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aprince
03/25/11
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aryckman
04/03/11
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pointshoot
04/15/11
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dannick9
04/14/11
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ccooper
03/12/11
October 22, 2012
By now practically every foodie has heard the story.
A fellow by the name of Caesar Cardini was living in San Diego and ran a restaurant in Tijuana, where his pals could escape Prohibition and have a few.
When a July 4th 1924 rush depleted some of his salad ingredients, Cardini made due with what he had.
And a legend was born.
Although it must be said that some historians claim his brother, Alex Cardini actually first made it for a group of military pilots from Rockwell Field at San Diego, calling it an Aviator Salad.
Julia Child settled things for me.
In her book “From Julia Child's Kitchen,” she describes how she ate a Caesar salad at Caesar Cardini's restaurant with her parents when she was a child in the 1920s. Some 50 years later she called Cardini's daughter, Rosa, in order to discover the original recipe.
In this recipe, lettuce leaves are served whole on the plate, because they are meant to be lifted by the stem and eaten with the fingers. It also calls for coddled eggs, Italian olive oil and Worcestershire Sauce. (No anchovies.)
One thing I do miss, which seems to be a culinary endangered species, is the flourish of preparing the salad tableside.
A silver cart would suddenly emerge packed with bottles, bowls, ramekins and your waiter would begin crushing, mincing, whipping olive oil into an egg yolk, layering the chilled Romaine, (only the hearts) weaving a spell, topping the pale green leaves with a few paper thin shavings of Parmiggiano.
Some marketing genius, or chef, whom or when is not known, decided to add chicken or shrimp or steak.
As if the original, impeccably and properly prepared, (balance is the key) wasn't enough.
Speaking of snobs, my friends from Italy, loveable though they are, report with horror, the Caeser salad popping up on menus in Rome.
And it’s not “just for the turisti,” they mutter.
There still may be a controversy regarding the origin of one American culinary institution, but we do know that Bob Cobb, at The Brown Derby in 1938, invented the salad that bears his name.
So…favorite salad?
And...Chef Peterman is standing by, tableside, to toss your Caesar. Or perhaps you'd care to toss me a few recipes of your own.
still thinking about today...
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ccooper
03/12/11
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03/13/11
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dnerland
03/24/11
Garbage salad. Made fresh almost daily. Around 10 ingredients,usually. And if I don't eat the entire thing,the following day I add and eat. Only EVOO&fresh squozed lime for dressing. And adding sliced leftover meats/fish is a treat. YUM
Good morning, RY...
I just made a good broccoli salad this evening (pinon nuts, bacon, celery, onions, craisins, mayo, sugar & tarragon vinegar)...recipe handed down for generations.
It's hard to beat a good ceasar, though.
Good morning RY and GG, how's your mum Eli?
You mean it's not named after Julius Caesar? I thought it was "Act two" of the recent article we had on him.....
today's article I mean
Cafe Le Cave in the old days near O'Hare. Where the garlic and anchovies permeated your clothing and the raw egg fears of salmonella were allayed by the confident smile of the old waiter in the black tux who worked the bowl like a true master. Each leaf was soaked in the nectar and each bite popped with a freshly made crouton. Vampires beware. The same artisan would prepare your Steak Diane and your Bananas Foster and then light your Dominican Robusto but not before personally warming your Cognac. Tableside is so personalized and special because there are do few career waiters and diners who aren't in a hurry.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....................................................
Many years ago, when Caesar Salads were still made at the table, we were in a restaurant in Wildwood,New Jersey. We ordered Caesar Salads. A gentleman, dressed in a velvet tuxedo, came to the table rolling up his cart with all the ingredients on it and a large wooden salad bowl. He mixed and measured, tossed and squeezed, rubbed the bowl with garlic and, all the while............things were flying. Food was all over the floor, the cart, the table, him and yet, he never missed a beat, he just kept on tossing and dropping. He delivered our salads to us with a flourish and rolled his cart away. Right behind him came another waiter with a mop, broom and dustpan......all, it seemed,choreographed or at least habit by now. It could have been a Rowan Atkinson, Mr. Bean short. So serious was our salad maker. We could only assume that this was the owner's brother in law that he just HAD to employ.
Andy- A funny story and alas probably true about the B-i-L. I assume no cover charge for the entertainment. The old trips to the beach were always entertaining as we would stop at little towns through Georgia and Northern Florida on the way to the Redneck Riviera. The characters at the little restaurants and stops where bears drank colas and alligators and snakes scared the kids and a guy could get a Davy Crockett hat made the trip one for the memory banks. I stopped at such a place over the weekend and we all ordered different pies including my fav Coconut Meringue and of course they heated the pecan pie. Delish! It's people that make this world go round even the brother in law with a shortage of tools in his shed but is a lovable goofus like Billy Carter or Hugh (I think that name is correct), Hillary's brother who just like to have a good time and would make a great companion during happy hour.
