Cardini and Junia receive credit as Caesar salad inventors.
Great debate exists regarding who invented the Caesar salad. Some claim the salad was invented in Tijuana, Mexico. Others identify Chicago as its birthplace. Regardless of the Caesar salad's origins, it has become a popular selection in restaurants across the United States.
Giacomo Junia
A cookbook authored by George Leonard Herter names Chicago as the birthplace of the Caesar salad. Herter writes that Italian cook Giacomo Junia invented the salad. In 1903, while working at Chicago's New York Cafe, Junia created a romaine lettuce salad and named it after Julius Caesar.
Caesar Cardini
On a busy weekend in 1924, food was running low at Caesar Cardini's Tijuana, Mexico restaurant. At the last minute, Cardini mixed together a few ingredients available in the kitchen and the Caesar salad was born. To this day, Cardini's dressing can be purchased in supermarkets.
Popularity
Book of Britannica named the Caesar salad as a "food fad" of 1949. Paramount Studios screenwriter, Manny Wolfe shared the recipe with Hollywood restaurants and received credit for increasing the salad's popularity on the west coast. New York food critics of the day received credit for increasing the salad's popularity on the east coast.
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