He was named Gaius Julius but he didn’t think it befitted him so he added “Caesar” —- a word meaning “cutting” as in “piercing” as in “penetrating stare”. The North-African word for elephant is “caesai” and you will find in the Sanskrit dictionary the word “ceasaries”, meaning “thick head of hair.”
The German word for this is “Kaiser”. In the Serbian language it’s “tsar” and in Russian, it’s “czar”. None of the guys who took this as a name for themselves would you want to have over for dinner. The original, Julius Caesar, made himself a diety and ruled the Roman Empire with a heavy hand.
Centuries later, another Italian fellow named Caesar made a name for himself in, of all places, Mexico and he did it with, of all things, a salad. Seriously.
Incidentally, Without Mexico the world would be devoid of chocolate. There wouldn’t be any jalapeno poppers because there wouldn’t be any jalapeno peppers. You couldn’t have barbecued beans since there wouldn’t be any beans and forget that rich tomato sauce on your pasta because there wouldn’t be a single tomato to make it with. And corn on the cob? Corn muffins? Hush puppies? Nope, no corn either. Ditto sweet potatoes. Ditto avocados. The so called “indians” of the Americas gave the world some of its most loved foods which the world beyond theirs had never heard of before Columbus.
You can add to that Mexican list Caesar’s salad because without a quick-thinking Italian entrepreneur in Mexico named Caesar Cardini, we probably wouldn’t have that, either.
Caesar had a successful restaurant in San Diego until anti-booze puritans in Washington got up off their knees and went into the world of sin to eradicate human nature by sufficiently henpecking the members of Congress to pass the 18th Amendment. That was the Volstead Act. That was Prohibition. That was in 1920. Caesar looked south. He saw Tijuana just across the border in Mexico, where booze (and practically anything else) was legal. He went there, taking his restaurant with him and enjoyed success all over again, as thirsty Americans began crossing the border to appease their appetites.
Among those Americans was Julia Child, who went to Cardini’s Restaurant with her mother and father in 1926, when she was 12. She wrote in her book, Julia Child’s Kitchen that “Caesar himself rolled the big cart up to the table and tossed the romaine in a great wooden bowl.”
Prohibition put Tijuana on the map. It quickly became known as a place for partying, debauchery, sex and shady activities, luring movie stars from Hollywood and generations of Marines from their base at San Diego. Today it is known for selling tacky gimcracks but also for its worldly approach to great food. It has become one of the most dangerous cities in the world with one of the highest murder rates anywhere, thanks largely to the drug cartels. I did not feel particularly threatened in Tijuana but I did see a lot of uniformed soldiers carrying machine guns and figured it best to stay in the well-lighted, heavily populated parts of town. Caesar Cardini definitely had a role in the evolution of Tijuana from small dusty ranch town to a mecca for gourmets. Tourists still flock to his restaurant there.
The story goes that Caesar supposedly ran low on salad ingredients one day and made up something based on what happened to be on hand. People liked it. He kept making it. It became more popular so that by the time Julia Child went there with her parents, it had become “Caesar Salad” and from there it migrated into the food world everywhere and has become the second best-ranked salad in America. The first ranked is, oddly enough, coleslaw.
My old friend, Jim Evans, who now makes Caesar Salad for all the saints in Heaven, taught me many years ago how to make it the way he did and I still think it’s as good as you’ll find anywhere.
You Can Do This
Get your stuff together first: 2 heads romaine lettuce, anchovies or anchovy paste, olive oil, 2 eggs, fresh basil, garlic, Parmesan cheese, dry English mustard (Coleman’s), dried Greek or Italian oregano Salt & black pepper, 1 lemon, as many buttered, seasoned and baked croutons as you want.
Drop two eggs into butter in a medium-hot skillet for 12 seconds then put them in the bottom of a big salad bowl.
Add a small handful of finely chopped fresh basil.
Add about a spoonful of dried oregano.
Add a spoonful of smashed anchovy or anchovy paste.
Add about a quarter cup of olive oil.
Add one large garlic clove, smashed and chopped fine.
Add a handful of Parmesan cheese (preferably freshly grated Reggiano).
Add a spoonful of Coleman’s mustard.
Add the juice of half a lemon. Whisk all this briskly.
Add the rinsed and dried romaine lettuce and toss in the dressing until thoroughly coated.
CROUTONS: Cut up as much of a baguette as you want into cubes, toss these in a bowl with a blend of 1 part olive oil and 1 part melted butter, sprinkle with salt & pepper and bake at 350 (F) for 30 minutes, turning once halfway through.
You will find recipes for this which can include mayonnaise or Worcestershire sauce, even sugar. Ignore them would be my humble advice.
Don’t worry if your Caesar salad isn’t ice cold because it will taste better at cool room temperature. If you want something ice cold may I suggest a gin martini, shaken, with an olive, up. For me it’s a perfect compliment to Caesar salad. But that’s just me.
What to pair with Caesar Salad besides gin?
One good answer would be “nothing” except the wine or drink of your choice and maybe a hot baguette but if you feel slighted without an entree you might consider chicken breast “poached” in a cream sauce with fresh basil.
In a skillet, heat a tablespoon each of butter and olive oil then add a little flour and stir with a whisk.
Add a flat teaspoon of chicken base paste and blend it in well. Then slowly pour in some half & half cream but don’t get it too thick.
3. Add six or eight fresh chopped basil leaves and some black pepper.
4. Lay in your chicken breasts, sliced in half lengthwise so that you have two flat “filets” (or four if you slice another).
5. Allow this to gently simmer on low for about six minutes.
You can easily serve this on a mound of fluffy rice with plenty of the poaching sauce drizzled over it. Garnish with sprigs of fresh basil. Remember, the chicken base paste takes the place of salt so don’t add salt.
Julius Caesar, by the way, is said to have favored a particular Roman dish named “Borjomi” which is pork neck cooked with apples. Don’t knock it. Julius ate this stuff and conquered much of Europe without resorting to Caesar Salad part of which was conquered by Mr. Cardini some years later in Tijuana.