Tao Huabi, whose face is on every bottle of Lao Gan Ma, created the sauce in 1984. The sauce made her a billionaire by the time she retired.CFOTO/Getty Images
His eyes wide, face split by a broad grin, a splat of red … something on his forehead, the wrestler-turned-actor John Cena holds a jar of dark sauce up to the camera.
“Lao Gan Ma, Lao Gan Ma, Lao Gan Ma,” he chants, his smile growing ever larger, as the camera pans down to a plate of broccoli almost covered by the soybean and chili condiment, which he first tried in 2018 and has been an enthusiastic fan of ever since.
In this, Mr. Cena is not alone. Invented in 1984 by Tao Huabi, a restaurateur in Guiyang, in southern China’s Guizhou province, today some 1.3 million bottles of the sauce are produced every day for sale in more than 30 countries. Before she retired, the sauce made Ms. Tao – who gives the condiment its name, meaning “old godmother,” and whose stern face still appears on every bottle – a billionaire, and won her a place on two top-level political advisory bodies.
Lao Gan Ma is not only popular in China. The sauce is a staple for Chinese diaspora communities around the world, while many former China expatriates, regardless of how rusty their Mandarin gets, still religiously stock a jar of Lao Gan Ma in their fridge. In 2018, Lao Gan Ma-inspired hoodies were even sold at New York Fashion week, and knock-off versions still remain widely available today.
“It’s really extraordinary how fast it caught on and became widely known in the West,” said Fuchsia Dunlop, a cook and author of seven books on Chinese cuisine. “It started as a cult thing for Asian food fanatics but now everyone knows about Lao Gan Ma, and of course apart from the original, so many people are producing their own imitations of it, you have this whole genre of so-called chili crisps.”
Chinese-Canadian chef Jing Gao invented Fly By Jing, a chili sauce similar to Lao Gan Ma.Supplied
One of those is Fly By Jing, a sauce invented by Chinese-Canadian chef Jing Gao, which trends spicier than Lao Gan Ma. It also includes Sichuan peppercorns, which have a numbing effect on the tongue, and it has long been used by cooks in the southwestern province, which neighbours Guizhou, to complement hot red chilies.
“Guizhou chili crisp delivers a straightforward, salty spiciness,” Ms. Gao said. “Sichuan chili crisp adds the complex, numbing ‘ma la’ sensation from Sichuan peppercorns, creating a symphony of heat, tingle and savoury depth.”
Other chefs have also sought to put their stamp on the condiment, sometimes in controversial fashion. Momofuku founder David Chang was criticized earlier this year after it emerged his empire was sending out cease-and-desist letters to others using the term “chili crunch,” which Momofuku is seeking to trademark.
Lao Gan Ma, marketed as “chili sauce” or “chili crisp” in English-speaking markets, is not affected by this push. Neither has its position been much shaken by the multitude of competitors who have sprung up in recent years.
The condiment remains a staple in both Chinese and many Western kitchens because it’s “one of those things you can put on anything,” said Ms. Dunlop.
“If you’re eating something that’s a bit boring,” she added, “the combination of the umami from the fermented beans and spice really hits the spot.”
That could explain why Lao Gan Ma is so popular with younger Chinese, and with bodybuilders such as Mr. Cena: If your dish constitutes just vegetables and meat, or vegetables and rice, Lao Gan Ma can quickly turn it into something like a meal. Or, in the words of British chef Alex Rushmer, “I would eat a bowl of gravel if it was smothered in Lao Gan Ma.”
A worker loads chili peppers into baskets in a chili drying factory in Bijie city, in China's southwest Guizhou Province.AFP/Getty Images
For all its popularity around China and the world, Lao Gan Ma has not necessarily boosted the fortunes of Guizhou, among the poorest provinces in China and “a bit of a backwater” compared to neighbouring Sichuan, Ms. Dunlop said.
“Since the 1990s, it’s Sichuanese cuisine that has been crazy popular all over China and increasingly abroad,” she added. “Sichuan cuisine has for the last more than half a century been regarded as one of the great Chinese cuisines – it has that prestige – but Guizhou is a bit harder to categorize.”
This is beginning to shift however, particularly as Chinese tourists seek out less well-travelled parts of the country, keen to discover new cuisines and dishes.
Zhang Yuan, a tourist from Chongqing, said he had “always been curious about Guizhou,” prior to visiting for two weeks earlier this year.
While a fan of Lao Gan Ma, he said he didn’t realize the condiment came from Guizhou, but this made sense once he tasted other dishes in the province.
“The chili in Lao Gan Ma is the kind that smells extremely good and makes your mouth water, but it isn’t so spicy that it burns, which is my favourite part,” he said. “Guizhou food is definitely spicy, but not simply heavy in taste. It’s the kind of appetizing spicy, light and addictive.”
Mr. Zhang said his family eventually “stayed three days longer than we had planned, because Guizhou food was too good for my son to leave.”
With files from Alexandra Li in Beijing