The Label

A cartoon-style illustration of a fake military identification card with a girl with brown hair and a stern face. The card has text indicating the country is the United States of America, with details about a person named Kim Phuong Ho. There is a colorful graphic of a chili pepper with text "Phuong's Pepper Paste" and "Created in Hue, Launched in Oakland." The design is playful and stylized.


So… about that label. Pretty cool, huh? We’d love to tell you more about how it came to be.

The label is inspired by Phuong and Stella’s journey to America. It’s a story of courage — a single mom who left behind everything she knew in Vietnam to build a better life for herself and her daughter. Being a woman in Vietnam is tough. Being a single mom is even tougher. And being a single mom raising a daughter? Toughest of all. Phuong saw a chance for something better after hearing from family who had already immigrated. So she packed up her life, took a leap of faith, and came to the U.S.

Two girls standing in front of a colorful mural of an outdoor café scene. One girl is taller, wearing a checkered dress with a green and white striped cardigan. The shorter girl is hugging her and wearing purple and pink patterned pajamas. Both are smiling.
Two young girls smiling and hugging each other indoors, one wearing a green shirt, the other wearing a yellow shirt with pink hearts.

Like so many immigrants, she got to work. She found a job, went to school, and focused on raising Stella with fierce determination. Becoming a U.S. citizen was always important to her, and she made it happen — for both herself and her daughter. If the label looks familiar, there’s a reason: it’s inspired by Phuong’s green card.

Vietnamese identification card featuring a portrait of a woman, with details such as name, date of birth, and nationality.
A young girl sitting on a bed using a tablet with a stylus, possibly drawing or writing, in a dimly lit room.

Stella designed the label in her own artistic style. You’ll notice a burn mark across the middle. It represents both the heat of the chili paste and the moment Phuong became a citizen and no longer needed her green card. You’ll also see “Launched in Oakland” printed on the first run of jars — a nod to the city where their American story began.

Stylized illustration of an identification card for Phuong's pepper paste, created in Hue, Vietnam. It features cartoon-style graphics of a girl with brown hair, and a label indicating the product is made in Hue and launched in Oakland. The card has decorative imagery of flames and peppers.

This sauce is more than a recipe. It’s the love of a mother and daughter, the beginning of a new life, and now, the start of a new business. Phuong is an incredible cook, if you’ve heard of the city of Huế you know folks there know how to cook and they know about spice! The recipe was born there. For years, friends and family told her she should open a restaurant or sell her recipes. But the one thing people kept coming back for — again and again — was her chili paste. They told her it was the best they’d ever tasted, and some even offered to buy jars or cover the ingredients if she’d make it for them.

So she took another leap. She bottled it. And now, you get to try it. This is her special recipe, made with love, fire, and the spirit of starting fresh.

Two women smiling, one with dark hair and a blue checkered dress, the other with brown hair and a white shirt, outdoors with a mountain and cloudy sky in the background.