As legend goes, Italian immigrant Caesar Cardini was in his Tijuana restaurant on a particularly busy day when he whipped up a salad with ingredients he happened to have on hand.
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One hundred years later, the Caesar salad has become one of the most ubiquitous staples on restaurant menus around the world.
This week, Tijuana is hosting a four-day centennial bash for the iconic dish once hailed as “the greatest recipe to originate in the Americas in 50 years” by the International Society of Epicures in Paris.
“It’s a recipe that has traveled all over the world,” said famed Tijuana chef Javier Plascencia, whose family now runs the namesake Caesar’s Restaurant. “Everyone loves it, and the fact that it’s from Tijuana is a source of pride for us, and it’s also a duty to continue to promote its history.”
But as with any legend, there are many versions.
Caesar Cardini is featured on the sign of Caesar’s Restaurant in Tijuana. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Over the years, many names have been bandied about as the inventor of the salad, including Cardini, his brother Alex Cardini, and Livio Santini, a young chef at the then-Caesar’s Place who some believe brought his mother’s salad recipe with him from Italy. There’s also chef Giacomo Junia, who is said to have invented the salad in 1903 in Chicago. And there are even more.
Tijuana historian Fernando Escobedo de la Torre and businessman Armando Avakian Gámez are adding their own well-researched take to the lore with a new book being released in conjunction with the centennial. And they conclude that the original salad was created by Caesar Cardini on July 4, 1924, in Tijuana. Their book is based on testimony, historical archives and eight years of research, they said.
Famous American chef and television personality Julia Child counts among her early restaurant memories the day when, as a teenager, she went to Caesar’s restaurant in Tijuana.
Tijuana was flourishing as a cross-border tourist draw during the Prohibition era, also pulling Italian immigrants like Cardini to the city’s food and wine scene.
Historic photos adorn the walls of Caesar’s Restaurant. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“People came down from the Los Angeles area in droves to eat in the restaurants; they drank forbidden beer and cocktails as they toured the bars of the town; they strolled in the flowered patio of Agua Caliente listening to the marimba band, and they gambled wickedly at the casino,” she wrote in her 1975 book, “From Julia Child’s Kitchen.” “Word spread about Tijuana and the good life, and about Caesar Cardini’s restaurant, and about Caesar’s salad.”
Her parents ordered the much talked about dish. “Caesar himself rolled the big cart up to the table, tossed the romaine in a great wooden bowl, and I wish I could say I remember every move, but I don’t,” she wrote. “The only thing I see again clearly is the eggs. I can see him break 2 eggs over that romaine and roll them in, the greens going all creamy as the eggs flowed over them. Two eggs in a salad? … And garlic-flavored croutons, and grated Parmesan cheese? It was a sensation of a salad from coast to coast, and there were even rumblings of its success in Europe.”
There were notably no anchovies in this original version of the salad.
It was the patrons themselves who spread the word to other parts of the United States and even Europe. Celebrities and other personalities became promoters of the salad, Escobedo said. “It went viral,” he said. “To the point where now you can find it on every menu in every country in the world.”
Around 1930 the salad was offered as the “Romaine Parmigian Dressing” for 50 cents, according to an original menu on display at Caesar’s Restaurant.
Disputed origins
That simplified origin story seems to have been pushed by Cardini’s family throughout the years, but has also been questioned.
“I don’t care how many times that story has been published and repeated,” Rosa Cardini said in a 1995 interview with The Daily Breeze. “My father was an incredibly professional restaurateur and hotelier. There is absolutely no way he ran out of food. He was a little low on food, that’s all.
“Also, it’s always reported that he madly dashed into the kitchen and gathered up just the bits of what was there and came up with the Caesar salad,” she continued. “Well, my father was professionally trained in food preparation. The reason this salad has lasted and prospered is because it’s really a work of genius.
She added: “Every ingredient was picked to blend together perfectly with the others. They were not just chosen haphazardly because he was out of food.” Rosa Cardini, a San Diego native, passed away in 2003 at 75.
The story goes that Caesar’s brother, Alex Cardini, a chef and former pilot in the Italian Air Force during World War I, added anchovy paste to a crostini, and named it the Aviator’s Salad in honor of the pilots at Rockwell Field Air Base in San Diego. This version of the salad — which was also later called Alex’s Caesar salad — was created in 1927, according to Escobedo.
Santini, a young chef who started working with the brothers in late 1924, also put his spin on the salad years later, adding paprika to croutons, according to research by Escobedo and Avakian, who owns the property where Caesar’s now is located.
Martin Lindsay, board chair of the nonprofit Culinary Historians of San Diego, has been researching the story for more than five years and believes it ultimately comes down to the Cardini brothers and Santini.
“Back-and-forth, and back-and-forth, people have been saying ‘no, it was him’, ‘no, it was him,’” Lindsay said. “People on the West Coast, in San Diego and Tijuana, kind of say it was Caesar. People in Texas say it was Alex, because Alex’s sons and some of his family still live in Texas. And then there’s Livio Santini and his family.”
But Lindsay believes that in some way, “all three were involved in the birth of the Caesar salad.”
“I can confidently say it is from Tijuana,” Lindsay said.
Escobedo and Avakian claim that the salad was created at Cardini’s former location, Café Alhambra, where he operated from 1922 to 1925. The restaurant was also located on Avenida Revolución for a time but was destroyed in a fire. He later opened Caesar’s Place (1926-1930) on Second Avenue and moved to its current location downtown on Avenida Revolución.
The ingredients
The salad is still prepared table-side at Caesar’s Restaurant, just as it was for Child. The waiter, wearing a tie and vest, prepares the current version of the original salad in a wooden bowl in front of the guests.
A plated Caesar’s salad, with anchovies, garlic, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, lime juice, egg yolk, olive oil and Parmesan cheese, mixed with large wedges of romaine lettuce, more cheese and a crostini. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
First, the dressing ingredients are mixed together — anchovies, garlic, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, lime juice, egg yolk, olive oil and Parmesan cheese. The dressing is then mixed with large wedges of romaine lettuce, more cheese and a crostini. The dish is ready in about three minutes.
Between 8,500 and 9,000 Caesar salads are made at the restaurant each month, said salad master Efraín Montoya, and people from all over Mexico, the U.S. and beyond travel to the restaurant to try them.
“Let’s not lose this tradition of making the salad at the table,” Plascencia said. “It is truly an art that all of our servers and ensaladeros take great pride in.”
The restaurant has been run by the Plascencia family since 2010. Juan José Plascencia, who is also the current president of the Tijuana chapter of the National Chamber of the Restaurant and Seasoned Food Industry, said they took over the restaurant when they realized it was going to close.
Plascencia said his grandfather used to be a bartender at Caesar’s, so the family has a special connection to the place. “It’s an iconic restaurant,” he said.
At the restaurant, the recipe for the current version of the original is shared with guests on cards in English and Spanish.
Birthday party
The salad will be the star of the city’s centennial party.
The celebration includes two sold-out dinners featuring renowned chefs. The launch of both the centennial book and a commemorative Casa Magoni wine will be held Friday; admission is free.
The dining room of Caesar’s Restaurant. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
And on Sunday, Avenida Revolución will host a 1930s-themed festival featuring gastronomic offerings by celebrity chefs. Tickets are available online for about $75. For more information, visit TijuanaCaesars.com. Portions of the proceeds will go toward the Tijuana Without Hunger Foundation, organizers said.