Hot sauce can inspire fervent passion in its devotees. It’s a global obsession that translates to billions of dollars of sales a year. But with so many on the market, how do you create a taste that becomes a global hit? In this programme, Ruth Alexander explores the origin stories of two iconic brands – Sriracha and Lao Gan Ma. How did these sauces - born in humble circumstances in Vietnam and China in the 1980s - come to sit on dining tables around the world today? We explore their extraordinary stories and ask what their popularity tell us about changing global tastes.

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(Picture: Large red chilli. Credit: Getty/BBC)

Producer: Sarah Stolarz

Contributors

Stephanie Li, blogger and YouTuber at ‘Chinese Cooking Demystified’

Andrea Nguyen, cookbook author and publisher of Vietworldkitchen.com