Gil Tortolani, owner of Gil's Gourmet Gallery in Sand City, California, has been in the food and wine business for over twenty-five years. After owning and selling five successful restaurants, he opened up a Wine Tasting Room on Monterey's historical Cannery Row, for a small California Winery in 1989. It was during this time that Gil came up with the idea of producing and selling some of the recipes he had been stock-piling over the years that combine food with wine. Gil has always felt, as do many other people of European descent, that wine is one of the major food groups, with a little alcohol added. A local artist, who shared a gallery in the same building on Cannery Row, caught Gil's enthusiasm for his ideas, and created Gil's logo in the form of an artist's pallet, creatively depicting the different condiments featured in Gil's products, and the idea for Gil's Gourmet Gallery™ was born! His first products, Chardonnay Spiced stuffed olives, Riesling Marinated Garlic, and Pinot Noir Chocolate Covered Cherries took off with great success, which only fueled his creative fires. In 1990, inspired by the local agriculturally rich areas of the Salinas Valley, Gilroy and the artichoke capital of the world - Castroville, he chose to combine California varietal wines such as the hearty red Zinfandel and Chardonnay, with garlic and artichokes, thus creating his leading sellers - Simply Zinful Garlic Salsa XXXtra Hot, and Chardonnay Artichoke Salsa.
The Simply Zinful Garlic Salsa XXXtra Hot, loaded with chunks of his Riesling Marinated Garlic and fired up by the Habanero pepper, is also fat-free and contains no preservatives. It won a first place award in its category, in Food Distributor Magazine's national Salsa Shoot-Out contest on June 11, 1994.
Gil was already planning on expanding his line of products in the "Hot and Fiery" direction, when his instincts were confirmed by reading "The Popcorn Report," by Faith Popcorn, where she predicted that the Habanero Pepper was going to be the next booming trend in the food industry. Today Gil's line of 42 products includes 19 with the Habanero pepper. Gil contracts local growers to grow the Habanero peppers for him. At harvest time, usually in the fall, he starts pickling the peppers in 55 gallon drums. In 1990, he started off with one barrel, and this fall he put up 30 barrels. In addition to these pickled peppers, he also smokes one-thousand pounds of peppers in front of his Sand City warehouse in a small smoker that only accommodates twenty pounds at a time. The whole neighborhood smells of smoked Habanero peppers! As with any smoked chipotle, it gives a wonderful sweet, nutty aroma. Gil presently uses the smoked peppers in his smoked habanero Fire of the Sea Sardines, Red Savina™ Pepper Puree and Crying Tongue R Hot Sauce.
