The minds behind New York’s Court Street Grocers — which specializes in “championing America’s overlooked hometown specialties” — have decided to recreate a version of Cincinnati-style chili at their new full-service eatery HiHi Room.
Matt Ross (of New Jersey) and Eric Finkelstein (of Queens) “have a particular thing for Ohio’s unofficial state food,” according to a story on Grub Street. And have attempted to recreate our chili with chef Walker Stern, a California native who had never heard of the dish, “and when he did, he wished he hadn’t,” says Grub Street. (Har har.)
The story says: “Initial recipe Googling did not go well. ‘Some of the recipes I saw were so insane,’ says Stern. ‘Like cover the meat with water and bring to a boil. Who’s making this stuff?'”
But after some experimenting, the team has crafted a version of Cincinnati chili made with a bolognese featuring duck liver and heart, served with hand-cut spaghetti — glazed in butter, chicken stock and Grana Padano — and topped with Cabot cheddar cheese and onions.
While Grub Street describes our hometown delicacy as a “soupy, Greek-style meat sauce that, in its highest form, gets sloshed atop intentionally overcooked spaghetti,” one is prompted to wonder how the addition of organ meat would improve it. (It would not.)
They also claim in the title of the story that HiHi Room has “cracked the code” on Cincinnati chili. (They have not; you can’t put duck in chili.)
And, in a final slight, Grub Street attempts to steal Cincinnati chili from Cincinnati by asserting Tom and John Kiradjieff of Empress Chili invented the chili to cover hot dogs they were selling in Brooklyn.
This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 10, 2019.