Question: What Texan built an international business on his success selling chili powder?
Answer: William F. Gebhardt. Born in Germany in 1875, he moved with his family to New Braunfels in the 1880s. He developed a passion for cooking at a young age and opened a cafe as a teenager, frequently visiting the Mexican restaurants in nearby San Antonio.
Gebhardt discovered that he could preserve chili peppers by drying them and grinding them into powder, and he began selling the product in 1896. By 1915, the Gebhardt Chili Powder Company produced 18,000 bottles of chili powder a day. At the company’s height in the 1920s, its products were sold throughout the U.S. and in 19 countries around the world.
