Sriracha Sauce: How an Immigrant Made His Chili Sauce a Global Icon

From Vietnam to the USA
The success story of the Sriracha sauce – how an immigrant made his chilli sauce a worldwide cult

Its recognition value is priceless: the plastic bottle with the green lid, filled with bright red chili sauce, is in the USA and has also become a culinary mainstay worldwide. It’s used on hot dogs, with mayonnaise, and even on donuts. Above all, it should be a bit of home for the Asian community in the immigrant country USA.

The sauce has its origins in Thailand. A Thai is said to have made a chilli sauce there from chili peppers, vinegar, sugar, salt and garlic as early as 1949. She named it after the small coastal town where she lived: Si Racha (also spelled Sriracha). In its current form, however, David Tran brought it to the USA a few decades later. The story of how hot sauce came to America is also a story of immigration.

Family business – from Vietnam to the USA

It was David Tran who, since 1975, had been making hot chilli sauce on his older brother’s farm north of Saigon, now Ho Chi Mingh City. Tran ground the chili, his father-in-law washed out baby food jars he had received from American soldiers. His brother-in-law then filled the glasses with the sauce. A rooster, Trans zodiac sign, was stamped on the lid of each jar.

After the Vietnam War, Tran and his family became unsafe in the country. They had Chinese roots and the new communist Vietnamese government cracked down on Chinese immigrants. David Tran escaped with 3,000 other people and boarded the freighter Huy Fong for Hong Kong and from there to America in the late 1970s. Tran was granted asylum and moved to live with his brother-in-law in Los Angeles. The only thing he needed: red chili peppers. Tran arrived in California in the first week of January 1980. By February he was making chili sauces again and naming his company after the ship he took to flee his homeland: Huy Fong Foods.

The most popular Sriracha brand

In an interview with the New York Times, David Tran later said that he Sauce for the Asian community: “I knew that once the Vietnamese settled here, they wanted their hot sauce for their pho… But I wanted something I couldn’t just sell to the Vietnamese.”

His strategy worked. Despite numerous competitors, the bottle with English, Chinese and Vietnamese inscriptions is the most popular Sriracha brand in America. Huy Fong’s sauce differs from other brands due to its special recipe: the combination of fresh chilies, garlic and sugar ensures an unmistakable sweet and hot taste. Today, David Trans Sriracha Sauce is the most well-known Sriracha brand in the world. In 2019, the company had annual sales of over $150 million, according to market research firm IBISWorld, which equates to a 10 percent market share of the $1.55 billion US hot sauce market. 12,000 bottles of the chilli sauce are filled every hour, with fluctuations during and after the corona crisis, which forced the company to temporarily stop production – there was a shortage of chili peppers.

That didn’t detract from the success. The sauce is so well known that Tran has never had to promote it, always relying on word of mouth. Today, his Sriracha sauce has cult status and many households and restaurants would be unimaginable without it. Over the years, investors have approached Tran to buy his company. He refused every time I decided. The company should remain in family hands. Tran, 78, has since passed the reins to his son, William Tran, who is president of the company, and daughter, Yassie Tran-Holliday, who is vice president.

Tran once commented on the sale of his chili empire: “I said no because my company is my partner.”

Sources: “New York Times”, “IBISWorld”

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