In honor of whom the salad "Caesar" is named. Caesar salad: history

In each country there is a dish that is a visiting card of the modern cooking of the people. For Russia this is Olivier, and for the USA - Caesar salad. These two snacks have long crossed the state border and started triumphantly marching around the planet. As a result, Olivier is called "Russian salad" abroad. "Caesar" also suffered a different fate: he acquired such variations that almost lost the original recipe. This dish has an interesting history. Below we will tell, in honor of whom the salad "Caesar" is named, under what circumstances this snack was born, and also we will give an authentic recipe for its preparation. Let us also touch on the variations. What to do? They, too, have a right to exist. We will tell you some interesting facts from the life of the official creator of the snack. Let's follow how the recipe developed further. Do not ignore the famous Worcester sauce, which, according to American cookbooks, is the key to the dish.

In honor of whom is named the salad "Caesar"

Officially, the creator of the snack is Italian Cesare Cardini. After the First World War, he, along with his brother Alessandro, a pilot, emigrated to the United States. In the new country, they changed their names to the American way. Cesare became Caesar, and Alessandro became Alex. Lord Cardinus were savvy people. In the 20 years of the twentieth century, when the US introduced a dry law, they opened a restaurant in the Mexican town of Tijuana with a hotel and a casino. From the bustling city of San Diego, the brothers' establishment was separated only twenty kilometers from the state border. Those who thirsty to drink Americans almost every evening were elected to the Mexican side, because there the dry law did not work. It was in the restaurant as a snack for abundant outpourings and a salad "Caesar" was coined.

Other options

But there is another version. A certain Livio Santini, who worked as a cook at Cardini, after the salad "Caesar" earned fame, began to assert that the recipe was invented by him, and the boss simply appropriated it himself, calling the snack his name. And finally, according to the third version, the dish was first served in 1903 in Chicago, in a small restaurant The New York Cafe. The author of the snack was also Italian - Giacomo Junia, the owner of the establishment. The Roman emperor Guy Julius, in whose honor the Caesar salad was named, was the idol of this emigrant from the Apennine peninsula.

Life and career of Cesare Cardini

The official author of the famous American salad was born in 1896 on the banks of the Lago Maggiore. During the First World War, Cesare fought in the ground forces, and his brother Alessandro - in aviation. After the war, both emigrated to the US and settled in the far south of the country - in San Diego, California. As mentioned above, when in early 1920 the country adopted a dry law prohibiting the sale of alcohol, Cesare Cardini, in whose honor the Caesar salad was named, was not taken aback. He opened a hotel-restaurant twenty miles south of San Diego, on the outskirts of the town of Tijuana. The name of Caesar's Place can be translated from English as "Caesar's." It was a dangerous enterprise. The crime in Tijuana was such that even road signs on the entrances to the city warned about it. The town was called "Satan's Playground" ("Playground for Satan's Games"). And who watched movies about the dashing years of the Great Depression, he knows how easy it was then to become a victim of gang warfare. But Caesar Cardini knew how to negotiate. He stayed in the shadows, skillfully balanced on the verge of law with his casino and did not stick out very much. Even when he had money, he did not make a gorgeous restaurant out of Caesar's Place, preferring that his establishment should remain the usual roadside motel with a snack bar and a gaming hall.

The history of the appearance of Caesar salad

The restaurant, as well as the Casino Nacional's game room at the hotel, worked the night away. US citizens, tired of strong drinks, crossed the border and a short distance and flew to Caesar's Place, like butterflies on fire. The audience in the two-story building was going to be mixed. Here they liked to play roulette gangsters and to buy movie-makers from nearby Hollywood. In the institution Cardini always had something to drink, but with food there were interruptions. So it was at night on Independence Day of 1924 (celebrated on July 4). A crowd of Hollywood actors came into the restaurant, ordering a drink and a snack. And from the products of the owner (and at the same time, the chef) there were only eggs, bread, parmesan and lettuce. And, of course, Italian seasonings with excellent olive oil. Without thinking twice, Caesar Cardini mixed all the ingredients and served a snack for unexpected guests. He did not expect that his invention expects so much glory.

