The Original Caesar SaladLocation: Tijuana, MexicoSo, you thought Chopt invented the Mexican Caesar,

The Original Caesar SaladLocation: Tijuana, MexicoSo, you thought Chopt invented the Mexican Caesar, prepared à la minute, right in front of your very eyes? In fact, the classic Caesar was born in Tijuana, prepared table side with taste and flair, far before we started riffing on the recipe. It was the twenties and prohibition was in full-effect. Tijuana was not the seedy town it is today – it was a Hollywood destination for two of our favorite things, booze and salad innovation. The details of the inception of the Caesar salad are hotly debated to this day, but their birthplace is not: Caesar’s hotel and restaurant on the for the once glamorous Avenida Revolución. I traveled there last winter to experience table side Caesar that made salad history.In the middle of the street filled with head shops and bars, a classy outdoor patio still beckons with smartly dressed waiters circulating carts piled high with savory ingredients, spears of crisp lettuce, and well-oiled wooden bowls. Sure, there are other things on the menu besides salad, but everyone here is after the same thing. Dressing is made directly in the salad bowl, the lettuce is gently dressed, and guests watch with mouths agape as parmesan rains. Salad is served and does not disappoint.For more than 50 years, diners have flocked to Caesar’s for their eponymous salad, but the progenitor of the dish remains contested. The controversy surrounds Caesar and Alex Cardini, a pair of brothers who first immigrated from Italy to San Diego, and opened their first restaurant. When prohibition came into effect, they realized the real money to be made was in a lawless border town called Tijuana. So they opened Caesar’s Hotel and Restaurant to cash in on the scene. This much we know, but from here, the story gets murky.If you had invented the world’s favorite salad, you’d want credit for it too. Both brothers laid claim to the salad, and there’s a third rumor that the recipe originated with a dishwasher named Livio Santini, who may or may not have innocently shared his Italian mother’s recipe with the kitchen. But Caesar Cardini’s salad myth starts with a packed house and an act of culinary desperation. It was the summer of 1924 and American were guests eating a drinking their way through the last of the kitchen supplies. He claimed to have thrown together the last of the remaining staples from the larder to make a dressing – olive oil, raw egg yolk, Dijon, parmesan cheese and Worcestershire sauce. He tossed some romaine in the bowl and served the spears to be eaten as finger food (the original hand salad). The dish was a hit, and so he made it his namesake and watched as the word spread around the world.You might have noticed the absence of arguably the most important ingredient in that very first Caesar – anchovy. Anchovies emerge as the hero in Alex Cardini’s version of the tale. He was a pilot in Italy’s air force during WWII, and claims to have invented the salad when a group from the American Airforce men made their way down to TJ and into Caesars one night, looking for a good time. He threw together a salad with all the ingredients mentioned in Caesar’s tale, plus anchovies. He named it the “Aviator Salad.” But soon, Alex moved to Mexico City to open his own restaurant, and Caesar slapped his name on the dish and stole his brother’s glory.So, the Caesar salad we have all come to love might actually be an “Aviator Salad,” Italian in flavor but born in Mexico. In our opinion, it’s a dish ripe for reinvention. -- source link

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