“I just loved cooking with my mom growing up, talking food, recipes, playing around with things,” says Justin Eli, founder of Mom’s Mala, a line of chili condiments inspired by his mother’s punchy, aromatic Sichuan chili oil.
“When I last saw my mom, we tested her fried chicken vs. my new version of fried chicken. We’ll be like, ‘Hmmm I don't know mine’s better,' or, ‘Maybe we should combine these parts.’ We really just love food and that was always a bond that made us closer.”
Since 2018, Eli has been churning out a complex Mild Sichuan Chili Sauce and Spicy Sichuan Chili Sauce—building off the recipe his mother developed.
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“My mom had something like four brothers and four sisters and she would cook for her family. For a little while, she was a chef for a restaurant,” he says. “For her, cooking was a constant evolution of trying and tweaking... There’s a real love that we put into every jar that goes out.”
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Photos: Courtesy of Richard Luu and Brianna Coleman