Included with admission to Night Tours: Summer Twilight.

Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site kicks off its 2023 season of Night Tours: Summer Twilight with a chi chi cookoff on the evening of Thursday, May 25, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Three museum staffers with lived experience of incarceration will prepare their personal chi chi recipes to share with visitors that evening. Museum visitors can sample all three variations and vote for their favorite. The winner will receive a $500 cash prize.

Chi chi, also known as spread, is a staple prison comfort food made by incarcerated people using ingredients purchased from the commissary. Chi chi recipes vary, but commonly include ramen noodles, chips or cheese curls, meat, and sweeteners, all mixed together and heated with improvised tools.

The Contenders:

Dayshawn “Reno” Tillman
This self-proclaimed “chi chi master chef” from New Jersey is excited to show people that amazing food can be made with limited access to ingredients and cookware. While incarcerated, Reno, who had no access to a stove or microwave, engineered a stinger a out of a wash bucket, plastic bag, extension cord, and nail clippers, thus allowing him to boil water in his cell. His chi chi recipe requires 30 ingredients, including animal proteins (salmon, mackerel, tuna, chicken breast, turkey log, summer sausage), vegetables (green peppers, banana peppers, onion, broccoli, dill pickles), two types of ramen noodles, and several types of cheese and seasonings. Dayshawn says that cooking in prison provided “joy and a sense of acceptance in an environment that can mostly force a sense of hostility and anger.” He goes on to say, “For a brief moment while others are eating my cooking, they are taken away from the stresses of being in prison and missing a home cooked meal. When you eat a good meal, it makes you feel good. And who doesn't want to be happy?”

Tyrone “Bones Bizzy” Tate
While incarcerated, Tyrone, also known as Tee, T.Y., Ty, or Bones Bizzy, discovered cooking as a way to relieve stress and clear his mind. He prepared food for a group of fellow prisoners every other week, creating community and honing his cooking skills. “Cooking gives me peace of mind,” Tyrone says, “and helps me to understand that I have more to give and am a better individual when I am allowed to express and share more of me, as I'm doing now.” His chi chi recipe is unique in that it features a variety of fresh produce (onions, green peppers, garlic cloves, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, cilantro) in addition to more traditional ingredients (rice, noodles, cheese, sausage, fish, seasonings and sweeteners).

Maurice Grannum
For Maurice, chi chi brings back memories of being on lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic, when he and his cellmate often prepared and ate chi chi together. “During lockdown,” Maurice says, “everything was brought to us, and we never left our cell unless we had to use the bathroom, so it was a lot of working together. Teamwork is what we had to have under those circumstances.” His recipe requires two dozen ingredients, including rice, a variety of snack foods (cheese curls, nacho chips, Doritos), three types of cheese (squeeze cheese, shredded cheese, mozzarella), soups, chicken, seafood, and seasonings.

The chi chi cookoff event kicks off the penitentiary’s 2023 season of Night Tours: Summer Twilight, which offers exclusive evening access to the historic cellblocks, The Fair Chance Beer Garden, and a rotating selection of interactive programming. 

Chi chi samples available while supplies last. Included with admission to Night Tours: Summer Twilight on May 25, 2023 only. Tickets are available online or at the door, subject to availability.