Huy Fong Foods
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Huy Fong Foods (Chinese: 匯豐食品公司) is an American hot sauce company. Beginning in Chinatown in Los Angeles, California, in 1980, it has grown to become one of the leaders in the Asian hot sauce market.
When Huy Fong Foods started business, it produced its first chili sauce, Pepper Saté Sauce, by hand. The sauce was developed by the company's founder, David Tran (Trần), a Vietnamese farmer who had grown chili peppers, produced, and sold this sauce in his native country before arriving in the United States as a part of the migration of Vietnamese boat people displaced by the Vietnam War. The company is named for the boat that took Tran to Hong Kong in 1978 and its rooster logo comes from the fact that Tran was born in the Year of the Rooster. The bottles' trademark green top symbolizes the freshness of the chili used.
Eventually, Tran formulated four more chili products: Chili Garlic Sauce (Tương Ớt Tỏi Việt-Nam), Sambal Oelek (ground fresh chili paste), Sambal Badjak (chili paste with onions), and finally, Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. The latter is currently Huy Fong Foods' best-known and best-selling item, easily recognized by its bright red color and its packaging: a clear plastic bottle with a green cap, text in six languages (Vietnamese, English, Thai, Chinese, Spanish and French), and the rooster logo.
In 1986, Huy Fong Foods moved into a 68,000 square foot building in Rosemead, California. Here, the company has continued to increase production every year. The company has also purchased land near San Diego, California, on which it grows the chili peppers used for its products.
Huy Fong Foods' chili sauces are made from fresh, red Serrano chili peppers and contain no added water or artificial colors. All five sauces are manufactured in Rosemead, California.
It reverse exports to Vietnam and Thailand.
[edit] Trivia
In the King of the Hill episode "A Man Without A Country Club," Ted Wasonasong presents Hank to the founder of the Nine Rivers Country Club, Mr. Tran. Tran is introduced as an Asian hot sauce mogul, and when Peggy comments that Mr. Tran looks "much younger on the bottle," Tran corrects her, noting that there is a rooster on the bottle.
[edit] References
- Nakamura, Eric. "The Famous Hot Sauce Factory Tour!" (1997). Giant Robot, no. 9, pp. 32-33.
