Caesar Salad

Caesar Salad is without question, to my mind, the king (or queen) of salads.

The Caesar Salad was originally invented by Caesar Cardini in 1924 in his restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico and not in ancient Rome as some would have you believe.

The only controversy about the Caesar Salad is whether or not to add anchovies. We like the anchovies. Recently, La Nueva Posada took their Caesar Salad off the menu and I resisted this move. I was told that everyone serves Caesar Salad and I responded, “ Everyone serves Caesar Salad because it is the best salad in the world”. I am happy to say that La Nueva Posada has put their Caesar Salad back on the menu. This makes me very happy as they do make the best Caesar Salad in all of Ajijic, Lake Chapala and possible]y a lot of places in Guadalajara.

I have a special connection to Caesar Salad for a couple of reasons. First, we had a very good friend in advertising in Toronto called Elliott Collins (not a relative).

We had invited Elliott to come to dinner at our country house and instead of bringing the mandatory bottle of wine he brought an exquisite bottle of virgin olive oil and his recipe for Caesar Salad which I will share with you here.

Elliott’s Justly Renowned Caesar Salad

Mix in a large wooden bowl:

1 tsp. salt, 1/8 tsp. sugar, l/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, 1/8 tsp. dry mustard, juice of ½ large lemon, 2 tbsps. French tarragon vinegar, few drops of tabasco, few drops Worcestershire Sauce, 1 tbsp. Italian olive oil, 6 tbsps. corn oil, 6 large cloves garlic grated, 1 raw egg yolk, ½ tin flat anchovy fillets, mashed or you can use Anchovy paste. Wash and thoroughly dry two medium heads of romaine. Tear into bowl. Mix well. Add: ½ cup chopped parsley, ¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, ½ cup croutons (we can purchase Cardini’s Caesar Salad croutons at Superlake in San Antonio Tlayacapan).

Toss well. Serve immediately as a first course to six extremely fortunate diners.

This is the recipe I gave to a restaurant in Toronto at St. Clair and Yonge where I had lunch very often. After I had my daughter I lost 70 lbs. by eating this Caesar Salad every day with Perrier and lime as a beverage and swimming twice a week at the Bloor Park Club. It was totally painless.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we have since 1975.

Buen provecho!