Belgian Booyah - A Breif Histroy

Les Rentmeester doesn’t claim that his dad, Andrew Rentmeester, invented booyah, just that he invented the word. And he invented the practice of using mass quantities of the magical soup as the main attraction in local fundraisers.

Andrew, a lumberjack-turned-schoolteacher, planned to brew a gargantuan vat of booyah as a fundraiser for Finger Road School, which, “I think is out of business now,” says Lester. This would’ve been around 1906, Lester figures. Andrew went to the Press-Gazette to publicize the event and, when asked how to spell the name of the soup his fundraiser would feature, he came up with b-o-o-y-a-h — as close as he could come phonetically to the French word “bouillon,” by which the soup was known by him and other Walloon Belgians.

The Rentmeester story in detail can be read here: http://whoonew.com/2013/10/the-real-reason-we-call-it-chicken-booyah-in-wisconsin/ It does clear up the confusion on how a Flemish school teacher seems to be connected to what seems to be at least a French/Walloon word.

The earliest mention I have found of "booyah" in a Green Bay newspaper in Dec 18 1907:

Green Bay Marksmen Victors at Kaukauna
Messrs. Meusel and Dieter Carrt Off High Scores in Trap Shoting Contest Sunday....Both of these gentlemen made 21 each, capturing honors at the event. About 20 guests were present from Appleton and Green Bay and were given "booyah" dished up in Rich McCarty's best style....

So while I was expecting to see a blurb in the paper about the school fundraiser and selling booyah, it seems more likely the newspaper company likely just printed posters for the event.

And as mentioned in the video, I too found traces of booya = 1895, and 1910 in Minnesota newspapers, but not necessarily with chicken.

One thing without a doubt in my mind is the high concentration of Belgian's and now their descendants in the area definetly has a lot to do with it's area popularity. Once you travel much out side of Southern Door or past Kaukauna people have never heard of it and no restaurants serve it. As for Minnesota, there is good number of Belgians (mostly Flemish) there at least in the Northern part of the state. It would be interesting if someone from Minnesota could comment on the matter. I'd tend to think it was also another early area for the French Canadian's as the Great Lakes had a lot to do with early settlement, but I don't know for sure.

The standarized spelling may very well be thanks to Andrew Rentmeester, and Booyah's popularity and commercialization has cemented that in.

It seems those who truely would have the answers to all this sadly have long since past away. Bob Baye was the long time Booyah king of St. Peter and Paul. As mentioned in the video there was a guaranteed turnout just from the smell and knowing who was the cook. If you look at which of the early churches served this dish, they were always congregations with a good number of Belgian parishioners. It has since grown in popularity that you'll find cooks from all ethnic backgrounds.

Now back to the the spelling and word itself. It seems to be the only standard spelled Belgian word. I've written before on even the Kermiss has had a few different spellings. And so has the cuyoo card game.

If you want to listen to the French pronunciation of "bouillon", which is roughly what "bouyon" sounds like in Walloon, you can visit this page: https://forvo.com/word/bouillon/

And lastly, Mary Ann Defnet's opinion on its origin.

If you look in the Door County Newspaper archives the earliest booyah reference you'll find is Sep 23, 1880.

"We have had a lot of the "Lo" family peddling cranberries. They camped on the bench, and having "obtained a lot of fish-heads and guts, they made a kind of broth of abominable things, in Indian parlance called boo-yah, which they seemed to relish hugely, though there was a strong smell or" "Injun" about it."

It's all from one big pot : booya as an expression of community by Anne R. Kaplan in 1988, is probably the best read. It's 300 pages, and it provides a good Minnesota angle. It's main investigation is Churches, clubs, volunteer fire companies, and neighborhood associations host annual booyas as fundralsers. And from that:

Most people trace booya to the French-Canadian fur traders who supposedly sustained themselves by stewing vats of whatever wild game and vegetables were on hand. By dubious etmology they claom that the name "booya" is an Anglicized verson of the French "bouillir" (to boil)...