Welcome To The Legendary Hollywood Haunt Chasen’s!
Week #44 in my “52 In 22” cooking challenge heads back in time to celebrate an iconic Hollywood restaurant – and one of the town’s most legendary stars!
Yes, Chasen’s was a classic “Hollywood haunt” – and a favorite dining spot for some of entertainment’s biggest stars!
One of the restaurant’s most devoted regulars was Actress Elizabeth Taylor!
That’s Liz with Eddie Fisher in one of the restaurant’s red leather banquettes…while the restaurant is long gone, many legends live on – and the restaurant is now a Bristol Farms grocery store – where they wisely kept a small section of the restaurant preserved with a few of the original booths!
Legend has it that Elizabeth Taylor – while working for a year in Rome making the 1963 film “Cleopatra” – would have the movie studio fly Chasen’s legendary chili to the film set so she could eat it while filming on location!
You can buy food from the store and eat it there – but I say let’s make their classic chili recipe at home to honor the great Liz Taylor!
The Stories of “L.A’s Legendary Restaurants!”
I love this book, which is an affectionate look at some of Hollywood’s most iconic restaurants, including Chasen’s!
Here’s a bit more on why I’m so fascinated by Hollywood restaurants:
While the recipe isn’t in the book, there is a great history of the restaurant inside, and that led me to look up their famous chili recipe online to make at home – let’s go!
Here are the ingredients for “Chasen’s Chili”:
1 can pinto beans
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 cups chopped red bell pepper
2 cups chopped onion
1⁄4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1⁄4 pounds ground round
1⁄2 pound lean ground pork
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1⁄2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil; swirl to coat. Add the chopped bell pepper and onion; cook 8 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently.
Add the chopped parsley and garlic; cook for a minute.
Isn’t that a beautiful rainbow of colors?
Next, add your chopped tomatoes and ground beef along with all remaining ingredients.
Stir it all together and cook 8 minutes or until the meat is browned. Take your time, the smell is heavenly!
Now, add you canned kidney beans…you can make use dry beans as well, but if you don’t want that separate step of cooking them before making the chili, these are delicious and work perfectly.
Bring your chili to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes…you can lift the lid every few minutes, give it a stir, and smell the incredible aroma!
Here’s a look:
While it simmers away, I took some onion, parsley and cheddar cheese and chopped them ll up so they were ready to add at the end:
Now, it’s time to serve!
Chili is not only one of the easiest dishes to plate, but one of the most beautiful as well!
This is a delicious bowl of Chili! Of course there’s the meat-bean-tomato holy trinity, but the bell pepper and spice mix gives it a nice pop in the mouth, and I love to load it up with toppings as well!
I love cooking through Hollywood’s culinary history – I did just that earlier this year when I paid homage to Musso & Frank, Hollywood’s oldest restaurant!
Click here for the recipes for two incredible dishes, and the best Martini in Hollywood as well!
Staying on an entertainment theme, I also cooked from the late TV Host and Chef Anthony Bourdain’s first cookbook:
This “Bacon-Wrapped Pork Tenderloin” was delicious and looked good too!
See the entire recipe by clicking here:
Bourdain was a great TV Host as well as Chef – and here’s an Actor who became a great TV Host as well:
Stanley Tucci loves to cook as well, so I made his family’s Chicken Caiiatore recipe – here’s the recipe:
About Stanley Tucci: you may know that I became obsessed with a dish he cooked on his CNN travel series.
How obsessed?
THIS OBSESSED!
I made “Spaghetti alla Nerano” with some added “Zoodles” as well – click here for this amazingly delicious recipe!
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Categories: 52 In 22!, Bite Eat Swallow, Bite! Eat! Repeat!, Books / Media, Cookbooks, Eat This!, Food, Food Pictures, Food Porn, Recipes, Restaurants, Wacky Food
Bite! Eat! Repeat! 
There is nothing like a good hot bowl of chilli and this looks and sounds delicious, John…
Hi John, I love chili and these looks great. In the ingredients you typed ground round (above ground pork) and I was really puzzled. I think its a typo as you refer to beef later. I was thinking, what on earth is round.
His recipe calls it “ground round” which is old way of referring to ground beef but i should change that! Thanks!
Okay, that is interesting to know. A new term to me.