The sriraha is a spicy red sauce made with chilies of Thai origin but spread all over the world, with variations and different uses depending on the countries and culinary traditions. This bottle of spicy seasoning and the sweet note given by sugar, almost like the most famous Ketchup sauce, has been around the world, entering both the homes of millions of consumers and the kitchens of restaurants. It is especially in the United States, however, that the sriraha has truly established itself commercially, enjoying a stunning success. Many varieties have appeared on the US market in recent years, but the merit of local and international fame of this spicy sauce undoubtedly goes to the Huy Fong Foods, producer of the famous red bottle with the rooster above.

The story of the multicultural sriracha of Huy Fong Foods

The company Huy Fong Foods, with its current headquarters in California, It is famous all over the world for its special recipe of sriraha, sold in plastic bottles with a green cap and with a rooster as a logo. This seasoning, also known as Cock or Rooster Sauce (Salsa del Gallo), born from an idea of ​​the founder David Tran, Vietnamese of Chinese origins transplanted in the United States, who reworked the original Thai recipe and gave life to a product that has literally driven the American people crazy. Consider that the reputation of this brand and the sales boom were such as to be the subject of a documentary of 2013, shot by the American director Griffin Hammond, focusing mainly on the origin, production and impact on mass culture. The film tells the story of the immigrant David Tran, forced to leave Vietnam and start from scratch in the United States. Here, after a brief career in Vietnamese restaurants, in 1980 the intuition of bottling and trying to sell his sriraha, based on peppers (which he initially picked by hand), salt, vinegar and sugar. The rest is legend; an exponentially growing company, a private supplier of hot peppers with a large field of 1750 acres, a large 650,000 square meter factory, about 20,000 bottles produced per hour and three types of sauces sold. Despite the fame David Tran remains a modest and simple man and a great worker, proud of his recipe and his origins; the rooster, for example, is a tribute to the rooster year, during which he created his Rooster Sauce.

The sriraha-mania in the United States

What is most surprising about Huy Fong Foods' spicy sauce, is how popular it has become only through word of mouth and without any kind of investment in advertising by the company. The bottle is present everywhere, from hot meals to fast food, from oriental restaurants to college cafeterias, even to the kitchens of famous chefs. The sriraha-mania, also because of the affordable price, the long duration of the sauce (a bottle, says David Tran, lasts an average of 6-8 months) and its incredible versatility in the kitchen, has become a real obsession. Used to season an infinity of beloved dishes in the States, including pasta, mac'n cheese, sandwiches, hot dogs, pizza and scrambled eggs, the rooster sauce has entered the homes of millions of consumers, sometimes unaware of its history and provenance, and has become a real social and media phenomenon. In fact, there are videos of famous YouTubers, songs, jingles, testimonials, the inevitable merchandise and recipe books based on sriraha. It must be said however that in addition to the Huy Fong Foods also other American brands they have established themselves in the American and international market, with the most disparate recipes, from the most natural ones, more or less fermented to those aged in whiskey barrels.

The origins of Thai spicy sauce

Whatever the ingredients, the processes of realization and the uses of the sauce adopted in the rest of the world, it is good to mention also the one that gave rise to this global phenomenon, that is the Thai sriraha, still produced. Born in the un-touristy place called Si Racha, the sauce was invented by a woman in the 1949. Unlike the many copies sold in other countries, this sriraha, which comes made with a local variety of chilies and is fermented in large silos, it is more liquid and a little sweeter and less spicy. In Thailand, where it is loved and known but not as much as that of Huy Fong Foods in America, it is mostly used to accompany fish and seafood dishes, typical of the area of ​​origin, but also soups, omelettes and fried chicken.