He called it the cowboys’ caviar and a bowl of blessedness.

any people know that Will Rogers was a Wild West show performer, vaudevillian, newspaperman, radio pundit, philosopher and actor. But, did you know Will loved food? Not just to eat to fill his belly, but he loved food. About food, he said, “We only have one or two wars in a lifetime. But we have three meals a day. When you have helped raise the standard of cooking then you would have raised the only thing in the world that matters.”

What were some of Will Rogers’ favorite foods? His son James Rogers recalled, “Since Dad came from Oklahoma and grew up on country cooking, his favorite dishes were plain and simple. He sure liked a mess of hot biscuits with cream gravy. Chili was high on his list of favorite foods. But I think that a big bowl of whiter, navy beans cooked with ham hocks and served real soupy would be his first choice.” He also recalled their cook, Lilly, bringing a large crock that held over a half gallon, of these beans to the table with a platter piled high with corn bread. He wrote, “We would smother the corn bread with beans and sit there and eat and talk until that old crock was empty.”

Will loved chili and believed it was the best thing to eat for many reasons. He once wrote, “You can have fried chicken anywhere but there’s only one place to have Ike’s chili,” and “Ike’s chili is a bowl of blessedness,” and “Chili is cowboys’ caviar.” According to Oklahoma’s Claremore Weekly Express, Ivan “Ike” O. Johnson worked for J.C. Morris, who introduced chili to the 60 residents in 1893. Morris wrote, “People certainly did like to eat chili. Guess they still do. I had a bright young fellow working for me then. His name was Ike and I taught him all I knew about the chili business.” Ike opened his first location in 1925 and became known as the Tulsa Chili King by 1930, after opening chili parlors across the state. They knew Will so well that they once opened the restaurant after hours so he could get a bowl of their chili. Will had his choice of chili four ways—chili and beans, chili and spaghetti, plain chili, and spaghetti with chili and beans. I’m bettin’ Will was a plain chili kind of guy.

Will also loved his sister’s chili recipe. When he was suffering from gallstones, he proclaimed that he had, “nuthin’ a bowl of chili wouldn’t cure.” He also shared, “Always liked chili. I’ve always said nobody could make a decent banquet speech unless he has a good dish of chili, the real Mexican kind.” He had a knack for finding hole-in-the-wall spots in the towns and cities he visited, including places like New York City. He also enjoyed the corned beef and cabbage at Dinty Moore’s restaurant when he was in the city.

In 1927 Will found a canned chili product he liked when he was in Corsicana, Texas. There he was presented with Lyman’s Famous Chili, which he liked so much, that he ordered two cases to have shipped to his home in Beverly Hills. Lyman Davis originally started selling his chili for five cents a bowl from the back of a wagon parked on the streets in downtown Corsicana in 1895. He then canned his chili and adopted the brand name Wolf Brand Chili, in honor of his pet wolf.

This chili recipe appeared in the Will Rogers Birthday Centennial Cookbook and shared by his granddaughter Jennifer Etcheverry. The recipe itself was contributed by the Beverly Hills Woman’s club cookbook from 1931. Will endorsed the recipe in this book and wrote, “Course we got some might fine recipes in here….”