Tao Huabi: Crispy chilli godmother
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It's the late 1990s. We're in Guizhou, a landlocked province in southwest China, bordered by Sichuan.
A small woman in her 50s stands in the middle of a factory floor. In front, a long line of jars filled with something bright red.
She wears a stern expression. She walks down the line, dipping a calloused finger into each jar, then touches the red concoction to her tongue, a tongue that is blistered and swollen.
Hundreds of workers watch on, holding their collective breath. She nods, cracking a small smile. The chillies are good.
Welcome to Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service. Each episode, we take a billionaire and we find out how they made their money.
We take them from zero to their first million, then from a million onto a billion. My name is Zing Singh. I'm a journalist, author and podcaster. And I'm Simon Jack. I'm the BBC's business editor.
And now you probably haven't heard of our billionaire, but I'd bet there's a fair few of you with her face in your refrigerator right now.
Now, I didn't think I knew about this billionaire. And then I realised a jar that we've been talking about has been sitting in the fridge for the last couple of years. My kids put this stuff on everything.
That's right. We're talking about Lao Gan Ma, the infamously hot, crispy chilli oil. that has really taken off around the world.
Yeah, founded by a 79-year-old Chinese entrepreneur called Tao Huabi.
Lao Gan Ma actually means old godmother, and every jar features Tao's stern, unsmiling face, and that means she's become a cultural phenomenon beyond the product.
I didn't think that that person really existed. I thought it was one of those little kind of, you know, Uncle Ben's rice or blah, blah, blah or whatever. And there's a sort of fictitious character on there. So it news to me that this person actually exists.
Right. I similarly always thought she was made up. I feel like a woman with that kind of a face with this kind of a story would want herself to be on the front of every jar she makes. Yeah. Well, we've got a jar right in front of us. And we are going to do a taste test for people who haven't tried it before so we can describe to you what it tastes like. Okay, here we go.
Okay, let me just... Got a little spoon here. I'm not sure this is advised, having it neat like this. Hang on.
Like vodka straight from the bottle. Simon's going in for another taste.
Going in for another one. Yeah. Oily, crunchy, sweet, hot. Delicious. Go on, here you go. Some for you.
I've also not had any breakfast before recording this, so this is going to go down a tree in my stomach.
This goes on just about everything in our household now with the kids. They put it on their eggs, they put it on roast chicken, anything really. It's got a slightly burnt taste to it as well, hasn't it?
There's a sort of charred taste to it.
Charred taste, yeah.
And it is crispy.
What's in it?
So I think it says, and I'm not the world's greatest expert at reading written Chinese, but, yep, chilli, oil, I think some beans, if I'm not mistaken. But you can also sort of see spices in there. I think there's some... Peppercorns? Peppercorns.
There's definitely some salt and sugar in there.
Also, I think there's some MSG.
Yeah, OK. Well, what's not to like? Basically, fat, salt, MSG and heat.
Well, you might be surprised to learn that it was this very simple condiment that made Taohua be a billionaire in 2015.
I told my kids that and they just could not believe it. They said, you're having me on. The source is beloved around the world. A staggering three million bottles are produced every day.
And in fact, Lao Gan Ma has become a kind of viral sensation.
Where did Tao Huabi’s Lao Gan Ma story begin and what is Lao Gan Ma?
Her bottles are all over TikTok, they're all over Instagram.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:58
2
Where did Tao Huabi’s Lao Gan Ma story begin and what is Lao Gan Ma?
4:58–12:54
3
How does Lao Gan Ma taste and why did hosts test a jar on air?
12:54–22:11
4
What were Tao Huabi’s early life hardships during the Great Famine?
22:11–32:15
5
How did Tao turn a homemade chili sauce into a roadside restaurant hit?
32:15–38:31