By: Heidi Wagenbach
Here’s a joke for you: who’s the spiciest knight at King Arthur’s table?
Sir Racha.
Okay, now since that’s over, we can get to the actual article.
Ever wonder what’s the history behind the recognizable hot sauce that chefs and home-cooks use? Well, me too. So I decided to do a little digging into the complex background of who created Sriracha, why it was invented, and what made it so popular. Have a glass of milk ready because I suspect even reading this blog will make your tongue numb.
To Begin…
The ingredients of Sriracha are relatively short, including: chili, sugar, salt, garlic, distilled vinegar, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Bisulfite as preservatives, and Xanthan Gum.
This hot sauce has been growing in popularity since the 2010s, however before it hit the spotlight, it was the work of Thanom Chakkapak. A native to Southeast Thailand, Chakkapak started serving a blinding red, garlic-infused sauce with her dinners in 1949. From there, everyone was a fan of her creation and they urged her to sell it. Then, in 1975, David Tran of Vietnam started creating his own hot sauce. Nearing the end of the Vietnam War, he and his family fled to the U.S., and upon noticing they were not the only immigrants in California, he wanted to bring a little home-inspired flavors to the foreign Southeast Asians.
For a long time, Tran was selling his sauce out of a van in bottled jars before finally in 1983, he opened a larger store to sell more. He began experimenting with a Thailand-originated recipe that called for vinegar, sugar, salt, garlic, and red jalapeños. To pay respect to the sauce’s architect, he called the new sauce “Sriracha” after Chakkapak’s hometown Si Racha, and named his company Huy Fong, in respect to the ship that brought him to the states. The bottle is decorated with a rooster to symbolize the Chinese year he was born in and the original, hand-drawn design (that no one can seem to remember who made it) is still used today.
Come the mid-1980s, Tran was moving Sriracha to more Southeast-Asian towns of California. Even though he didn’t have a sales or marketing team, he was making good money, and about a decade later, Sriracha was a hit. Culinary insiders were crazy about their new favorite, simply calling it “secret sauce.” In the 2000s, when a food revolution began, the hot sauce market grew by 150%; supermarkets and restaurants began to have it, seeing its preference over other other condiments. Of course, other companies have tried to mimic the flavor and recipe, seeing that Tran never trademarked the brand, to no real avail.
After a split from their pepper provider due to a legal dispute, Huy Fong saw some issues in 2017. Some say that the sauce never recovered from that and the taste has changed. Seems crazy that something as simple as pepper can make fans notice. Nonetheless, that didn’t seem to affect Huy Fong too badly; they earn about $80 million a year (Hitt).
Peppery Points To Ponder
- Sriracha’s influence has contributed to flavoring mayonnaise and potato chips. It has been deemed the “hipster ketchup.”
- The Huy Fong building made other sauces (like Pepper Sa-te Sauce, Chili Garlic), and outgrew its space in just 7 years. Tran purchased a 68,000 sq. ft. building, only needing more expansion. In 2010, they relocated to a 650,000 sq. ft. building in California.
- In 2013, to combat the lawsuit in regards to the odors coming from the manufacturing, (people living near the factory were complaining about several negative symptoms like eye irritation and headaches), Tran put up a sign that said: “NO TEAR GAS MADE HERE.” The time where production ceased was known as “The Great Sriracha Panic.” Eventually, it came to a close when Huy Fong agreed to upgrade its ventilation system.
- Huy Fong praises Sriracha as “the American garlic chili pepper sauce” (Yeh).
- Sriracha has become such an icon that you can purchase various merchandise like shirts and phone covers displaying your love of the hot sauce.
- Tran said his dream: “Was never to become a millionaire” and instead: “To make enough fresh chili sauce so that everyone who wants Huy Fong can have it. Nothing more.”
- No matter how much inflation increases, Tran has not raised the price of Sriracha.
- Bon Appétit magazine declared Sriracha “the ingredient of the year” in 2010; Cook’s Illustrated said it’s the “best-tasting hot sauce” in 2012.
- Tran admits to not having “a detailed record on where it’s sold,” but knows that Sriracha is available in the US, Canada, and Europe.
- What separates Sriracha from other sauces, according to Tran, is that it is exclusively made from fresh (not dried) chilies from Underwood Family Farms; Huy Fong processed 100 million pounds of fresh chilies in 2012, which only lasted for about 10 weeks (Ferdman).
A Few More Fun Facts
- The building that now is filled with chili, used to be filled with Frisbees and Slip n’ Slides; it was originally owned by Wham-O.
- Randy Clemens, author of “The Sriracha Cookbook” has a license plate that says: “SIRACHA.”
- Huy Fong makes all its own bottles; one line of production can produce up to 18,000 an hour.
- When Tran eats pho and Sriracha in restaurants all over, he’s never recognized by either staff or customers.
- Huy Fong never advertises its sauce, but sales increase by 20% nearly every year.
- You can buy a gallon-sized bottle of Sriracha from Huy Fong (Harris).
To End…
Whether you’re a fan of spicy food or not so much, you have to marvel at the dedication and brilliance of Tran. As an immigrant, he was able to build a massive business and keep his humility simultaneously while giving the world a delicious condiment that thousands of people consume yearly. Sriracha is an ingredient that I use myself in cooking, whether that be to add a kick to salsa or squirt some into a hearty dinner of beans and turkey sausage. Sriracha is versatile, enduring, but definitely be conscientious about the amount you use. I don’t think Huy Fong wants to have another lawsuit coming their way.
Works Cited
Harris, Jen. What you don’t know about Sriracha: 11 fun facts from a documentary, Los Angeles
Times, 11 Dec. 2013, www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-sriracha-documentary-20131211-story.html.
Hitt, Caitlyn. The Spicy History of Sriracha, Thrillist, 20 Aug. 2020,
www.thrillist.com/news/nation/history-of-sriracha-origin.
Ferdman, Roberto A. The Little-Known History Of The World’s Coolest Hot Sauce, Huffpost, 21
Aug. 2013, www.huffpost.com/entry/sriracha-history_n_4136923.
Yeh, Alan. A Brief History of Sriracha, Spoon University,
spoonuniversity.com/lifestyle/a-brief-history-of-sriracha.