The Intriguing Intersection Of Caesar Salad And Intellectual Property

Once described by famous chef Julia Child as “a sensation of a salad from coast to coast,” and deemed “the greatest recipe to originate in the Americas in fifty years” by the International Society of Epicures in Paris in 1953, there is no doubting the longstanding success and popularity of a Caesar salad. However, the true origin and history of the famous dish is much less clear.

How Caesar Cardini Invented the Caesar Salad in 1924

The dominant, and most widely-accepted, history of the dish credits Caesar Cardini for creating the dish in Tijuana, Mexico, on July 4, 1924. Cardini initially opened a restaurant in Sacramento and then in San Diego but moved his establishment to Tijuana in the 1920s to escape Prohibition. According to folklore—and as recounted by Cardini’s daughter, Rosa, until her death in 2003—Cardini’s was doing a brisk business on Independence Day in 1924 but was running low on ingredients. Cardini threw together a salad consisting of romaine lettuce, parmesan