It's 2022 in the Pliya Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, inside the kitchen of the Gulf

restaurant and brew pub. Restaurant manager Chris Sessa hunches over his phone streaming a video.

Sessa's second in command pears over

his shoulder.

They cocked their heads to hear the video over the controlled chaos of the kitchen.

Poi Fong Foods says it was forced to suspend production of its iconic saracha sauce because

of a lack of its key ingredient, chili peppers, the company blaming severe weather

for the shortage.

Sessa pauses the video.

Well, that explains it.

For weeks, Sessa has been worrying about keeping Seracha in stock.

The spicy, garlicy condiment has become an essential ingredient at Gulp.

They use it in multiple dishes, including their

best-selling appetizer, saracha deviled eggs. Sessa's second-in-command rubs his hand on the back of his

neck. It drips with sweat from the heat of the kitchen. What are we going to do? Well, how many

bottles do we have left? Almost 20. Sessa grimaces. Sounds like a lot, but the restaurant goes through six to ten bottles a week, so they don't have long before they run out. Hey, what about Tabasco or Chalula? Oh, come on, get real. There's no way customers are going to go for that. It's saracha or nothing. Never seen people go so nuts about a hot

sauce. Well, let's hope we Fong gets more chilies and soon. I don't think the drought's going away

before we get through those last 20 bottles. I know, I'm just joking. I hope they find another

chili supplier. There's got to be others out there. Yeah, maybe. Look, worst case scenario,

we pull Saracha deviled eggs from the menu. Yeah, the customers would just love that.

This is so messed up. We got hooked on a hot sauce and that hot sauce is completely dependent on a

special kind of chili, and now we're all paying the price.

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