The 1920s and early 1930s were a golden age for Tijuana thanks to Prohibition, the ban on alcohol across the border in the United States that turned the city into a playground for bootleggers, movie stars and those just looking to have a good time. The legacy of this colorful era still lives on today thanks to two all-time great gastronomic treasures: the margarita cocktail and the Caesar salad. Of the two master dishes, the history of the Caesar salad is certainly the more mysterious.

The salad may not be as readily associated with Baja California as the margarita or the Baja-style fish taco, perhaps because its fame spread so rapidly around the globe. But it was created in Tijuana in 1924 at a restaurant run by Italian immigrant Cesare Cardini, and its traditional association with the city has been kept alive by Tijuana’s most famous family of restaurateurs, the Plascencias. In 2024, as the iconic salad celebrated its 100th anniversary, celebrations were held along Avenida Revolución — including the unveiling of a statue of Cardini in the act of making his namesake specialty — only a few blocks from where this signature Mexican dish was first served a century ago.

The birth of the Caesar salad

The original wasn’t the Caesar salad as most think of it today, There were no anchovies, no garlic, no croutons and as with any good Mexican recipe, squeezes of lime rather than lemon juice were used. In total, there were just seven ingredients: romaine lettuce, grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and a dressing made with olive oil, egg yolk, salsa inglesa (Worcestershire sauce) and lime juice, plus a toasted slice of baguette-style bread placed on top. This eclectic mix, with preparation instructions such as a two-minute time limit on the “coddling” of eggs, resulted in the dish that the Parisian International Society of Epicures declared in 1953 to be “the greatest recipe to originate from the Americas in 50 years.”

How did Cardini, a man who originally hailed from Baveno, Italy, who emigrated to the U.S. along with his brothers for a fresh start and who achieved no great success with his early restaurants in Sacramento and San Diego, achieve something so singularly remarkable in Tijuana? That’s a difficult question, one complicated by the competing claims for credit that often go hand-in-hand with any new dish that acquires “classic” status. 

But if you believe Cardini’s story, as related by his late daughter Rosa, it was simple desperation. On July 4, 1924, the restaurant was packed with revelers celebrating U.S. Independence Day. At some point, running low on almost everything, he was forced to improvise, using what few ingredients he had left to create a salad. Or, rather, to create “the” salad. 

How the Caesar salad conquered the world

There are alternate theories. Some believe, for example, that Cardini’s brother Alessandro, also called Alex, was the true inventor of the salad. A veteran of the Italian Air Force, one version of the origin story has him whipping up the salad for some aviator buddies. Thus, it was called the “aviator salad” before being renamed for his fratello-cum-hermano Caesar. However, according to The Los Angeles Times, this tale came from a Detroit restaurateur named “Monsieur Joseph” Calemme and despite being published by Gourmet Magazine deserves zero credence. Still, several cookbooks have repeated it, and Alex did have chef skills, as he later demonstrated.

But considering who the salad is named for, it’s hard to credit anyone but Caesar himself for the salad’s birth. He died in 1956 but his daughter Rosa backed up his claim to the salad and dressing he began bottling in the 1940s — she later patented it under his name. It’s still sold that way, although she sold the rights to a manufacturing company called Dolefan Corp. in 1988, and it has since been resold to T. Marzetti.

In the early days of Caesar’s restaurant, movie stars like Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and Rita Hayworth spread the salad’s fame. Later, so too did Julia Child. The future author and television star visited during her youth and would remember the intense emotion she experienced while eating the salad. Chefs in the U.S. and Europe soon began refining their own Caesar recipes, although it was the popularity of the cookbook “The Joy of Cooking” in the early 1950s that made it a household word. Today, AP reports that an astonishing 35% of restaurants in the U.S. feature Caesar salads on their menus. 

The rebirth of the Caesar salad in Tijuana

A year before decamping with his family to Los Angeles in 1928, Cardini had moved his business from the restaurant on Calle Tercera where his famed salad was created to a new one on Avenida Revolución — the Hotel Caesar came later, in 1931. This is the eatery reimagined as Caesar’s Restaurante Bar in 2010, although it should be noted that the place has been in operation, albeit under numerous owners and with varying degrees of success, for nearly a century. 

It’s hard to overstate how important the Plascencia family, who acquired the historic property, is to the food scene in Tijuana. From “Nana Chela,” who cooked for the legendary Agua Caliente casino in the 1930s and 1940s to Juan José Plascencia, who opened Giuseppi’s, the city and perhaps the country’s first pizzeria in 1969, the family has deep culinary roots in the border city. Grupo Plascencia now boasts five restaurant brands, and the Plascencia’s most famous family member, chef Javier Plascencia — who helped revive Caesar’s fortunes and was one of the founders of Baja Med cuisine at Misión 19 — has seven more of his own that stretch the length of the Baja California peninsula from Tijuana to San José del Cabo.

Caesar’s preserves the original bar and the restaurant is still designed to look as it might have back in 1927. Photos of the restaurant’s long history also adorn the walls, but some things have changed. The namesake salads, for instance, are now made with anchovies, garlic and exactly two croutons. Tableside service, as always though, remains a specialty. This service aspect of the salad has been lost in many locales but is still practiced in Baja California. At Caesar’s, where scores of salads are ordered nightly, waiters make them using wooden bowls and mixing pallets. No one knows why cured wood matters to the finished product, but it certainly seems to. However, high-quality service is the real secret ingredient for this acclaimed Baja food dish.

Chris Sands is the Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best, writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook and a contributor to numerous websites and publications, including Tasting Table, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise, Cabo Living and Mexico News Daily. His specialty is travel-related content and lifestyle features focused on food, wine and golf.