Dodie Miller started Cool Chile Co in 1993 after much cooking, research, travelling and nagging from chile deprived friends. Our shipments and inspiration come from Mexico and we aim to provide a whole new spice cupboard of flavours and heat sensations for Mexican and home cooking. Chiles first came into my life when my dad took my sister and me to Taos, New Mexico to visit family and to ski. We stayed at the base of the mountain and every Wednesday for breakfast there would be green chile omelettes! This seemed very exotic and reminiscent of “The Cat in the Hat” with his green eggs and ham and they were therefore magical. We ate them with relish (probably literally) and when the holiday ended went back to non-chile territory in Vermont, where it became a distant memory. The memory was reawakened when my friend Tony professed an undying passion for chiles. Something clicked, food in the UK was increasingly becoming more diverse, people were travelling extensively and experimenting with cookery from around the globe. There were many more different varieties of apples and potatoes on our markets (with different flavours and uses) why not chiles? After scouring the bookshops, Mark Millers’ “The Great Chile Book” turned up. Here it was, apparently Mexicans had been cooking with hundreds of these chiles with different flavours and heat-scales for the last 7000 years, and to us it could be a whole new spice cupboard. The problem was that Brits were not doing a huge amount of travelling to Mexico at the time and the concept of their food was, and still can be, very foreign to us. In fact we really had experienced the American Tex-Mex idea of Mexican food, heavy on the cheese, beans and rice; good for a hangover and not so for the stomach. We had no clear idea what Mexican food actually was. It was only 20 years ago that the Americans started cooking with chiles not in a Tex-Mex way but incorporating them into everyday food. With all the great British produce and cooking going on it seemed crazy not to allow people to try the same concept over here. Hence, in early 1993, the Cool Chile Co. came about. We wanted to provide the pure dried chiles that give you a plethora of wild and exciting flavours that could not be substituted. An extensive trip was arranged to New Mexico to meet up with professors at the State University, chefs, journalists and most importantly suppliers. It seemed the market was divided into two: one for the eat-hot, shit-hot brigade and the other for the foodies. Well I knew where my tendencies lie. I loved, and still love, cooking and mucking about in the kitchen. So the name was devised with this in mind: these chiles are not always blisteringly hot, but they are all definitely groovy. It was from this standpoint that my understanding and respect of the Mexican cuisine grew. Mexico was invaded by the Spanish and the French, both cultures leaving their culinary marks, they left behind rice, pork, peaches, almonds etc. while taking with them what we now feel are staples i.e. tomatoes, potatoes, courgettes, chocolate and obviously chiles: fusion cooking at its best. Mexican cooking is diverse and inventive, they use what is around them and not much is left to waste. Now Cool Chile has Mexican suppliers who show us the way with the preparation of chiles and keep us abreast of the new technologies in Mexican food manufacture. It is amazing what we have learnt during these years and hope that you enjoy the homework as much as we have!

Address: Unit 1 Enterprise Way, Triangle Business Centre, London NW10 6UG, United Kingdom
Telephone: 0870 902 1145
Fax: 0870 162 3923
Website: http://www.coolchile.co.uk/