Ohio Food & traditional cuisine

Ohio's cooking is German, Greek, Appalachian and Amish, in that order of surprise. The Germans who were a third of Columbus and built Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine left breweries, sausage and goetta, the Cincinnati breakfast sausage of meat scraps, spices and oats; the Greeks left the state's most famous dish, Cincinnati chili, a Mediterranean-spiced meat sauce of cinnamon, allspice, clove and cumin invented by the Kiradjieff brothers, immigrants from a village in what is now northern Greece, in 1922 as a topping for hot dogs and spaghetti, served in "ways" -- a three-way with cheese, a four-way with onions or beans, a five-way with both -- and never, whatever the myth, with chocolate; more than 250 chili parlors serve it, Skyline since 1949, and Camp Washington Chili won a James Beard America's Classics award in 2000. Cleveland's signature is the Polish Boy, a kielbasa under coleslaw, fries and barbecue sauce; Columbus's is Johnny Marzetti, a noodle-and-beef casserole, and the White Castle chain; the state's is the buckeye, peanut-butter fudge dipped in chocolate to leave the eye of the nut showing, made the official state candy in 2025.

Downstate the Amish of Holmes County set the table -- pies, cheese, home-canned everything, sold from farm stands and family restaurants -- and Appalachian Ohio keeps the South's cooking north of the river. The markets are old and good: Cincinnati's Findlay Market since 1852, the oldest continuously operated public market in the state and one of Newsweek's top ten in the world, and Cleveland's West Side Market in its 1912 hall, Food Network's best food lovers' market in the country.

Cincinnati chili

The Greek-spiced meat sauce ladled over spaghetti or a coney: order a three-way (cheese), four-way (onions or beans) or five-way (both), with oyster crackers; no chocolate, and not eaten by the bowl.

Goetta

Cincinnati's German breakfast sausage of pork, oats and spices, sliced and fried crisp.

Polish Boy

Cleveland's sandwich: a kielbasa in a bun buried under coleslaw, French fries and barbecue sauce.

Buckeyes

Balls of peanut-butter fudge dipped in chocolate with the top left bare to resemble the nut of the state tree; the official state candy, and made at home at Christmas.

Johnny Marzetti

The Columbus casserole of noodles, ground beef, tomatoes and cheese, from the restaurant of the same name and now every church supper.

Amish table

Fried chicken, noodles, mashed potatoes, pie by the slice and Swiss cheese from the Holmes County dairies, served family style.

The chili parlor is Cincinnati's diner, open late, with the ways chalked up and a coney beside every plate. Findlay Market in Over-the-Rhine, open since 1852, and Cleveland's West Side Market of 1912 in Ohio City are the two great food halls, sausage-makers and bakers under one roof. The German districts -- Over-the-Rhine, German Village in Columbus -- brew again: the first Moerlein brewery opened in Over-the-Rhine in 1853, and both neighbourhoods keep the beer gardens.

Amish country is the market of the middle of the state: Holmes County's farm stands, cheese houses, bakeries and buffet restaurants, closed on Sunday. The State Fair in Columbus in late July, held since 1850 and a million strong in 2023, has shown a butter cow since 1903 and deep-fries everything, buckeyes included. Football Saturdays in Columbus and tailgates at every stadium are the autumn's eating.

Wine and beer: the Lake Erie shore's Pinot-belt vineyards and the island wineries, the Ohio River Valley trail between Cincinnati and Dayton, and craft brewers in every city.

Ohio was once the wine capital of the United States. Nicholas Longworth planted the first Alexander and Isabella grapes in the Ohio River valley at Cincinnati in 1823, his Catawba became the most important grape in the state by 1860 and his sparkling Catawba was famous enough for Longfellow to write it a poem, and in 1872 the Golden Eagle cellars on Middle Bass Island in Lake Erie were the largest winery in the country. Disease, the Civil War and Prohibition ended that first age; the second began with hybrids and, since the 1990s, vinifera, and by 2018 the state had 280 commercial wineries and was the sixth-largest producer in the country.

The five appellations are the Lake Erie shore -- whose southern coast sits in the same "Pinot belt" as Burgundy and the Willamette Valley, so that Wine Enthusiast credits it with innate potential -- the Grand River Valley east of Cleveland within it, an island appellation on North Bass Island, the Ohio River Valley of Longworth's Catawba, and Loramie Creek. Six trails string them: Lake Erie Shores and Islands, Vines and Wines, Canal Country, the Appalachian trail along the West Virginia line, the Ohio River Valley trail from Cincinnati to Dayton and the Capital City trail around Columbus. Cabernet Franc, Riesling and Pinot Noir lead the lake, Catawba and Concord-grape the heritage list; no tasting fee is stated here, because no winery page was opened.