The genesis of Sriracha hot sauce (pronounced sir-ah-cha, contrary to what many think) becoming the condiment staple it is today can be traced back to 1975 and an unassuming Vietnamese refuge called David Tran- the founder and current CEO of Huy Fong Foods.
Following the Vietnam war, Tran, who was a Major in the South Vietnamese army and otherwise made his living making sauces, fled Vietnam with his family in December of 1978, along with 3,317 other refugees, aboard a Taiwanese freighter called the Huey Fong (meaning “Gathering Prosperity”)- a name he’d later Anglicize and use as the name of his massive, spicy empire.
Like many successful businessmen, Tran made his fortune by noticing a consumer demand that was going unfulfilled and filling it- in this case, it all started with a demand for hot sauce amongst the many Southeast Asian immigrants in LA.
More specifically, Tran got his start in the U.S. by making a sauce he called Pepper Sa-te (that he literally made in a bucket, bottled in recycled baby food jars, and sold first via bicycle and later out of a blue Chevy van). Tran noted, “I started the business with my eyes closed. There were no expectations at all… My American dream was never to become a billionaire. We started this because we like fresh, spicy chili sauce.”
Having a modicum of success in the industry, he began experimenting with local ingredients, eventually creating a slight variation of a Thai recipe he liked that used, to quote, “hybrid jalapeño peppers, vinegar, sugar, salt, and garlic”.
He named his version of this sauce “Sriracha”, after the coastal town, Si Racha, in Thailand where the base recipe he tweaked originated.Recipe perfected, he began selling his Sriracha sauce alongside his Pepper Sa-te.
To quite literally put his stamp on his sauces, like he had previously done in Vietnam, Tran attached a label with a rooster on every bottle of sauce he sold. According to the man himself, he chose a rooster as the symbol for his company because the year he was born, 1945, was the year of the rooster according to the Vietnamese zodiac.
As for who designed the now famous logo, not even Tran knows and he credits the original drawing, which he has long since lost, to an unnamed Vietnamese street artist he met in the 1970s. As Tran quipped, “I never thought that I’d be successful so I didn’t keep any of my souvenirs…”
Speaking of branding and failing to plan for success, while the exact rooster logo cannot be copied by other companies legally (though many-a-company makes exceptionally similar bottles and logos for their Sriracha to trick people into thinking it’s Huy Fong brand), Tran didn’t bother trademarking the name Sriracha, so any company can call their product that without fear of being sued.
Given how popular the sauce has become, such copying is now common practice. For instance, even the likes of Taco Bell has jumped on the Sriracha knock-off train. The noted fast food chain chose to come up with their own version of the sauce, rather than just use the original Sriracha, despite in some of their ads showing the Huy Fong Sriracha bottle design and referring to their Sriracha as the “Rooster sauce”…
In their case, their decision not to use Tran’s sauce is somewhat inexplicable as Huy Fong hasn’t increased the wholesale price of Sriracha since Tran originally made it in the 1970s, meaning it’s relatively cheap, and Tran states he doesn’t charge royalties to use his sauce in this way. Because of this, many restaurant chains just go with the original, rather than the many knock-offs or making their own.
Of the Taco Bell situation, Tran laments, “For us, it’s a disappointment if people think it’s our product.” Nevertheless, he states he doesn’t regret not trademarking the name, noting that it’s basically free advertising when major companies like Taco Bell do this. Tran states, “We have lawyers come and say ‘I can represent you and sue’ and I say ‘No. Let them do it.’”
He also believes his company still makes the best Sriracha (for reasons we’ll get into shortly), so customers will eventually buy his product anyway in his opinion.
Back to the hot sauce- during the early 1980s, Tran was still…
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