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In 2025, El Nopal Restaurant, pioneer of the well-known green chili of Pueblo, Colorado, is marking a major birthday. el Restaurante writer Natalia Otero spoke with the current owner, George Torres, grandson of founder Rosa Torres.
What is the importance of transmitting tradition in a dish, like your grandma’s green chili, and the value of passing it through generations?
In 2025, we are going to be 70 years with El Nopal. I believe if I didn’t follow the recipes that my grandmother started, we wouldn’t be here, for all of these years. I think the consistence on the quality of the food is very, very important.
Our green chili here in Pueblo is very unique, and something you can’t find anywhere else in the world. And, my grandmother was the one that came up with that recipe and, until this day, I make it exactly as she did in those days.
How did you learn to cook? The majority of chefs I’ve talked to have told me that they learned by watching.
I will have to agree 100 percent on that. And I know is not the same for everybody, but for me, my dad didn’t say “this is how you do it.” No, he expected me to stand there and watch him, the same with my grandmother. I didn’t know too much Spanish and she didn’t speak English, so I just had to stand there and watch.
Sometimes, people who cook don’t even tell you the exact measurements, they just hold them in their hand and they know. A funny thing about my grandma is that she used to walked around the kitchen with a handful of salt, or “puñado de sal,” and if something needed salt she just throw it into the pan. “A puño here and a puño there,” she said.
Rosa (Ma) Torres
What’s your grandmother’s backstory?
My grandmother, Rosa Torres, known as Má, was born in Guanatajo, México. She came across the border when she was 14 years old. And she ended up settling here in Pueblo, Colorado. She had 14 kids, so we have a very big family. And that’s how the green chili was created. The way she made it was out of necessity so the chili went longer, to stretch it. So, she took what she knew about making the green chili from Mexico, and she added a roux to it. When you add a roux to it, it thickens it up, and makes it last longer. And then, when she started working for the restaurants around town, she incorporated the green chili. And that is where the well-known green chili of Pueblo came from.
Who in your family started the restaurant?
My uncle Manual "Sal" Rameriz gets all the credit for opening the restaurant. His father owned a tortilla factory here in town, and back in 1955 they started the restaurant in the front of the tortilla factory. He took all of the recipes from my grandmother and incorporated them into the restaurant that we know today. After that, a couple of uncles had it. Then, my parents had it back in the ‘70s, and again in the ‘90s, and since then we have had it.
It has always been a very family-oriented venture with many relatives working here over all these years. From brothers, aunts, and uncles, to cousins, nephews, nieces and more. Family is very important to me.
How have you managed to find the ingredients that remain loyal to the original recipe?
We’ve been using the same providers since the 1960s. Those companies that provide our spices are still in business. And if we didn’t have the restaurant, in any case, I would have to have those species to cook at home.
Besides the ingredients, what’s necessary to maintain consistency in a recipe like your grandmother’s?
I would say that along with the spices, there are also the techniques that we use. There is nothing different from what I do than what my grandma did, or my dad did, or my mom did. A lot of the stuff is not necessarily easy to make, because we do it in the same way that she did it back in the ‘50s. Even with all the new technology and the equipment, I don’t believe that you can get the same quality of food for consistency if you change the way in which you make the food. We have several people saying: “I’ve tried to make your salsa at home, and it doesn’t come out as yours.” And I have given them the ingredients but it is also the way is prepared, the order of the spices, the way it is blended and stirred, and I know that has a great impact in the quality of the consistency.
How has the business changed over the years?
After COVID the entire world changed. It is a different business than it was 10 or 15 years ago, so I’m not running the same business that my family did; the way people order, the way people eat, is a big challenge, an everyday challenge. But we have great costumers and our customers are continuingly growing, so we look forward to overcoming those challenges.
It’s been difficult without my parents but this is basically what I wanted to do: I wanted to be in business, and I really enjoy being around people, so I’m very fortunate that I’m able to do that. People always say, “What did you want to do when you grow up?” and I say, “I’m doing it.”
How have you overcome the challenges?
My wife, Kim. She has been really supportive. She does a lot for the restaurant, she manages it. We run it together. We went to school together, and we didn’t know each other, but she was eating here once a week. She is American but she was crazy about Mexican food.
One day, in 1995, I finally asked her out. And we’ve been together ever since. She’s been a big part in these last years. Somedays when it gets a little tough in the restaurant, she is the one that reminds me that we need to slow down and step away for a minute.
It is important for people in this business to make time for themselves. In the restaurant business, especially if you are small, as we are, you forget about yourself, because you are always thinking about the business. So, take time for yourself, have a partner that you trust fully and work on the communication.
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