Varallo's, the oldest restaurant in Tennessee, opened as a chili parlor in 1907, competing with other chili parlors that had opened in Nashville during the 1890s. After working at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Charles Taylor opened a chili parlor in Carlinville, Illinois, serving Mexican Chili. Each establishment usually had a claim to some kind of secret recipe.īy 1904, chili parlors were opening outside of Texas, in part due to the availability of commercial versions of chili powder, first manufactured in Texas in the late 19th century. Chili parlors Ī pot of chili with whole green hot chilis, kidney beans, and tomatoesīefore World War II, hundreds of small, family-run chili parlors could be found throughout Texas and other states, particularly those in which émigré Texans had made new homes. state of Texas as designated by the House Concurrent Resolution Number 18 of the 65th Texas Legislature during its regular session in 1977. Chili con carne is the official dish of the U.S.

San Antonio was a tourist destination and helped Texas-style chili con carne spread throughout the South and West. The San Antonio Chili Stand, in operation at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, helped popularize chili by giving many Americans their first taste of it. The chili queens of San Antonio, Texas were particularly famous in previous decades for selling their inexpensive chili-flavored beef stew in their casual 'chili joints'. Unlike some other Texas foods, such as barbecued brisket, chili largely originated with working-class Tejana and Mexican women. Ĭhili became commonly prepared in northern Mexico and southern Texas. A recipe dating back to the 1850s describes dried beef, suet, dried chili peppers and salt, which were pounded together, formed into bricks and left to dry, which could then be boiled in pots in an army encampment in Monterrey, of what is now Nuevo León, Mexico. In Spanish, the term 'chili con carne', consisting of the word chili (from the Nahuatl chīlli) and carne, Spanish for 'meat', is first recorded in a book from 1857 about the Mexican-American War. The use of beef as the primary meat originated with Spanish colonizers.

In writings from 1529, the Franciscan friar, Bernardino de Sahagún described chili pepper-seasoned stews being consumed in the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, now the location of Mexico City.

Chili con carnage