Katz’s chili update has a bit of a Middle Eastern flavor profile. | Photos courtesy of Katz’s Delicatessen.
Katz’s Delicatessen, a fixture on the Lower East Side of New York City since 1888, has been immortalized in that famous “I’ll have what she’s having” scene in the movie “When Harry Met Sally.” But on the food side, the 137-year-old restaurant’s claim to fame is its overstuffed corned beef and pastrami sandwiches.
“We go through about 40,000 pounds of pastrami and 20,000 pounds of corned beef a week, so the sandwiches are definitely a big draw,” said Jake Dell, the fifth-generation family member operating the restaurant. The iconic deli still uses on-site tanks to cure the pastrami, and he wouldn’t touch the recipe.
But the chili is a different story.
“It’s not necessarily the most traditional deli item, so it was something where a little innovation made sense,” he said. “It’s been on the menu for 20 years, and this was the perfect opportunity to upgrade.”
Plus, Katz’s had easy access to the perfect ingredient for the upgrade. Jake’s wife, Amy Dell, had just started marketing a product called Saturday Sauce in foodservice-size packaging. She thought it was the perfect starter for a recipe makeover.
It starts with the sauce
Amy is from a family with Middle Eastern roots and she grew up in her dad’s restaurant. Saturday Sauce is basically chunks of tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, olive oil and a “secret blend of spices” including cumin and cayenne simmered together. As a passionate home cook, it’s something Amy always had in her fridge, she said. But it required some tweaks to bring it to scale.
Sababa Saturday Sauce now comes in foodservice-size packages.
“I adapted my dad’s recipe, working on the product for over a year until the sauce was where I wanted it to be to commercialize it,” she said. “I call it a starter sauce, because it’s really multi-purpose, like pasta sauce. You can mix it into grains, pour it over veggies or use it to make Moroccan-style fish or chicken. Right out of the jar, it’s a great base for shakshuka. All you have to do is add the eggs.”
Once the sauce was perfected, Amy partnered with Sababa Foods to bring it to retail. The company has a full line of Middle Eastern pantry items and just recently expanded into foodservice, packaging Saturday Sauce in 1-gallon jugs and soon-to-come 40-lb. bag-in-box formats.
The chili makeover begins
One day, Amy was making turkey chili at home, simmering it with the Saturday Sauce. “A lightbulb went off and we thought ‘this would be a natural way to integrate the product into Katz’s menu by using it in the chili,’” she said.
Katz’s is steeped in tradition and has remained true to its classic recipes, but the deli also embraces updates that honor its legacy. The chili is relatively new to the menu and wasn’t exactly a top seller, said Jake, so it was ripe for a revamp.
The original recipe had many of the same ingredients—a base of tomatoes, peppers, onions and spices—so the Saturday Sauce has a similar flavor profile but with more depth. “Plus, the added benefit is I don’t have to buy all those ingredients separately and spend the time and the manpower to make the sauce,” Jake added. “It simplifies my life and eases my labor costs and operations.” The kitchen basically adds ground beef and beans and the recipe is done.
Those who were familiar with Katz’s original chili probably wouldn’t be able to taste the difference, but for those who are new to the item, this was a chance to drive sales.
Katz’s Chili Dog
“We were selling maybe 40 or so pounds of chili a week, but in the first few weeks of the new recipe, we’ve seen a bit of an uptick,” said Jake. He hopes the trend will continue with colder weather around the corner. Chili dogs are also a popular vehicle for the updated recipe. “Many of my regulars will order a hot dog while they’re waiting on line for a sandwich,” he added.
What’s next?
Chili is a bit of a menu departure for Katz’s but it’s become a permanent item. Not so beef stroganoff—that strayed too far from tradition and came off the menu due to weak sales.
The deli’s menu strategy is to preserve the classics but create new traditions, said Jake. Pastrami Hash and a Pastrami Omelet are two items that go in that direction. “And when you combine the Pastrami Hash with the Saturday Sauce, it makes kind of a pulled pastrami,” said Jake. He’s a fan.
Katz’s only sells the Pastrami Hash online, but the couple is thinking of creating a shipping package that would include a jar of Saturday Sauce so people can make pulled pastrami at home. It works well with brisket too—another Katz’s staple.
And Amy is starting on R&D to expand her line of Middle Eastern products. Maybe something else will end up on Katz’s menu.
