Mother Teressa invented Buffalo Wings

A story of serendipity and sauciness (plus a recipe for buffalo chicken dip)

When it comes to the origin story of a dish, it’s all about winging it. 

There aren’t exclamations of eureka, no moment where a chef working on a new dish steps back and thinks: “I’ve done it, I’ve created the next global phenomenon of snack food.” For the most part, these influential dishes were tossed together haphazardly.

A demanding regular asking for something new brought about the creation of Eggs Benedict at Delmonico’s in 1860s New York; a dinner rush in Tijuana resulted in Caesar Cardini whipping up the Caesar Salad for the first time in the 1920s with random ingredients in his restaurant kitchen; brothers Pat and Harry Olivieri deciding to switch things up at their hot dog stand by combining steak, cheese, and grilled onions on a bun to create the Philly Cheesesteak.

The world’s most famous dishes were improvisations in a moment of kitchen chaos.

If you want some more American origin stories, check out Thrillist’s list of the most important dishes in the United States from the 1910s to today. You can also learn about some of the world’s most influential meals in Signature Dishes That Matter, a book by a collection of food historians and chefs that tells the origin stories of the world’s most famous dishes like the Club Sandwich, Margarita Pizza and Nachos, plus recipes! (It’s also a gorgeous book to own)

In my upcoming book, Where We Ate: A Field Guide to Canada's Restaurants, Past and Present, I recount some of the origin stories of Canada's favourite dishes; poutine, donairs and Hawaiian pizza (created because of a dairy surplus, an adaption to local tastes and a can of pineapple on a shelf, respectively), and the origin stories of America’s favourite dishes has always fascinated me, probably because so many of these dishes are equally as popular here in Canada, like Buffalo wings.

The chicken wing is probably the most popular food that’s ever come out of America and like all origin stories, there are multiple storylines for how Buffalo wings came to be.

The most popular is that Buffalo Wings were invented at the Ancho Bar in Buffalo (duh) by co-owner Teressa Bellissimo; in 1964 her son Dominic was tending bar when his friends came in late one night asking for some grub. Teressa cut up some chicken wings and tossed them in a buttery hot sauce and served them with celery and blue cheese dressing because that’s all she had on hand after a busy Friday night.

Legend has it that they started serving them in the restaurant (which still exists, you can visit the Anchor Bar to try the inception wings) and she got the nickname “Mother Teressa” later from those devoted to the winged wonder.

Like most origin stories there are some discrepancies. In Calvin Trillin’s amusing and well-researched New Yorker article from 1980 about the invention of Buffalo wings, Teressa’s husband Frank told him that the wings were invented out of necessity when the bar received a whole bunch of extra wings in their shipment, but Dominic’s claims seem to be the story most people accept as the truth: that his mom made him and his friends some amazing drunk food that took off like gangbusters.

For many years, those crispy unbreaded wings with a cayenne pepper, vinegar, and butter sauce were a regional favourite, devoured by the basket-full in the New York state throughout the 1980s. But some theorize it was because the Buffalo Bills went to the Super Bowl four times in a row in the early 1990s that cemented Buffalo wings as the ideal game-watching food. 

These days football and chicken wings are inextricably linked: Americans eat more than a billion every year!

This simple dish went from a mom’s late-night offering to a global phenomenon so ingrained in the culinary culture that there is now Buffalo chicken pasta, Buffalo chicken wraps, Buffalo chicken pizza, Buffalo chicken sandwiches, Buffalo chicken soup, and even Buffalo cauliflower “wings.”

How does a dish go from “tossed together” to superstardom? Many of the origin stories recount succinctly “it became popular,” narrating an anecdote repeatedly, which eventually becomes an urban legend making its way into news articles and history books. But unfortunately, historians and diners don’t have a metric for predicting that what they ate for dinner last night is the next significant dish.  

I wonder sometimes if I’ve ever been party to the invention of the next great snack food — as a food writer and a restaurant critic, I’m aware that how I talk about a dish can reinforce a storyline, but who knows?

For now, I’ll just keep eating and noting the yummy ones, and maybe the next chicken wing is just around the corner.

Speaking of chicken wings, I love them, but in years of late, my heart has been all for the dip!

People are always asking for my recipe, so without further ado, my recipe for Buffalo Chicken Dip!

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Buffalo Chicken Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded (or around 1.5 cups of shredded rotisserie chicken for your convenience)

• 1 package (8 ounces) of cream cheese, softened to room temperature

• 1/2 cup hot sauce (I always use Frank’s Red Hot NOT Frank’s Buffalo sauce; it's too subtle)

• 1/2 cup ranch dressing (I stan Hidden Valley Ranch)

• 2 cups of grated cheddar and parmesan cheese (or your favourite melty cheese)

• Green onion, for garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C). Place the oven rack in the middle of your oven.

2. In a large bowl, mix the shredded chicken, softened cream cheese, hot sauce, and ranch dressing until combined. Transfer to an oven-proof dish and top with the grated cheeses. 

3. Bake until the dip is bubbling around the edges and the cheese on top has fully melted, around 15-20 minutes, then broil for a further minute to brown on top.

4. Make sure to let it cool for a few minutes to save the roof of your mouth from burning and serve the dip with nacho chips, veggies or crusty bread.

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