Lettuce Celebrate Caesar’s Raw Eggs

Despite warnings that it’s a recipe for food poisoning, a mammoth Caesar salad was tossed Friday in San Francisco’s North Beach district to celebrate a politician’s legislation making it easier for California restaurants to serve the classic first course with raw eggs.

Chef Brian Whitmer of Moose’s restaurant tossed the 2-ton salad with oversized tongs in a 10-foot-high plastic container. Inside were 4,000 pounds of Romaine lettuce, 100 pounds of sourdough croutons and 25 gallons of dressing (including 500 raw eggs, anchovies, Parmesan cheese, garlic, Dijon mustard, lemon juice and red wine vinegar).

A city official was on hand to verify all 4,395 pounds of the salad for the Guinness Book of World Records. Of course, most of the salad was just unopened bags of lettuce, underneath a layer of fully prepared Caesar.