are replaced with fried croutons from a thin baguette. Dressing is done separately: eggs are beaten with olive oil, Worcester sauce, lemon juice and seasoned with garlic. Crutons are placed at the very end so that they do not get wet and remain crispy.
What just do not invent!
The history of Caesar salad is in the past, and people live in the present. As already mentioned, the inhabitants of the northern latitudes tried to enrich the snack with calories. So there was a version of chicken salad. The inhabitants of the largest country in the world could not always afford even those Spartan ingredients that require an authentic recipe. Many Russians have never heard of Worcester sauce. And therefore who experimented in what much. Caesar appeared from sprats (or even herring in tomato sauce), seasoned with mayonnaise or sour cream. Sometimes romaine lettuce was replaced with tomato cucumbers. Often ham, bacon, tuna were put in an appetizer. The most radical recipe for Caesar is without any greens, but with potatoes and onions. And the carriers of red jackets in the dashing 90s loved to eat a salad with crayfish, crab claws and tiger prawns, and also seasoned with soy sauce with red caviar!
Here, perhaps, is everything regarding the one in whose honor Caesar salad is named.