Origins of Specific Salads and Salad Dressings

Caesar salad is a combination of romaine lettuce, garlic, olive oil, croutons, parmesan cheese, Worcestershire sauce, and often anchovies. It was purportedly created by Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant who opened a series of restaurants in Tijuana, Mexico, just across the border from San Diego. In 1924, Cardini concocted the salad as a main course, arranging the lettuce leaves on a plate with the intention that they would be eaten with the fingers. Later Cardini shredded the leaves into bite-size pieces. The salad became particularly popular with the Hollywood movie in-crowd who visited Tijuana. The salad was later featured at restaurants in Los Angeles. Cardini insisted that the salad be subtly flavored and therefore opposed the introduction of anchovies. He also decreed that only Italian olive oil and imported parmesan cheese be used. In 1948 he established a patent on the dressing, which is still packaged and sold as Cardini’s Original Caesar dressing mix.