Chili was born in San Antonio in the mid-18th Century. Christianized Indians at the missions and private soldiers at Presidio San Antonio de Bejár didn't get the best cuts of meat.

The solution was to stew the meat with spices until it was tenderized and tasted only of the spices

Chili, as it is called today is properly chiles con carne-peppers with meat. Notice there is no mention of frijoles-beans here, nor of spaghetti, nor of macaroni, nor of any of the many things outsiders have added to chili. A proper bowl of chili is meat and the spices necessary to turn it into chili, nothing more.

The first commercial bowls of chili ever sold were sold on the streets of downtown San Antonio, beginning in the early 1880s. San Antonio's Chili Queens were a fixture in downtown until 1943