A recepie for a salad? What a silly idea. Mr Cardini had it right first time - salad is hmmmmm- let's see what we have in the 'fridge, with luck in the garden and in the herb pots. Dressings? Again no fixed recepie - but a well stocked cupboard of interesting oils and vinegars. Kids will eat salad smothered in a crunchy peanut sauce drressing. (Check about allergies before serving!) I will make something 'in the style of' Ceasar salad, or Whardolf salad or a salad I enjoyed last time I ate out. It would be an insult to my creativity and the seasonal abundances of stuff in the garden if any two salads I made were exactly the same. Recepie indeed!
Oh, Hazel, you are so right about salad recipes! The last salad that just happened in my kitchen was on a day when I had a craving for a favorite Mexican restaurant's food and it wasn't open. Chopped up some plain, ordinary iceberg lettuce with some wonderful garden fresh tomatoes, topped it with warm green chile and savored it on the back porch on a lovely autumn afternoon in our part of Colorado where we can see the mountains 100 miles to the west.
Marypjb~I passed through that area a couple weeks ago and grabbed a gunnysack FULL of those wonderful green chiles, then roasted them over a nice cedar fire in the chiminea. They have to be the best this country has to offer! I thought one sack full would last all year, but I've used 2/3 of them in less than a month. Can I still get any in Colo? I love the farmers' markets there around Rocky Ford.
OK, then - recipe - one of those words that looks wrong however you spell it.
Cos lettuce - one of my least favourite 'tho the big outer leaves are useful in the absence of vine leaves to stuff with whatever takes your fancy. I grow (grew) Little Gem - cut an X in the stalk after picking and keep with its bottom in a glass of water on the windowsill - the things carry on growing even when you have stripped most of the leaves. They make a very pretty edge to a flower border (not in deer country!) they also grow well in window boxes or patio pots. A pack of seeds of that mixed varieties of pick&come again lettuce - the ones that have a mixture of red and green leaves keeps my salads looking interesting and one pack of seeds will last all summer. AND I have discovered the local watercress beds - not just for salad, watercress&potato soup with a big dollop of double cream is heaven on a damp, misty/foggy day. I can hear the fog horns on the boats coming in and out of Portsmouth harbour.
Sometimes I enjoy the Honeymoon Salad...Lettuce Alone!!!
Mr. P tells us that the Cardini dressing for Caesar Salad was made without anchovies but with Worcestorshire sauce....which ta da! is made from fermented anchovies!
Tableside service is a skill and an art almost slipping away from us. I will never forget sitting and watching as the waiter removed all the bones from a fish using one hand and 2 tools. Great stuff!!
TT no Cherries Jubilee?
I think the definition of "salad" has morphed into the equivalent of Cold Stew. Lettuce is no longer either the main component or even included in many Salads.
My favorite salad is spinach & romaine (or iceberg), pears, scallions, dried cranberries and cucumbers with gorgonzola cheese in a light vinaigrette,
Well, Graygoose, most people I know just roast their own. It seems like most of the roasting is over by now. I'm so sorry you didn't get more! (It takes a loooong time for my posts to go through.)
Oops! I misunderstood. Chilis have all been picked by now.
If you have a small kitchen and your guests want to perch on a stool to watch and chat, it's always tableside service.
ChefD- Funny you say that. I didn't want to sound goofy but they knew I always ordered a suicide and often they would accomodate. It was peach flambe, cherries jubilee, and bananas foster all done together. They thought I was nuts but it was so cool. I remember seeing them point from the entrance to the kitchen. The one that looked like Count Dracula has such a belly laugh. Good Times Indeed.
OPAAA!!!
I think that means "Look out, my cheese is on fire!!"
Seems to have burned the house down, RY~ where is everybody?
They got hungry, and now their fingers are sticky....
Did you ever see/own a Rolling Stones vinyl LP 'Sticky Fingers'? RY? The one with a zipper on the album cover? She asked while nobody else was watching.
Coco cat is giving me reproachful glares from the top of the stairs. I think I am being ordered to bed. My computer clock says 00.55, so ..... see what tomorrow brings. Nos Da, dear people. x
I went to look for that album...and a seed fell out....ooops
Salad...yes, I am trying to grow lettuces in pots on my deck (forget the yard as the deer would have it for a meal before I could get it to grow), and am wondering if there are tricks to getting it to multiply....? Mine are the same 6 leaves as when I planted them....Should I pick off the outside leaves and therefore spur the inner ones to grow?
Love salads, but somehow they are always better when I eat OUT, than when I fix them at home! Love the Asian salad with the little oranges, almonds, etc. over romaine. Not so much on Caesar, but a good cobb salad or the waldorf when I have apples to use up.
We have salad about 3-4 times a week here. Usually, romaine, baby spinach, iceberg greens with grape tomatoes, chunks of goat cheese, italian dressing....nothing fancy....It is a way to obey the diet gurus who say eat more raw stuff....Last night was my idea of a good comfort food meal....meatloaf and mashed potatoes! No wonder I don't lose weight!
Mountain greens from the garden patch...fresh feta...balsamic grape juice drizzled...thinly slice beefeater tomato...crumbled bacon...and frizzie crystal glass filled with the coldest red moscato...and its' lunchtime anytime of the day!