Local diner owner bottles green chili for Whole Foods

Anyone who has ever sat in one of the few seats at King's Chef at 110 E. Costilla St. has learned to love the large plates of food smothered in superhot green chili. That chili is bottled by its creator, Gary Geiser, who also owns the well-known diner that looks like a little castle. And if you like that green chili on your food, you can buy a bottle of it there to take home. It's a recipe Geiser has honed over time, and if you talk to him about it, you'll find out he's pretty picky about the chiles he uses.

"When I bought the diner in 1997, customers told me right away that I needed to change the chili recipe," he said. "So, I said, OK."

The big complaints were that the chili was too thin and not hot enough. Over the years he figured out how to "roux it up," he says of the thickening mixture he adds. It's a very simple recipe of basically canned green chiles, tomatoes, spices and his secret ingredient: habanero chiles.

"I turn up the heat with habaneros," he said, which are one of the world's hottest chiles.

"I'm very picky about the quality of the habaneros I buy. They have to be the right size and heat."

The green napalm caught the attention of one of his regulars, Chris Miller, a chef at Whole Foods Markets. "Chris told me I should get the chili into Whole Foods," Geiser said, "I said OK."

Since Geiser had already been bottling small batches of his Chef Green Chili with Extreme Habanero Flavor, he had a leg up on FDA rules for processing, labeling and selling the product to the public. But he had never bottled a product to sell in grocery stores, and he wasn't prepared for the volume he would have to produce.

"I was looking for kitchen space where I could handle the huge orders I needed to guarantee to get a contract with Whole Foods," he said.

He had already been thinking about expanding his restaurant with a second location. The interest in his green chili led him to open a second store at 131 E. Bijou St., the former home of Big City Burrito, in July.

"It was great to get the larger kitchen and have more restaurant space, too," he said.

He got to work making large batches of the chili, and the bottles hit Whole Foods Markets in September. It was almost an overnight success.

"I couldn't believe how customers were liking it," he said about the introductory tasting held at the North Academy Whole Foods. "Women were especially liking it. They would drink a sample and ask for a second and then pick up a jar to take home."

Keep in mind, this stuff is so hot that when customers in his restaurant order it, the servers ask if they have had it before. If not, the servers insist they take a small sample, to be sure they can handle the heat.

As popular as his hot green chili has been, he had requests for a milder version. So Geiser set out to find the best-flavored mild green chile to use as the base of a new chili mixture to sell alongside the hotter version. Miller steered him to Pueblo to meet with Shane Milberger, owner of Milberger Farms, who supplies produce to Whole Foods Markets and supplies several Pueblo restaurants with his roasted green chiles.

Milberger, who grows the chiles, has six chile roasters at his farm that use a method to steam the pods once they are roasted. Steaming quickly removes the skins. Geiser visited the farm, and after sniffing and tasting a batch of the chiles, told Milberger that he thought the peppers needed to be roasted longer.

Though Milberger agreed to a longer roasting time, he warned, "When you roast chiles longer than 15 minutes, you will lose more water from the pods and be paying more per pound."

Geiser understood the economics, but still in his picky way, wanted the longer roast for several reasons:

"I like the flavor of the deeper roast, and it will break down the chiles more so I won't have to cook them as long once I start processing them."

After more back-and-forths, Geiser and Miller walked away with 30 pounds of deeply roasted green chiles.

Back in the Bijou Street kitchen, the two started chopping chiles and dicing onions and garlic. They decided that for their first test batch of mild-flavored chili, they would leave the seeds in. However, after tasting the end result, they decided the seeds added too much heat to qualify for mild chili. The next batch would have almost no seeds, but still had a nice spicy flavor. The new King's Chef Mild Green Chili formula was perfected. The new product was introduced to Whole Foods Market on Oct. 11 and sales of both versions have been brisk.

"The hot has been doing very well as well as the mild," Miller said. "On the Saturday the mild was introduced, we sold five cases during the demo."

"Whole Foods customers have gone crazy over the King's Chef bottled green chili sauce," said Jan Mowle, marketing director for the store. "The Habanero has already sold more than 370 units."

Customers are happy about the introduction of the mild green chili.

"We introduced the mild version with Gary here on Saturday during our Fall Festival and the customers loved it," Mowle said. "Many had not heard about King's Chef diner downtown and were excited that the chili was being made locally and that they could buy the mild version. Many commented that it was the best mild green chili they ever had."

Miller added, "They (customers) love it and are very glad that we carry it so they can get it in the north side of town."

To keep up with the demand for the mild green chili, Geiser has worked out a deal with Milberger to get 300 pounds of roasted chiles each month. The mild green chili is sold only at Whole Foods Markets for now. But you can still buy the hot green chili by the jar at the two King's Chef restaurants.

Next up for Geiser's chili and hot sauce collection: King's Chef Habanero Kicker Sauceis due to be available in November.

Contact the writer: 636-0271 or teresa.farney@gazette.com