KANSAS CITY, Mo., (Reuters) -- Kansas City chefs Friday fired up their grills and horsemen drove a herd of cattle through downtown as "cow town" launched a public relations battle against the Big Apple over bragging rights to the strip steak.
Agriculture industry officials said the boneless high-end steak cut commonly known today as the New York strip actually originated in the 1930s as the Kansas City strip -- when the Missouri city was a leading meat-packing center.The stockyards are empty now, but Kansas Citians are not willing to relinquish title and tradition without a fight.
"Kansas City for so long has tried to deny it is a cow town. This is what we need to do to take back the strip," said Lesley Hause, a member of the National Agri Marketing Association, which helped promote the event that featured chefs competing to grill the tastiest steaks and cattle parading through city streets.
The fact that many restaurant chains offer a "New York strip steak" because they think it is more sophisticated than a steak bearing the Kansas City moniker is particularly galling.
"We realize New York is a much more cosmopolitan name, but question how cattle and great steaks could ever find their origins in Central Park? We say leave the steaks to the steak people," the Missouri/Kansas National Agri Marketing Association said.