A book with such an intriguing title is worth inspecting. This best-seller is written by Albert Jack (previously featured on The Gracevine), who hails from UK but is now a local Seapoint resident..

In this fascinating book about how dishes got their names, Jack dispels myths, rumours and assumptions and informs us that the good old Caesar salad did not hail from ancient Rome at all. It was an accident of ingredients created by an Italian immigrant to the US who set up a restaurant in Mexico to legally sell alcohol during American prohibition (1917 – 1933). Caesar Cardini’s restaurant became so popular that one Independence Day weekend he ran out of food. The book tells us, “He responded by throwing together a salad of basically whatever he had left in the kitchen; lettuce, croutons, parmesan, eggs, olive oil, lemon juice, black pepper and Worcestershire sauce.”

He named it “Aviator Salad” after a group from Hollywood who had flown in for the holiday weekend. It was only later changed to Caesar Salad and became a firm favourite with celebrities at the time. Caesar Cardini became a rich man and the Cardini Company produces some of America’s favourite salad dressings – click here for Cardini’s original Caesar Salad recipe.