The festival has raised more than $12 million to fund school programs and nonprofit organizations.

From left, Don Christopher, Val Filice and Dr. Rudy Malone, the trio who founded the Gilroy Garlic Festival. GIlroy Life file photo

By Marty Cheek

Thanks to Don Christopher’s co-founding the Gilroy Garlic Festival 44 years ago, the world came to know the city as the location for America’s most famous food festival.

Christopher died surrounded by family Dec. 12 at age 88.

Cooks during the flame-up at a Gilroy Garlic Festival. Photo courtesy Gilroy Garlic Festival Association

Many Americans in the 20th century saw garlic as an exotic ingredient better suited for restaurants than their kitchens. Although it was a staple of Italian dishes, it was not widely used by home chefs. That started to change when Dr. Rudy Malone, the president of Gavilan Community College in the late 1970s, read a newspaper story about a garlic soup festival in the town of Arleux, France. It gave Malone an idea to promote the local garlic industry to a wider audience. He approached Christopher and Val Filice, another local farmer, to see if they could bring media attention to Gilroy and its “stinking rose” industry.

“He didn’t talk about a garlic festival at the time,” Christopher told a Gilroy Life reporter for a story published in 2018. “He wanted to have a party at the ranch here and invite everyone involved with garlic — the growers, some of the buyers and some food writers from L.A.”

A couple enjoys food from Gourmet Alley at a recent Gilroy Garlic Festival. The world-famous event was cofounded by garlic grower Don Christopher. Photo courtesy Gilroy Garlic Festival

In 1978, the “unofficial first garlic festival” was launched as a test run.

“We were trying to create more awareness about garlic because back then consumption was a fraction of what it is now,” grandson Ken Christopher said. “It was largely regulated to just Mediterranean cuisine. Now it’s a staple for many, many dishes.”

The next year, the official first Gilroy Garlic Festival took place on Bloomfield Ranch on the west side of U.S. 101 south of Gilroy. Filice as chef created a menu of garlicky foods, many of which have become staples of Gourmet Alley. The organizers estimated about 5,000 people would attend the weekend event. They were shocked when people kept coming and coming far beyond that number.

They figure about 15,000 showed up to the two-day festival. With triple the expected turnout, volunteers had to rush to Monterey and San Francisco to buy prawns and other ingredients.

The festival in 1980 moved to Christmas Hill Park. In three years, the event grew so popular it brought in more than 100,000 attendees. Hollywood actor Danny Kaye, a popular entertainer who also was an expert chef, showed up and helped with the cooking in Gourmet Alley. His fame brought media attention to the festival, helping it grow.

“Most people didn’t think it was going to go,” Don said of the festival’s initial reaction by Gilroy leaders.

Even the Gilroy mayor at that time told Don a garlic festival was a crazy idea and no one would show. But the public proved the nay-sayers wrong. The festival added a Friday to the event because the weekend couldn’t handle the large crowds.

“Once you see more than 100,000 people celebrating garlic over a three-day weekend, your perspective starts to shift,” Ken said. “You realize that you’re onto something.”

The Gilroy Garlic Festival’s fame grew beyond the city’s boundary as it became a “South County celebration,” he added.

Every year, Christopher Ranch would donate two tons of garlic to be used in Gourmet Alley dishes.

The festival has raised more than $12 million to fund schools and nonprofit organizations. Each year the event was held, 4,000 volunteers got “paid” for the hours they spent volunteering.