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National Geographic
3 days ago
- National Geographic
The story behind Caesar salad
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). Crisp, fresh and satisfying, Caesar salad is a dish that's conquered dining outlets the world over, from your neighbourhood bistro and Pret A Manger to Michelin-starred marvels like Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles. While mayonnaise-heavy iterations haunt room-service menus in hotels far and wide, Caesar salad purists live and breathe its original recipe: whole romaine lettuce leaves, crunchy garlic croutons tossed in a tangy, raw-egg-based dressing of minced anchovies and garlic, dijon mustard, lemon, salt and pepper, topped with shaved parmesan. This punchy salad's basic, accessible ingredients mean it's a fabulously flexible dish, easy to spruce up, adding extras to the core ingredients. That's maybe why, in 1953, the Paris-based International Society of Epicures hailed the recipe as 'the greatest to originate in the Americas in 50 years' and why it hasn't fallen off the restaurant radar in its 101 years of existence. Take LA's Bar Etoile, where the salad is transformed into a mighty beef tartare hybrid. Thick slices of toasted bread are layered with the dressing and raw beef mixed with speckles of anchovy plus freshly grated lemon zest and parmesan. But if you're a Caesar purist, you might want to instead sample the original at Quebec's Le Continental, complete with the spectacle of it being put together tableside. The original recipe of Caesar salad consists of whole romaine lettuce leaves and garlic croutons tossed in a dressing of egg yolks, anchovies, garlic, dijon mustard, lemon, salt and pepper, topped with shaved parmesan. Photography by Lisovskaya Natalia, Getty Images Origin The Caesar salad was born in 1924 in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, where Italian immigrant Caesar Cardini had opened Restaurante Caesar's to attract US visitors craving an escape from the prohibition laws. The story goes that on a bustling Fourth of July, the restaurant was running short on menu items, so Caesar snatched up the leftover ingredients, rolled them out in a dining cart in the presence of drunk, hunger-stricken Americans, and prepared an improvised salad with a theatrical flourish, tableside, distracting them from the random ingredients. It was an unexpected success. Word spread to the US, then across the world. Silver-screen celebrities including Clark Gable and Jean Harlow flocked to the border town to try it. When legendary 1960s US food broadcaster Julia Child made a pilgrimage, she called the dish 'a sensation of a salad from coast to coast'. While Caesar is credited with inventing the dish, some historians credit his brother, Alex Cardini, with creating the definitive version. They say it was he who added anchovies and dijon mustard to the dressing of the original recipe — ingredients still used in the salad to this day. Livio Santini, a cook at Caesar's restaurant, also threw his name in the ring, claiming that the original recipe was his mother's. The world may never know the true inventor, but historians do agree it's a Tijuana creation. Visit Caesar's today, and you'll find a portrait of Cardini hung on the wall opposite Santini's, commemorating the salad's legacy. Tijuana native, Frank Vizcarra, is owner of taco and cocktail joint, Lola 55, and serves up a Caesar salad that's seasoned with pasilla chilli salt for extra Mexican pizazz. How is it made? Traditionally, Caesar salad would be made tableside, showcasing the freshness of the ingredients, and adding dramatics to the diner's experience. In a large wooden bowl, the ensalador, or 'salad maker', adds each ingredient one by one. First, the diced garlic, then Worcestershire sauce, raw egg yolk, lime juice, cracked pepper and a pinch of salt. Next, the olive oil is slowly incorporated into the bowl while whisking, followed by grated parmesan. Once it's thickened into a creamy, tangy dressing, whole romaine leaves are added and tossed, then the croutons. The lettuce is then laid out on a plate, then croutons, before more of that precious parmesan is grated on top. Nowadays, most restaurants use Alex Cardini's variation of the Caesar, swapping out the Worcestershire sauce for anchovies minced to a paste; dijon mustard and lemon instead of lime (which was probably a translation error by Americans who thought 'limon' meant 'lemon'). And salad prep mostly stays in the kitchen, although those who revel in its history still offer the tableside show. At LA's Bar Etoile, the salad is transformed into a mighty beef tartare hybrid. Photograph by Kort Havens Where to try it Caesar's, Tijuana While the exact original recipe is no longer offered – today, the dressing uses Worcestershire, anchovies, Tabasco and lemon along with roasted and raw garlic – foodies still flock to Caesar's Restaurants to get the original tableside show. Last year, Caesar's celebrated the salad's 100th anniversary, with chefs including José Andrés and Dominique Crenn attending to honour the immortal dish. Paradise Point Resort & Spa, San Diego Paradise Point Resort & Spa serves what it calls the 'Original Caesar'. Romaine hearts and house-made croutons are tossed in a dressing that substitutes the minced garlic and lemon juice of the standard recipe for roasted garlic and lime. And it dares to test purists by offering additional protein: chicken, salmon or shrimp. Lola 55 Tacos & Cocktails, San Diego Tijuana native, Frank Vizcarra, is owner of this taco and cocktail joint that serves up a Caesar salad that's seasoned with pasilla chilli salt for extra Mexican pizazz and accompanied by a whole grilled lemon on the side. Dan Tana's, LA This stalwart Santa Monica Boulevard restaurant opened in 1964 and is one of few still offering the original tableside Caesar experience. To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
Forbes
03-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Recombinant Innovation And The Biology Of Shared Value
