Csigi Gourmet items provide flavor, heat

He shared his hot sauce with friends, who asked for more.

EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Lars Chigi likes it hot, hot, hot.

The freezer of his home kitchen in Blue Mountain Lakes is packed with such fiery chili varieties as bhut jolokia, naga morich, fatalii, Cayenne Super II Hybrid and rocoto.

“I eat chili peppers in some form every day in at least two of my meals,” Chigi said. “It’s like a drug addiction. Once you get a hankering for flavor and heat, you want more. It’s a healthy addiction.”

Chigi has turned his passionate quest for the ultimate burn into a gourmet food business. Csigi Gourmet which uses the Hungarian spelling of his surname has been in business since 2005. His products, which include three varieties of hot sauces, pasta sauce, salsa, barbecue sauce and a balsamic vinaigrette, have won several awards.

After high school, he began working in New York City, first for a paging company and later for a telecommunications company, and lived in New Jersey. He eventually moved to the Poconos in 1999 since he had fond memories of the area from when he skied here as a child.

On the side, he kept playing with food. “I’ve been into spicy food since a young age. I go for less fat and more spice,” Chigi said. “There are hundreds of varieties of chili peppers. They can be used in different ways and have different aspects of heat when they hit the tongue. It’s a great way to add complexity to your food.”

He began growing chili peppers, first in planter boxes and later in the backyard. “Every year, the harvest was getting larger,” Chigi said.

The Pocono climate is kind to hinklehatz, a Pennsylvania Dutch variety; fatalii, an African habanero; and Thai Hot Dragon Hybrid, a cayenne variety.

Since he isn’t a fan of red pepper sauce and didn’t like what was available in the supermarket, he decided to mix up a batch of hot sauce.

He eventually bottled it and shared it with friends who began asking for more.

He enjoys the burn and flavor, likes the idea that capsaicin may hold clues to fighting diseases such as diabetes and cancer and noted that he rarely gets sick.

Through his family, he found a mentor in Amir Bakal, owner of Green Bandit, a hot sauce company in New Jersey. He found a co-packing company in Lancaster to package the hot sauces, and he had three sauces on the market, eventually expanding into pasta sauce, barbecue sauce and more. He left his full-time job in the fall of 2006 to build his business.

For him, the hardest part is marketing. For a few months, he opened a kiosk at the Stroud Mall. He then began attending specialty shows in what is known as the fiery food industry and set up shops at festivals. Today, his product is in 10 states and available at Tijuana Flats, a restaurant chain.

He is now working on a limited edition of his hot sauce to be packaged in hand-blown bottles and numbered for those who collect specialty hot sauces.

For those who would like to try more spicy food, Chigi said to begin with jalapeno, datil, cayenne and serrano or a powdered form.