In December 1978, David Tran, then 33, left his home in Vietnam with 100 ounces of gold. Worth $20,000 at the time, or about $90,000 in today’s terms, the precious metal was stashed in cans of condensed milk to evade the attention of Vietnam’s Communist authorities. Tran traveled by freighter to Hong Kong, where he spent eight months at a refugee camp, then moved to Boston for six months before settling in Los Angeles.

Once in L.A., he sold a chunk of the gold and bought a 2,500squarefoot building in the city’s Chinatown. He set up his business, Huy Fong—named after the freighter he took—to make a hot sauce he called Sriracha, after a recipe originally from Thailand.

More than four decades later, Sriracha has been on Survivor, the International Space Station and dining tables worldwide. Its bottles, with their rooster logo and green squeeze cap, are in nearly one in ten U.S. kitchens, according to market research firm NPD Group. It ranks third in the $1.5 billion American hot sauce market behind Tabasco, owned by the McIlhenny family since 1868, and Frank’s RedHot, part of publicly traded spice giant McCormick & Co.

Today the company is worth $1 billion, based on estimated sales of $131 million in 2020, according to research firm IBISWorld. That makes Tran, 77, who owns the entire company, the nation’s only hot sauce billionaire.

0:00–What is Huy Fong Foods?
02:33–David Tran's Refugee Story
04:45–How Sriracha Caught Fire
06:25–The 'Tear Gas' Controversy
08:38–David Tran's Legacy

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