The Baseline

In the days when movie stars were really stars, they met at Chasen’s, a glamorous red-boothed restaurant in the outskirts of Hollywood. Ronald proposed to Nancy there. The Rat Pack tossed back martinis, Alfred Hitchcock rubbed shoulders with Humphrey Bogart. If the stargazing was good, so too was the rich, gently spiced chili, so good that it spawned its own legends—Elizabeth Taylor had 10 quarts shipped to her in Rome where she was filming “Cleopatra,” for one. What made it distinctive and delicious? A glut of green peppers, a mix of hand-ground beef chuck and pork butt, and heart-stopping amounts of butter, in which the meat spattered and browned.

Element of Distress

We cooked a batch based on a recipe in Chasen’s: Where Hollywood Dined—Recipes and Memories. We hand-diced beef chuck roast and pork butt, a tedious task, then browned the meat in a stick of melted butter with chopped green peppers, onion, and garlic. We simmered dried pinto beans that had soaked overnight, reserving the cooking water for the chili pot. At the end, we stirred in canned diced tomatoes, cumin, and chili powder. After an hour, the chili was meaty, rich, and tomato-heavy—but, to be frank, a little dull.

Line of Attack

We’d minimize the tedious kitchen work involved and boost the flavors into the 21^st century.

ONWARD

Perhaps movie stars have plenty of time to spend in the kitchen (as well as in a boudoir, rimming their eyes with kohl), but for the rest of us? We’d prefer to keep things simple.

Using canned beans was an easy way to streamline the recipe off the bat. As for the meat, to speed up the chopping process we turned to the food processor. But the preparation steps of trimming fat and gristle from the meat and cutting it into manageable chunks before processing were more work than we had bargained for. After multiple tests with multiple meats (braised country-style ribs, ground pork, hand-chopped pork butt), we found the perfect mix of richness and meatiness with browned-in-butter, braised-with-tomatoes, shredded-by-hand blade pork chops.

Now our diva dish needed a perk of flavor. Our addition of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce brought depth and heat. But something was still missing… or was it? Was all that butter actually hurting more than helping? We scaled back the butter by half, and… bingo.  The chili’s flavors now? They had a fighting chance to shine.

Our favorite way to enjoy Hollywood chili? Paired with a classic black-and-white American film—if not a martini (Frank Sinatra would approve).