Note: This post was updated on Wednesday, April 10 to include a statement from a Momofuku spokesperson.
If you’re a food lover, you’re probably familiar with David Chang. As one of the most visible celebrity chefs of our time, Chang is perhaps best known for founding the Momofuku restaurant group in 2004, which sparked nearly two decades of TV shows (like Netflix’s Ugly Delicious), media appearances, and books.
In 2018, he launched the brand’s consumer packaged goods line, Momofuku Goods, which sells Asian-inspired groceries like “restaurant-grade” soy sauce and air-dried instant noodles. Shortly after launching, the brand added “chili crunch” to its roster to capitalize on Americans’ rapidly growing appetite for chili crisp, a sweet and spicy, umami-packed chili oil condiment that’s been a household staple in China (and many other Asian countries) for centuries.
Late last week, David Chang, Momofuku, and their chili crunch offering became the main characters in a heated PR crisis. On Thursday, the Guardian reported that Momofuku sent cease-and-desist letters to at least seven companies that branded their condiments as “chili crunch” or “chile crunch” as they attempt to trademark the former with the US Patent and Trademark Office.
It’s worth noting that Momofuku has owned the trademark rights to “chile crunch” since last year as part of a legal settlement with Chile Colonial, a Denver-based company that produces a Mexican version of chili crisp (similar to salsa macha) — to which Momofuku now licenses the “chile crunch” trademark.
Homiah, a brand that sells a Malaysian sambal chili crunch product, was seemingly one of the first companies to make news of the cease-and-desist public. Founder Michelle Tew told the Guardian that the letter claimed Homiah’s product to be a “trademark infringement” and that the company had 90 days to cease using the “chili crunch” trademark.
In the caption to an Instagram post, Tew expressed how “shocked and disappointed” she was to be legally threatened by “a well-known and respected player in the Asian food industry” — all for “selling a product that is part of [her] family’s history and culture.”
MìLà, a company specializing in frozen soup dumplings and founded by husband-and-wife team Caleb Wang and Jen Liao, posted a similar statement on Instagram after receiving their own cease-and-desist from Momofuku, stating that there’s “plenty of room for others to share their authentic flavors and cultural experiences.”
Jing Gao, founder of Fly By Jing (and frequently cited as one of the most central figures in popularizing chili crisps in the States), has also publicly spoken out against Momofuku in recent days through Instagram and her Substack newsletter — though, according to the LA Times, Fly By Jing recently applied to trademark “Sichuan chili crisp” and “Chengdu crunch” before withdrawing the applications shortly after.
In the hundreds of comments across all three posts, the public’s inherent frustration with Momofuku is palpable. Many commenters (including the beloved online community Subtle Asian Baking) call for Chang to apologize to the AAPI community for “bullying” smaller Asian-owned businesses.
Others focused on the hypocrisy of Chang, a Korean American chef, seeking to trademark the name of a condiment with Chinese roots, insinuating that Chang “got famous” off of non-Korean foods and is now trying to “monopolize the market.” (In case you didn’t realize: The entire Momofuku empire is a nod to Momofuku Ando, the Taiwanese Japanese inventor who created instant noodles and founded Nissin Foods.)
Several small Asian markets and grocers (like Rice Market in Washington, DC) also pledged their commitment to no longer sell Momofuku Goods products in their stores as a result of the company’s decision.
As the drama made its way to X (aka Twitter) and TikTok over the weekend, even…
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