My family and I walked into the outdoor seating area of the restaurant we were going to in California that night. I was young, and I was so picky when it came to food that the only thing I could order off any menu was Caesar salad. I didn’t eat chicken fingers, steak, pasta, or even sandwiches at the time, so my Caesar salad obsession became a running joke in the family. As we approached our new table, the jokes began.
“So Chelsea, what are you going to order tonight, shrimp?” My mother chuckled.
“Let me guess, what are YOU going to order tonight?” My sister guffawed.
“Wouldn’t it be hilarious if our waiter was named Caesar?” My father questioned.
We sat down to open our menu’s, and of course, Caesar salad was on the menu. Our waiter came over to the table, looked me straight in the eye, and said,
“Hello and welcome! My name is Caesar and I’ll be your waiter this evening.”
My family and I burst into laughter so forcefully that we scared our waiter and he didn’t come back to our table that night. After we recovered, my father said
“Chelsea, you should write a book about your experiences with Caesar salad.”
This isn’t a book, but it’s a first step.
It took me awhile to realize that it was a little bizarre that the only thing I could order at a restaurant was Caesar salad. My mom would always have to check the menu before we went to make sure they had it, or else I would only eat from the bread basket or be cranky and whiny all night. I was clearly spoiled as a child. If we were going to an extended family members house for dinner, I would have to bring my own bottle of Caesar dressing to the event, just because I knew I wouldn’t like anything else. It wasn’t embarrassing at the time, but even typing it now is uncomfortable to me.
As I looked a little more into the Caesar salad phenomenon, I found out that it was actually originated by a man named Caesar Cardini. Italian born, he created the recipe by just throwing together ingredients he had lying around the house. A controversial ingredient in typical Caesar dressing is anchovies. It is a little known fact that when the dressing was first invented, it did not include anchovies at all. The anchovy flavor came from worcester sauce. Whenever I was served a Caesar salad with anchovies in it, I would send it back. Little slippery fish aren’t to my liking. Julia Child, the well known chef, even ate at Cardini’s restaurant where the Caesar dressing was first invented. Reportedly, fifty years after she first tasted it in the 1920’s, she called Cardini’s daughter for the recipe. The Cardini brand dressing was trademarked, and is still sold in supermarkets all around the world.
If we made Caesar salad at home, there was only one dressing I would eat, and that was Cardini’s original Caesar dressing. With 17 grams of fat, it was a significant contributor to my weight gain throughout my childhood. I ate it every day with some lettuce, some croutons, and sometimes some parmesan cheese. It became an obsession. As I started to gain weight through high school, I tried to switch over to light Caesar dressing, instead of the original kind. Bad move. It tasted like watered down parmesan cheese soup.
As I got older, my palette grew more sophisticated, and now I eat just about anything. But my taste and love for Caesar salad stays the same. Over the years I have even made some variations to my usual lettuce, croutons, and dressing combination. Sometimes I’ll add bacon, red onions, and the most recent addition, grilled chicken. But one thing I have never, and will never like in my Caesar salad, is light dressing, or anchovies.
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