Recipes
Home chefs crave it. Restaurants incorporate it into bold new recipes. It’s chili crisp, and it’s the current darling of the food world. The Chinese condiment, which incorporates chili peppers, oil, and other ingredients like garlic, onion, peppercorns, and even fermented soybeans, is a kitchen powerhouse known for its versatility and kick. But how did the must-have concoction get started? Here’s how chili crisp was born—and why it’s so beloved today.
Recipes A spicy introduction
Chilis weren’t always in China, says Brian Dott, a history professor at Whitman College and author of The Chile Pepper in China: A Cultural Biography. Originating in Central and South America, Capsicum plants were unknown in China until around the 16th century, when a boom in exploration and trade brought chilis to the Chinese mainland.
The first written record of chili in China dates from 1591—and it isn’t exactly a rave review. Gao Lian, a playwright who lived near what is now Shanghai, wasn’t “all that excited about it as a condiment or a medicine,” Dott says of his account. Instead, he used it as a decorative plant.
But while elite Chinese enjoyed chili peppers in their decorative gardens, the masses began eating—and enjoying—the pungent plants. By 1765, local historians noted that chilis were used to flavor sauces, vinegar, savory oils, and preserved vegetables in Hunan. There’s even a recipe for a condiment reminiscent of chili crisp in The Harmonious Cauldron, the earliest Chinese culinary book to include chili peppers.
Written around 1790, the recipe is short and spicy: “Start with sesame oil. Place whole chili peppers in the sesame oil and fry completely. Remove the chiles, preserving the oil for later use.”
Recipes A national symbol
Unlike other spices, chili peppers weren’t farmed and traded as commodities. Instead, they were passed from person to person and cultivated in small crops, says Dott, falling into the hands of skilled farmers who bred even better chilis over time. These peppers—and the condiment made by frying them in oil—became must-have ingredients all over China, eventually filtering to every level of society and becoming so ubiquitous that they were considered part of the nation’s identity.
Peppers even played a role in Chinese politics: Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, was from Hunan and relished spicy foods. “He loved chili peppers,” says Dott, even going so far as to say that revolution was impossible without chili. Mao mocked those in his inner circle who couldn’t stand the heat, suggesting their inability to tolerate hot chili peppers meant they were cowards. That association of chili with military might and macho manhood persists to this day, Dott says.
Recipes Modern chili crisp
By the 20th century, chilis fried in oil were a staple in homes and restaurants. But though the condiment was brought to the United States and served at Chinese restaurants, it took until 1997 for chili crisp to be produced and sold on a commercial scale. That year, restaurateur Tao Huabi began selling Lao Gan Ma Spicy Chili Crisp from China’s Guizhou Province.
The condiment became an international sensation, and her fortune is now estimated at $1.05 billion thanks to the zippy sauce and over a dozen creative variations. One Lao Gan Ma chili crisp even contains beef, but isn’t available in the U.S. due to agricultural laws prohibiting imported Chinese meat.
Over time, chili crisp gained a cult following—and even courted controversy. This March, Korean American celebrity chef David Chang’s brand Momofuku attempted to stop other manufacturers from using the name “chili crunch” on their products, leading to quibbling over, among other things, the spelling of the word “chili” and the authenticity of mass-produced chili oils.
For Dott, it’s all a function of a food whose intense flavor sparks intense emotions. “You can learn a lot about a culture through food,” he says. From medicine to Momofuku, it seems the condiment won’t stop bringing the heat any time soon.