Huy Fong Foods, Inc.

If you don’t recognize the name, you may have seen the rooster on its bottle. Mainly on their Sriracha and Sambal Oelek bottles.

Hot sauce creator and mastermind, David Tran, came to America for the pursuit of happiness and made everybody happy by selling hot sauce. Believe it or not, this was an American dream. Coming as a refugee from Vietnam, making hot sauce, and selling it to different vendors; also with no marketing and only by word of mouth, seriously, this guy is sitting on a hot sauce empire!

David Tran used to sell his hot sauce through a delivery van and now he has a factory located in Irwindale, California (4800 Azusa Canyon Rd). About a year or 2 ago, the factory was being threatened to close down by residents due to an overpowering odor from the chili grinding. Which caused concerns to all hot sauce fans that they bought almost every stock of Sriracha in the stores! Eventually, the company upgraded its rooftop air filtration system and all is well with the world.

You can visit the factory for free and take an approx. 30 -45 minute tour during the weekdays (if available). Reservations are required which is found on their website at HuyFong.com.

During the month of September, the Company hosts its open house which happens on each Saturday of the month. Reservations are open to the public around June and fills up quickly. They do cap your reservations up to 2 vehicles. However, you do have to tell them how many people are coming in each vehicle.

The main difference between the weekday tours and the open house is the chili grinding. Further, they do provide free entertainment (a dragon dance), a swag bag, and sriracha flavored noms during the open house.

I had a chance to visit this year and I’m going to try to get tickets again next year!

The best part about the tour is taking pics with these large inflatables located throughout the factory. And of course you get to wear the hair net which is provided!

If you’re lucky you can catch a ride in the red golf cart. Actually, it’s if you parked far.

Trucks with all the chili peppers

They dump all the chilis here to be processed. From about here to where they packed it gets really spicy. They do give napkins to cover up your nose and mouth. But as a tip, I would bring one of those mask guards. I was coughing at the beginning because of all that spicy fumes!