Yao Zhao had been working as a green energy specialist at the World Bank in Washington DC for several years when a weeknight dinner at home changed his professional course. His partner had prepared a simple pasta dish with shallots, mushrooms and parmesan cheese, and seasoned it with a green pepper oil that Zhao had brought back from his mother’s kitchen in Chongqing, China. “He’s British, it blew off his mind!” Zhao recalls. “He said, ‘I’ve never had this before! It’s so citrusy, floral and buzzing, tingling. I think this can go beyond Chinese food.” Zhao didn’t disagree, and was suddenly inspired to bring the joy of piquant Sichuan peppers to the US. Using his own savings, he launched 50Hertz Tingly Foods, a line of red and green pepper products featuring the rich flavors and, yes, tingly sensations from his childhood.
The peppers that anchor Zhao’s brand grow in south-west China and possess numbing properties that make mouths tingle and buzz. (They are not to be confused with chili peppers, which are primarily associated with their heat.) Food from the Sichuan province of China is fairly well known in the US, yet these Sichuan peppers, derived from tiny fruit balls that grow on prickly ash trees, have yet to enter the American culinary lexicon, but Zhao is betting on US consumers’ expanding desire to explore new facets of a popular cuisine. While many Asian-American businesses took a drubbing from the economic downturn during the Covid-19 pandemic, Chinese restaurants in the US have experienced a recent rebound, growing in number by 1.2% from 2021 to 2022, according to market research firm IBISWorld.