Authentic dish

Here is the story of the origin of the Caesar salad. But what did the resourceful Italian do to please the crowd of hungry guests from Hollywood? His daughter Rosa tells about this. Father rubbed the salad bowl with a slice of garlic. Then he put in it leaves of a salad of sort "Romen". Poured them with olive oil. Eggs of room temperature, he lowered into a bowl of boiling water, just removed from the fire. He kept them there for exactly a minute, after which he cooled in the water. These eggs only "grabbed", acquired the consistency of liquid sauce. Father beat them with olive oil, added grated Parmesan. Scrubbed the dish with lemon juice. Fried in olive oil and crushed garlic toast from white bread. Posolil, sprinkled with seasonings. All! As you can see, no ingredients that we used to see in the modern "Caesar" (chicken breast, Worcestershire sauce, boiled eggs, etc.), in the original recipe was not.

Aviator's salad

When the products were delivered, Alex Cardini decided to improve the invention of his brother, so liked by the guests from Hollywood. For piquancy, he added the Worchester sauce and anchovies to the ingredients listed above. On this occasion, the brothers had a quarrel. Cesare believed that the fish taste is quite sufficient due to the Worcesters' sauce, and the anchovies are clearly superfluous. And he did not allow his brother to make his own amendments to the authentic Caesar salad. The history of the restaurant menu at Caesar's Place shows that soon the guests here began to offer another snack. It was called Aviator's Salad. So Alex Cardini tried to perpetuate his glorious military past. "Aviator's salad" was very similar to "Caesar", only contained a Worcester sauce and anchovies.

The other side of glory

When in 1948, Caesar Cardini and his daughter Rosa, having made a decent fortune in the predominantly gambling, and restaurant and hotel business, decided to receive dividends also for the origin of the Caesar salad, it turned out that they could not already register a brand name under this name . By this year, the snack has become a national treasure, also somewhat modified. So the enterprising Italians had to limit themselves to registering the brands "Cardini" and "Original Caesar". But from this the inventor of the salad did not die in poverty. Three years before his death (which came in 1956), the Epicurean society in Paris celebrated Caesar salad as the most remarkable recipe that appeared on the continent of America in the last half-century. The popular dish has repeatedly got into the Guinness Book of Records. So, in New York they created a salad "Caesar" weighing almost two and a half tons.

American classic dish

Why did the Americans modify the Caesar salad? The recipe, the history of which was described above, suggests a fairly spartan use of products. It is understandable: in summer in hot regions you do not want to burden your stomach with something excessively satisfying. However, in the northern states, salads are treated differently. So, there appeared among its ingredients quite high-calorie components - a fried chicken breast or hard -boiled egg. But even if you take the classic American recipe, then in it you can see some differences from the authentic. Croutons are replaced by toasted croutons from a thin baguette. Dressing is done separately: the eggs are beaten with olive oil, Worcesters sauce, lemon juice and season with garlic. Croutons are placed at the very end, so that they are not soaked and remain crispy.

What does not ponavydivayut!

The history of the Caesar salad is in the past, and people live in the present. As already mentioned, the inhabitants of the northern latitudes tried to enrich the appetizer with calories. So there was a version of a salad with chicken. The inhabitants of the largest country in the world could not always afford even those Spartan ingredients that require an authentic recipe. Many Russians have never even heard of a Worcester sauce. So they experimented in that much. There was "Caesar" from sprat (or even herring in tomato sauce), dressed with mayonnaise or sour cream. Sometimes the romaine lettuce was replaced with cucumbers with tomatoes. Often a ham, bacon, tuna was put in a snack. The most radical recipe for "Caesar" - generally without greens, but with potatoes and onions. And the bearers of red jackets in the dashing 90s liked to eat a salad with crayfish neck, crab claws and tiger shrimps, and even dressed with soy sauce with red caviar!

Here, perhaps, and all concerning that, in honor of whom the salad "Caesar" is named.