Abstract

Hot sauce is a facet of food culture in the United States. If you are a fan of adding some spice to your food, you have likely heard of Sriracha. Though you may not have heard of the hot sauce manufacturer Huy Fong Foods, you have likely tried the sauce, perhaps on a variety of different cuisines. The now famous Sriracha was not always a household name, and Huy Fong’s success story has not been without setbacks. To understand the syncretic history of Sriracha, we must take a journey across time and national borders. From its origin as a condiment originally conceived in Thailand, the Huy Fong Foods product started as a homemade sauce created by founder David Tran, a Vietnamese man of Chinese descent, who then emigrated to the United States where his business grew into a global success. The story of Huy Fong Foods– and of Sriracha more specifically– reveals much about American food culture, US trade law, and the fragility of immigrant foodways. Sriracha, a global commodity defined by its transnational cultural character, is a perfect example of how food culture travels and changes in an ever globalizing world.

How to Cite:

Marikos, C., (2024) “A History of Sriracha: A Global Hot Sauce Made in America”, Arizona Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 10(1), 1-6.