c/o Nicolas de Soto-Foley

The day before my flight back to Wesleyan this August, I had the distinct pleasure of venturing an hour east of Los Angeles to visit a hot speck of desert with my mother and a couple of close companions. Irwindale is a mostly forgettable town, but it houses the headquarters of the king of the spicy food industry: Huy Fong Foods. That semi-familiar name floating around in your head refers to the company best known for producing Sriracha, the chili sauce beloved in Europe and North America.

Huy Fong Foods, named for the boat that took founder David Tran to the United States, moved from Rosemead to Irwindale after The LA Weekly broke the story of a few families who complained about the smell during chili season. The new facility is larger, more productive, and has specialized equipment to contain the spice within its walls. It cranks out mind-boggling quantities of Sriracha and two other products: sambal oelek and chili garlic paste.

Visiting the Sriracha factory is, without a doubt, a pilgrimage all lovers of spicy food should make. Though you must be perfectly punctual, sign some legal papers, and wear a hair net, the 20 minute guided tour is well worth the wait in traffic. The tour takes place partially on foot and partially in an electric cart, as the space is enormous.

August being the very start of chili season, we got to see trucks on the way to the station to receive the peppers, which are grown on a farm that sells exclusively to Huy Fong. First, a crane helped tilt the truck’s cage sideways to dump the haul, and an avalanche of peppers rumbled into the giant hopper. A conveyor belt then lifted them up and into the facility, where they would be washed three times and chopped to bits. Lastly, the peppers were mixed with two preservatives—potassium sorbate and sodium bisulfite—to form the base of the factory’s three products.

The factory restocks its shelves with this base throughout the season, as it operates throughout the year despite the peppers’ only coming in for a few months. The base is stored in large, blue barrels that are made, reused, and recycled on site.

To create the smooth and delicious Sriracha beloved by so many tastebuds, the base is mixed with sugar, salt, garlic, distilled vinegar, and xanthan gum. The bottles embossed with the iconic rooster, Mr. Tran’s Vietnamese zodiac sign, are filled with sauce shortly after production, after which they are inspected, boxed, and left to sit for a designated period that the FDA enforces to kill microorganisms.

The tour ends in the facility’s newly-created (and super cool) gift shop. Needless to say, I bought a poster, a shirt, and some snacks I’m still working on, as well as a pair of Sriracha briefs for a friend. And, after filling out a survey, I received a complimentary, personal-sized bottle of Sriracha.

Huy Fong Foods is a great company to visit and to support, especially as they are surprisingly environmentally conscious and use exclusively Californian ingredients. The sweet scents of garlic and chili pervade the factory air in a most delectable manner, provoking the desire to dash to the nearest diner to devour a meal doused in the extraordinary rooster sauce. Unfortunately—if not ironically—the restaurant we drove to after our factory tour carried only Tabasco, and we had to make do.