Family members and friends had often told me that I should cook professionally and bottle my sauces. Never did I seriously think about it until I got into my sixties. Suddenly, it felt like the right time to do something that I love and am passionate about -- and share it with others outside of my circle of family and friends.

First, the story behind the company name. "Chico" was my nickname when I was growing up in Fargo, ND. The name doesn't exactly fit my Norwegian and Irish heritage, but the name stuck -- and some still call me by that name today. "Chico's Sauces" seems a fitting name for my retirement age venture into bottling and selling my sauces.

Gourmet Pasta Sauce

More than 30 years ago, while living in Houston, a good friend's father got into the habit of dropping by in the evenings to see what I was cooking for dinner. He often had already eaten his dinner, but loved to try my dishes. He would often stay for a second dinner with us. He saw how much I enjoyed cooking for others and he loved eating my cooking. One evening, he brought with him to dinner the base recipe for his Italian family's red pasta sauce. He said at the time that the sauce was how it was really made in the "Old Country." He asked me to keep the recipe a secret. He didn't even share it with his own son (my friend). He told me that he shared this recipe with me because of my true love and passion for cooking. He was in his eighties at the time and has long since passed, but I am always grateful for his gift to me of this delicious recipe. Over the years, I have tweaked the original recipe with a couple of my own ingredients, but I have always honored his wish, and have never shared the recipe. The pasta sauce has been a favorite with my family and friends ever since.

Gourmet BBQ Sauces

Along with cooking in my kitchen, I have always loved to barbecue. It is at least twelve years since I began developing what is now my Gourmet Whiskey/ Bourbon BBQ Sauce. It is the sauce, perfected with time, that I use annually when hosting Rib Feeds for friends, family and neighbors. It is always a hit, and many times again, I have heard that I should "bottle that sauce".

There are three other barbecue sauces that I have also developed in recent years:

• (Chipotle) Special Label Reserve (offered on a limited basis)
• Jalapeno Raspberry Rum (a best seller and first-place competition winner)
• Spicy Asian Saki Kamikaze (coming soon: in development)

I began cooking and "bottling these sauces" out of my home kitchen also. We sold them at Farmers Markets with great success. We set out samples for people to taste and sold out every time. Not once did we come home with jars of sauce -- and we had people wanting to know where else they could buy it. However, since they were being prepared in my kitchen, I was limited in where I could sell and also limited in what quantities I could make at any one time.

Chico's Sauces are not typical sauces that you find on the grocery store shelves. They are quality sauces, produced with great patience and care and without added artificial ingredients or preservatives. Not the "watered down" ones you typically find in most grocery stores.

Gourmet Bloody Mary Mix

Chico’s Gourmet Bloody Mary Mix is my newest creation. Unlike my other sauces -- where the recipes came to me right away on my first try -- the Bloody Mary Mix took more than 2 years to develop. It was worth it as it turned out to be a perfect combination of flavor and texture. It is already in a number of retail outlets and is selling extremely well, with almost every store reordering multiple times. We always sell out while doing demo/tastings and the response from customers has been phenomenal. It’s a winner ... and a "BLOODY MIRACLE"!

I love what I'm doing!

For the first time in my 60+ years, I am doing something that I am truly passionate about. I love the idea of "bottling my sauces" and sharing them with a larger market. I hope that you will enjoy my culinary creations as much as I enjoy making them!