With Arizona’s centennial right around the corner, two Mexican food restaurants, Phoenix’s Macayo’s Mexican Kitchen and Tucson’s El Charro Café, have teamed up to honor the state’s milestone by petitioning to have the chimichanga designated as Arizona’s official state food.
In order to make this savory dream a reality, the restaurants launched the Check Yes for Chimi campaign. The goal is to collect 5,000 signatures on the CYC website (checkyesforchimi.com) before handing the petition to the Arizona Legislature.
As of Tuesday, the campaign has collected more than 1,340 signatures.
“There is not a specific number (of signatures) we have to achieve,” Macayo’s marketing director Emily Lamar said. “Our goal is to show that there are thousands of people who support this cause and who also regard the chimi as a reputable food, as well as a valuable candidate for (the Arizona state food).”
The origin of the chimichanga has been long debated by Macayo’s founder Woody Johnson and El Charro’s founder Monica Flin, who both claim to have invented the dish.
According to El Charro legend, Flin accidentally dropped a pastry into a deep fryer in 1922 and the chimichanga was born, but Johnson claims to have invented the chimi in 1946 after putting unsold burritos from his restaurant into a deep fryer and selling them the next day.
“The vast majority of restaurants have chimichangas on the menu now,” Tempe Macayo’s General Manager Jeff Rhodes said. “Everybody knows what a chimi is and every restaurant has their own version of it.”
The chimichanga seemed to be the natural choice for the Arizona state food when both owners decided to stand behind one dish. Macayo’s reports roughly 300,000 chimi sales annually and sold 50,000 in the past month alone due to their promotional Chimi Fiesta.
Despite the lighthearted nature of the proposal, several members of the Arizona Legislature have frowned upon Check Yes for Chimi, arguing in this time of economic uncertainty, it’s inappropriate to spend time voting on an official state food.
“Although I do enjoy a good chimichanga, as well as the business Macayo’s Mexican Kitchen does for this state, this isn't Napoleon Dynamite,” said House Rep. Anna Tovar, D-Tolleson. “We clearly have more important things to focus on at the Legislature.”
Despite resistance in the Arizona legislature, CYC campaign supporters still have hope. Macayo’s Mexican Kitchen alone employs 1,100 employees and is the third largest manufacturer of chilis in the U.S., Lamar said.
“Our goal is to create a centennial celebration and to show how Mexican food really has influenced the economy,” she said.
Should the CYC campaign make it through the Legislature, Arizona will join the 33 other states with official foods, such as Lousiana (gumbo), Florida (key lime pie) and Minnesota (blueberry muffin).
Reach the reporter at doberhau@asu.edu
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