In the 1980s, Craig Underwood was a fourth-generation California farmer, struggling with the region’s changing agricultural landscape, when he stepped up to meet a need in the marketplace: red jalapeño peppers.
The call came from David Tran, a Cantonese refugee from Vietnam who had arrived in the Golden State a few years before. He had developed a sauce that he intended for fans of the Southeast Asian flavor profile, called sriracha, but he needed a supplier.
