The Original caesar salad

No dijon. No lemon. No anchovies. No fork. When Caesar Cardini made the world’s first caesar salad in his Tijuana, Mexico restaurant in 1924 it was a lot simpler than what the world’s most popular salad dressing has become. Oh, and it was meant to be eaten with your hands. 

July 4 was the 100th anniversary of the Cardini’s creation and to celebrate the Guardian published an excellent look back at the origin of Caesar’s salad and its present world wide popularity. It’s a story of an Italian restauranteur in Mexico who used what he had on hand in the kitchen – olive oil, garlic, eggs, parmesan, lime, Worcestershire sauce, toasted crostini – to whip together a celebratory salad for some American clients. He made it from scratch and at the table, both for the flair and to show the freshness of the ingredients. 

There are lots of fun facts in the story, including that it might actually be his brother Alex’s invention – there are competing claims – and that it was meant to be eaten by hand. But what held our attention was a newspaper clip with an “original” recipe. It varies from most modern caesar dressings, including the one we have in Habit – caesar is one of our six bases at the heart of the book. We gave it a go and have posted it with our online recipes and you can watch a video on @RestlessJosie on Instagram.

Two differences stand out. 1. Lime juice instead of lemon. 2. Large pieces of toasted French bread, rather than croutons. We really liked the flavour of the lime juice. It added a nice, zippy punch that was especially welcome eating the salad on a hot evening. Thin slabs of French bread (we used a gluten-free loaf from our favourite local bakery, Roots Rising) worked well for hand held eating and mopping up the delicious dressing.

We definitely recommend giving it a try, if for no other reason than to celebrate one of the greatest salad dressings ever made.