Booyah heading toward official state status
GREEN BAY — A Northeastern Wisconsin icon is making its way to star status as the official state soup.
Rep. John Macco, R-Ledgeview, has introduced a bill that would put chicken booyah in the same league as the state bird (the robin), the state fossil (the trilobite) and the state soil (Antigo silt loam).
Booyah is a chicken-based soup introduced to Northeastern Wisconsin by people of Belgian descent, although its specific origin in the area has been the subject of debate. Generally cooked in enormous kettles, the soup frequently plays a major role in church fundraising events in the area.
Macco, a first-term representative, is well aware that Wisconsin has plenty of more important issues than naming a state soup, but he introduced the bill as a fun way of giving some recognition to the state's formidable Belgian-American population and the importance of the 8th Congressional District to the state.
"There's so much stuff we do that's very detailed and esoteric," he said. "Wisconsin is a $36 billion organization ... so much of what we do is dry."
The proposal already has bipartisan support. Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay, is a co-sponsor, along with Terese Berceau, D-Madison, a Green Bay native. Sen. Frank Lasee, R-De Pere, Rep. Joel Kitchens, R-Sturgeon Bay, and Republican Reps. Eric Genrich and David Steffen, both of Green Bay, are also co-sponsors.
"Look, it's bipartisan!" Hansen said. "We're getting along!"
The only argument on the floor likely will be whether booyah is better with or without bones, Hansen said, adding that he preferred his without.
“The century-old tradition of booyah in northeastern Wisconsin is a fun and unique way to celebrate our Belgian heritage," Berceau said. "Churches, schools and non-profit organizations have held booyah picnic fundraisers for decades. Friendly rivalries developed around these events, with each group vying for booyah superiority with its own special recipe. Booyah and these festivals and picnics and the sense of community they fostered are part of why I’m so proud to be from Green Bay.”
If all goes well, booyah could make its way to becoming an official Wisconsin symbol — along with milk, the kringle, the dairy cow, the polka and the muskellunge — as soon as February, Macco said. He hopes the bill eventually can be signed into law at a Belgian kermiss-styled event, featuring booyah, trippe and Belgian pie.
Macco, who describes himself as a Belgian-American, said immigration is a hot-button issue in Wisconsin and elsewhere these days, but, "we are a state, a country of immigrants ... In Wisconsin, which is not quite 100 years younger than some of the original 13 colonies, almost all of our citizens, except Native Americans, are immigrants, with parts of the state being Polish, German ... ours happens to be Belgian. What we're going through now is not any different from what we've always gone through."
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