Heres a quiz. Whats bright orange red, made $60 million in sales last year alone without advertising and is used on everything from eggs to sushi all over the world? If you answered Sriracha hot sauce, you would be correct. In fact, Sriracha is the brain child of a Vietnamese immigrant who came to LA on a boat named Sriracha 30 years ago. Finding the California hot sauces not quite what he remembered from Vietnam to eat in his pho and realizing that the rest of the Vietnamese community seemed to be in the same boat (NPI,) David Tran decided to try to fill the gap. And fill the gap he did. With no advertising, only word of mouth, Tran built Huy Fong Foods into a company that sells 20 million bottles a year and has year on year percentage sales growth in the double digits. And this is because the then jobless dude just wanted some hot sauce worthy of his pho. Over the 33 years that the company has been around, Tran has turned down countless offers to sell, to merge, to advertise, to do all the things that some say would turn his company into the next Coco Cola. But he refuses each and every time. Why? Because he says that its already hard enough to grow the 100 million pounds (!!!! 45 million kg.) of chilis that he insists are only fresh chili that is harvested only once a year over a 10 week period. Huy Fong just moved into a new 650,000 square foot factory that produces 7,500 bottles an hour 6 days a week. Whats more, all those bottles of hot sauce are distributed wholesale by the same 10 distributors for the last 30 years at the same price. Although food prices have increased tenfold over the decades, Tran still buys his chilis from one farm, the same one he always worked with and uses the same distributors to sell his product. As if this wasnt amazing enough, I think its pertinent to note that although he most likely leaves millions of dollars on the table in unexplored opportunities and markets, he is still just happy putting that Sriracha in his Pho and dealing with the same folks. In honor of David Tran, I attempted this week to use a copy cat recipe to use up the glut of fresh chilis I have in my garden but believe me - if we had Sriracha here in Uganda, id be buying the original, not just for the taste but for the glorious American success story of a guy that just wanted a taste of home with his pho. Recipe for 1 kg or about 2 pounds of fresh chili, whatever variety you have but I used a variety that I have growing of Jalepeno, Habanero and Thai chili: 2 tbsp Garlic Powder 3 tbsp Granulated Sugar 1 tbsp brown sugar 1 tbsp salt 3 cloves garlic 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar Prep your peppers using GLOVES! Trust me on this. You do not want to remove the seeds and stems of a kilo of peppers with bare hands. The heat in the peppers will stay on your skin for weeks and kill you every time you touch your eyes, mouth or face. Please, please wear gloves. Please. Seriously. Dump all ingredients other than the vinegar in the food processor or blender and blend using a bit of mineral water if the consistency is too thick. Put it in a covered, sterile glass jar in a cool dark place for 7 days. Each day, open it up and just stir. This is the fermenting process and each day your sauce will smell better and better. On the 8th day, take half a cup of vinegar and mix with the contents of the jar in a saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Strain if you dont like texture, adjust the seasonings to your liking with more garlic, sugar, salt or a touch of fish sauce and toss in the fridge. It will keep for ages but it wont stay around that long. Although it aint the original, its pretty darn good in a pinch.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 12:52:11 +0000
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