"The peppers add a very rich and heartwarming flavor to soups—not real hot, but full-bodied and complex," says owner Michael McBride, who says he is introducing "ethnic diversity" into his menu. And for that he's thankful to his lead cooks, Adelina Sanchez (daytime) and Elizabeth Lopez (evening). Both women came to the small restaurant across from Safeway about three years ago—Sanchez from Michoacan and Lopez from Oaxaca in Mexico. He put them to work, as he does all new employees, washing dishes.

"As I needed help, I'd call on them to come in the kitchen," McBride relates. "I'd give them a recipe, and it wasn't long before I found they could do as well or better than I."

Before long, both women were speaking English and running the kitchen for him. "They have really raised the bar on professionalism," he says. Besides skill, the women are providing a new dining experience for Sweet Pea's regulars. McBride recalls that it was Sanchez who suggested using the guajillo (pronounced gwah-HEE-yoh) pepper in some soups. He was enthralled at the idea of trying something new, he says, having spent most of his training and career in French and Continental cooking. "I said, 'First tell me how to spell it, so I can get it,' " he laughs.

A long search brought him to the San Francisco International Airport produce terminal, known colloquially as "the Grand Avenue terminal." The size of nearly four football fields, the huge complex is busy before dawn receiving containers of produce shipped by plane from all over the world and by truck from local growers. "If it's available, it's there," McBride says. The peppers were there.

Delivered daily by a terminal vendor, the peppers, the juicing oranges and his herbs come with the rest of his fresh produce early enough for McBride to check through them before the cooking begins. A variety of new dishes using the peppers are popping up on the chalkboard menu lately. "First we fire-roast the peppers on the grill until browned. This brings out a sweetness by caramelizing the sugars in them," McBride explains. A good result is the fire-roasted bell pepper soup offered once a week. Others are the spicy vegetable beef or vegetable shrimp soups using the guajillo pepper. A very popular tortilla soup—which McBride says "flies out of here"—is made with serrano peppers, while the ranchero salsa, made fresh each day, uses both guajillo and serrano peppers, tomatoes and garlic.

Appropriate for any meal of the day is crepas rancheros, a variation of the classic favorite huevos rancheros. Poached eggs and refried beans are wrapped into a crepe stuffed with ranchero salsa and topped with melted Monterey jack cheese ($6.50). Mexican Boudin is a quiche made with polenta, poached chicken breast, mild green chilis and Monterey Jack. With it comes a choice of mixed green or fresh fruit salads ($7.25). Santa Fe chicken breast crepe is made with a mild green chili, Jack cheese and fresh salsa ($6.50).

A full range of their crepes can be sampled this summer at a booth they are catering for the Montalvo concert series.

Sweet Pea's, 453 N. Santa Cruz Ave. in Los Gatos, is open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call 408.354.3144.