Hail Caesar: The original and the best

The most accurate account of its conception according to Naldo Pacchini of Pacchini & Sons, distributors of Cardini’s 'The Original Caesar Dressing' features Italian­born Caesar Cardini, who fashioned the salad and dressing in 1924 at his restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico. “There have been many variations on the original recipe for Caesar salad, but Cardini’s is the original and the best,” says Pacchini.

Cardini, a pilot in the Italian air force, headed to California after World War I, then moved south to try his hand at hospitality in Tijuana ­ a favourite haunt of the Hollywood set who skipped the US border into Mexico for weekend parties during Prohibition.

On a busy Fourth of July weekend in 1924, Cardini, finding his restaurant short of ingredients, gathered some basic ingredients including cos lettuce, garlic­flavoured olive oil, lemons, coddled eggs, parmesan cheese, Worcestershire sauce, fresh croutons, salt and pepper, and combined them together in front of patrons creating a legendary salad.

Cardini’s creation grew in popularity among the Hollywood crowd, and in 1938 Cardini moved to Los Angeles where he opened a gourmet f ood store. His patrons followed, arriving with empty wine bottles for him to fill with the dressing. In 1948, the demand for Cardini’s famous dressing made him decide to bottle it and to establish Caesar Cardini Foods with his daughter Rosa.

Three years before Cardini’s death in 1956, the master chefs of the ‘International Society of Epicures’ in Paris proclaimed Caesar’s salad as “the greatest recipe to originate f rom the Americas in 50 years.” Made from all natural ingredients and preserv ative, sugar and additive­free, Cardini’s ‘The Original Caesar Dressing’ delivers the true taste of Caesar’s salad without the fuss and is still being enjoyed today over 80 years since its first creation. “Nothing makes a Caesar Salad at home like Cardini’s, the original and the best,” says Pacchini.