Leaders who master recombinant innovation will have a strategic advantage To begin understanding recombinant innovation, let's start with an original story. Legend has it that the Caesar salad was invented not in Italy, but in Tijuana, Mexico—on a very specific day: July 4, 1924. Restaurateur Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant, was running low on ingredients at his American-style steakhouse during a particularly busy Independence Day. It was Prohibition-era, and his restaurant—just across the border—had become a magnet for Americans, especially U.S. Navy sailors from nearby San Diego, seeking a drink and a good meal. Faced with a crowded dining room and dwindling supplies, Cardini improvised. He grabbed romaine, eggs, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, a bit of Parmesan, some olive oil, and croutons. What resulted wasn't just a solution—it was a sensation. A salad, born of necessity and assembled from ordinary ingredients, became iconic. This is more than a charming bit of culinary history. It's a crisp, unforgettable example of recombinant innovation—the practice of combining existing assets in new and useful ways. From salad bowls to smartphones to cross-sector partnerships, many of the most transformative innovations aren't built from scratch. They're re-combinations. And understanding how to lead this kind of innovation is more critical now than ever. As the world grows more complex and interdependent, leaders are tasked with more than just creative thinking. They're being called to create shared value—outcomes that benefit multiple stakeholders at once. The key isn't invention. It's orchestration. And the secret lies in how we combine what's already at hand. Recombinant innovation is the process of combining existing capabilities, technologies, or ideas in new ways to generate novel value. No new invention is required—just a new configuration. Consider the first smartphone. Every component already existed: touchscreen technology, mobile computing, cellular communication, satellite systems. But the breakthrough wasn't in the parts—it was in how they were arranged. The result was a device that redefined not only communication, but commerce, culture, and community. This kind of innovation mirrors biological systems. In evolution, genetic recombination allows organisms to adapt by mixing and matching DNA segments. It's nature's way of producing novelty without starting from scratch. The same holds true in leadership. When we combine existing social, technological, or organizational assets in new ways, we create value that no single asset could generate on its own. The key isn't just innovation. It's shared value—benefits that emerge from collaboration, not competition. In a previous Forbes article, we explored the importance of identifying 'hidden assets'—resources, skills, or relationships that exist within a system but aren't currently being leveraged. This is 'Rule 3' of a strategy discipline called Strategic Doing incubated at Purdue University. Strategic Doing This is where recombinant innovation begins. Much like Cardini didn't need to invent new ingredients to make the Caesar salad, leaders don't need to invent from scratch. They need to see what's already present but overlooked. Our brains are wired to focus on novelty and overlook the familiar. That's a survival adaptation—but in leadership, it can cause us to miss opportunities hiding in plain sight. To innovate in this way, leaders must develop a new kind of attentiveness: one that spots the peripheral and sees potential where others see routine. Once hidden assets are surfaced, the next move is Rule #4 of Strategic Doing: link and leverage your assets to create new strategic opportunities. Biologically speaking, organisms don't grow more complex by accumulating more parts—they do it by reconfiguring what they already have. A feather, for example, evolved from scales. The biological term for this is exaptation: traits evolved for one purpose get repurposed for another. In leadership, this same principle applies. A marketing team's storytelling skill might become a strategic asset in stakeholder engagement. A warehouse's inventory system might evolve into a real-time analytics hub. Leaders must cultivate the ability to see across categories, to help their teams recognize how an asset used in one context might add value in another. Here's the pivot: recombinant innovation isn't just a thinking exercise. It's a behavioral design challenge. That's where leadership comes in. The biology of behavior tells us that social bonding, reciprocity, and co-regulation are the foundation of human cooperation. If you want people to recombine their assets—whether intellectual, relational, or logistical—you need to design the interactions that make that feel safe, rewarding, and energizing. Leaders act as behavioral architects, designing processes and conditions that encourage openness, trust, and shared experimentation. This includes: These aren't soft skills. They're hardwired enablers of innovation. Why does recombinant innovation matter now more than ever? Because complexity is the new normal. Whether you're navigating shifting markets, managing hybrid teams, or tackling multi-stakeholder initiatives, today's leaders can't rely on linear planning alone. They need to lead in ecosystems—where assets are distributed, boundaries are fluid, and outcomes are co-created. This is where shared value becomes more than a moral stance. It becomes a strategic necessity. In high-complexity environments, value is rarely generated in a single silo. It emerges when disparate parts of the system connect in novel ways. Leaders who can spot those potential connections—and create the conditions for them to take shape—will outperform those who wait for top-down solutions. We're entering an age where more value will be created by reconfiguring the existing than by inventing the entirely new. The post-pandemic world has revealed fault lines in our systems—but also unlocked a massive pool of untapped potential. Across sectors, we're seeing a hunger for innovation that is practical, participatory, and rooted in shared purpose. This is exactly what recombinant innovation delivers. It's time we treat it not just as a happy accident—but as a teachable, learnable leadership skill. One that draws from both strategy and biology. One that equips us to build what's next, with what we already have. Back in that Tijuana kitchen, Caesar Cardini didn't need a new invention. He needed a new combination. The same is true for us. Whether you're leading a team, a community, or a company, the assets for innovation are likely already nearby. Your job is to help people see differently, combine wisely, and build something of shared value. That's recombinant innovation, one of the most vital leadership skills of our time.
