San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Couple on a quest ‘to chili-fy the world’
The Andersons’ love of chili started out like so many other quests for perfection: with a little romance and some good, oldfashioned family one-upmanship.
On their first date, John made Diana a bowl of classic Texas red. As time passed, Diana didn’t like the fact that John made a better batch than she could, so she did everything in her power to beat him at his own game.
“That’s just her nature,” said John, who has been married to Diana, self-dubbed “Chili Queen” of San Antonio, for 14 years. “She gets something in her head, and there’s just no stopping her.”
Now the two have their own chili business, JD’s Chili Parlor, and sell hot bowls of the state food of Texas and jars from their line of chili bases to the crowds at farmers markets. Since 2014, the family-run business has been a regular presence at the Saturday downtown New Braunfels Farmers Market and the Alamo Heights Farmers Market in the Alamo Quarry Market on Sundays. They are also branching out into markets in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
After winning a Canyon Lake chili competition in 2012, the Andersons were urged by their son Wade, who was 12 and in middle school, to start their chili business. They had no experience in the food industry. John was an engineer, and Diana, an Oklahoma native, had a background that included teaching, interior design, photography and design.
“I guess you could say that I’m the creative arm of the business, then John is the guy who figures out how in the heck we can pull it off,” Diana said.
They started with the recipe that won the contest and created a bowl made from hash browns, which was shaped in a waffle iron, to serve it in at the area markets. JD’s also offered weekly specials that included chili tacos, Frito pies and whatever else they could think of.
“The hash brown bowl took a lot of research and development before we could figure out how to do it without making a huge mess,” John said. “I think every food business goes through growing pains like that.”
Diana started learning all she could about the San Antonio history of chili. More people should know it, but the famed dish was invented here more than a century ago. The famed “Chili Queens” served up pots of the good stuff to hungry crowds in Alamo Plaza and other public spaces.
Chili has Mesoamerican origins, with stewed chiles mixed with proteins and vegetables for a hearty meal. The “Queens” based their recipes on peppers blended with random, inexpensive cuts of beef and spices, and this became recognized as the classic Texas take on chili.
“The more research I put into it, the more connected I felt with the history and what we are doing,” said Diana, who considers herself something of an ambassador for the chili legacy. “Those women were real pioneers. And we can go to Dallas or wherever, and people don’t know of the San Antonio connection to chili. My goal is to change that.”