By Lauren Gold, Pasadena Star-News
IRWINDALE >> Sriracha, the hip hot sauce concoction that changed America’s taste buds and worked its way in to the pantry of the world’s top chefs, originates on a Kern County farm where harvest season is in full swing.
Sriracha
The season hasn’t been without difficulties as city officials recently sought to close the Huy Fong Foods factory at the peak of its production after neighbors complained about odors making their lives difficult. A windstorm hurt the crops. And demand always outstrips supply of the world famous and super-popular rooster sauce.
And yet company founder and CEO David Tran remains modest about the significance of his brand in the pantheon of great American success stories.
“The best Sriracha is the one you make yourself,” Tran said. “If you ask me the formula, I will tell you. The best way is to serve it as fresh as possible. My secret ingredient is fresh.”
Chilies used for Sriracha hot sauce manufactured at the Huy Fong Foods facility in Irwindale, Calif. Oct. 25, 2013. (Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News)
During the 12-week harvest season, about 30 trucks, each carrying 21 tons of chilies, arrive at the factory each day. Tran is meticulous about each part of the process from picking to bottling. He designed most of the new equipment in his factory himself and even spends every morning out in the chili field inspecting the peppers to make sure they meet his standards.
Tran has always operated under a somewhat unconventional business model, never paying for a single advertisement for fear his product would become so popular he would not have enough supply to meet the demand. Regardless, the sauce has become wildly popular since he founded his U.S. company in 1979 after immigrating from Vietnam. It is now sold in every U.S. state and on every continent across the globe.
It’s so popular that more than 800 rooster sauce lovers flooded a hip Arts District event space in Los Angeles two weeks ago for the first L.A. Sriracha Festival.
There, 11 area chefs created their own signature dishes featuring the sauce.
“Huy Fong has really put Sriracha on the map in the U.S., and they have a really impressive operation,“ Sriracha Festival co-founder Josh Lurie said.
Huy Fong’s Executive Operations Officer Donna Lam said the company’s popularity and new openness with the media is great, but it also makes her a little nervous.
Read the full article by Lauren Gold, Pasadena Star-News.
