Celebrating 20 years of hot beef sundaes at the Iowa State Fair
By Beau Bowman
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DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) — The hot beef sundae turns 20 this year, and the Iowa State Fair staple is still drawing crowds.
What began as a way to use leftover roast beef trimmings became one of the fair’s most iconic foods, thanks to brainstorming between Michelle Baumhover and John Mortimer, then-manager of Cattlemen’s Beef Quarters.
The dish looks like a sundae, but it’s made with mashed potatoes, gravy, beef and cheese, and topped with a cherry tomato. Baumhover said the idea came after she heard about a “steak parfait” and thought the concept would work better with mashed potatoes and roast beef.
The team expected to sell about 4,000 sundaes in the first year. Instead, it sold 22,000.
“When we first launched in 2006, I got calls from across the country, London, in Japan, The Calgary Stampede,” Baumhover said.
Long lines formed at the Cattlemen’s Beef Quarters then, and they still do now.
Wayne Baumhover, Michelle Baumhover’s husband, later took over the Beef Quarters when Mortimer retired, keeping the hot beef sundae in the family.
“It is kind of weird that she was the one that started it and now I’m dealing with it,” Wayne Baumhover joked.
Michelle Baumhover says the dish has endured because it is comforting and nostalgic.
“It’s comforting; it reminds them of home, reminds them of family, so if you look at it in that perspective, yeah, everyone wants that, and they are nostalgic about that kind of food,” she said.
To mark the 20th anniversary, the Beef Quarters is selling Hot Beef Sundae T-shirts online. Fairgoers who wear one to the fair can get a free hot beef sundae.
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