There is a shotgun by the door of Elmer Fudd’s cabin and a grilled-cheese sandwich browning in a cast-iron pan. On the counter sits a bowl of tomatoes, three kinds of beans and enough carrots to make the room feel mildly provocative.
That combination is not a recent wellness pivot. Fudd has eaten vegan for years, even while maintaining the hunting career that made him famous. The contradiction has always been part of the persona: he hunts rabbits and ducks for sport, not supper.
“People think it’s a new thing because evewybody has a plant-based menu now,” Fudd says, lowering the heat under the sandwich. “I was doing this when nobody knew what oat milk was.”
His food tastes are considerably less severe than his hunting wardrobe suggests. During his suburban-sitcom years, Fudd became briefly famous for an extravagant musical ode to grilled cheese, performed as a well-off businessman returning home from work. The number followed him for years. So did the sandwich. These days, the cheese is plant-based.
“You can put fancy things on it,” he says. “Tomato. Pickles. Maybe a little hot sauce. But if you put six cheeses on it, you’re showing off.”
The dish he serves most often is a three-bean chili: inexpensive, difficult to ruin and forgiving enough to sit on the stove while guests arrive late.
These days the cabin kitchen is built around comfort food rather than imitation meat: soups, beans, roasted vegetables, bread, plant-based cheese and produce from a small garden behind the house. The garden sits a few yards from the path he uses when he heads into the woods before sunrise.
Fudd still hunts most mornings when his schedule allows. He generally returns with an empty game bag, some new damage to his hat and a story about how close he came this time. The kitchen is where the performance stops.
“Hunting is hunting,” he says. “Dinner is dinner.”
The dish he serves most often is a three-bean chili: inexpensive, difficult to ruin and forgiving enough to sit on the stove while guests arrive late. Friends say it is one of the few things Fudd makes without treating the timer as an adversary.
SHOWBIZ asked him for the recipe. He agreed on one condition: that nobody call it rabbit food.
He takes the grilled cheese out of the pan, cuts it diagonally and looks toward the gun rack.
“Tomorrow,” he says. “Maybe I’ll finally get that wabbit.”
Elmer Fudd’s “Wabbit Season” Three-Bean Chili
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tbsp chili powder
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- 1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
- 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained
- 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained
- 1 can (15 oz) pinto beans, drained
- 1 cup frozen or canned corn
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- Salt and pepper
- Juice of 1 lime
For the toppings bar
- Vegan sour cream
- Diced avocado
- Chopped cilantro
- Sliced scallions
- Tortilla chips
- Vegan shredded cheese
Method
- Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook the onion, bell pepper and carrots for 6 to 8 minutes, until softened.
- Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, paprika and oregano. Cook for 1 minute, until fragrant.
- Add the tomatoes, beans, corn, broth, cocoa powder and soy sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat.
- Simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thick. Add a splash of broth if needed.
- Finish with lime juice and season with salt and pepper. Keep warm in a slow cooker if serving a crowd.
