About

As a child, I remember running my hands through the sugars, salts, and spices when the new shipments arrived at my parents’ restaurant. However my dad would scold my sisters and me if we touched the chili flakes and peppers. We were not allowed to touch them. If we did, we needed to wash our hands immediately and never to touch our eyes afterwards. These chili flakes and peppers would become my dad’s beloved spicy chili oil. Customers would often ask to buy jars of it although my parents didn’t sell it. It was offered as a free condiment to go with the handmade potstickers.

When the restaurant building property management changed hands, they tried to take advantage of my immigrant parents by suing us to pay past rent increases plus interest that the previous owner never increased or collected. My parents didn’t know how to navigate the legal system and my Chinese wasn’t good enough to translate legal documents, so they had to close the restaurant. The day the restaurant shut down was the day we lost everything. My parents continued working in restaurants but my dad never got to share his cooking again.

Years later, as I started eating at Chinese restaurants and my palette developed, everytime I tried their chili oil, it lacked flavor and depth. So one day, I asked the best chef I know, my dad, to recreate the chili oil I was craving. My dad had stopped cooking for the past 10 years due to vision loss from an eye injury. Despite his difficulty seeing anything clearly, my dad agreed to teach me. I became his eyes and hands as he walked me through step by step meticulously. Occasionally stepping in and fumbling around with his hands if I did anything wrong. It took all day to recreate his chili oil, but one taste and it brought back childhood memories. I knew I was obligated to share it with the world, so Papa Fong was born. My dad’s 40 years of perfecting this chili oil shines through in one taste.

Thank you for your patience in restocking when we sell out. The chili oil is created in small batches to provide the best flavors. My dad enjoys hearing when we sell out because it brings him out of retirement to share his craft again. We thank you for your support!