The Caesar salad has nothing to do with Rome. It was born on July 4, 1924 in Tijuana, where Italian immigrant Caesar Cardini ran a restaurant on Avenida Revolucion catering to Americans escaping Prohibition. When a holiday crowd emptied his pantry, he improvised with whole romaine leaves, olive oil, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, Parmesan, garlic croutons, and coddled eggs, then tossed it tableside on a rolling cart so the theatrics would disguise the desperation. Notably absent: anchovies, which Cardini considered too overpowering even though Worcestershire sauce is made from them.

The episode follows the salad's rise and the fights over its origin, from brother Alex Cardini's Aviator Salad claim to cook Livio Santini's assertion that the recipe was his mother's, and how a 2024 retrospective settled the question in Caesar's favor. A yo ...