Taste Radio

Jing Gao’s mission to “bring uncensored Chinese flavors to the table” has made her brand a hot commodity. An award-winning chef and former restaurant owner, Gao is the founder and CEO of Fly By Jing, an innovative brand of Sichuan-inspired sauces and seasonings that launched in 2018 and is known for its modern take on Chinese cuisine. In recent months, Gao has overseen a massive spike in demand for the brand’s products, which include a chili crisp, dumpling sauce and mala spice. The surge, driven partly by a New York Times article praising the versatility of the chili crisp, along with the brand’s rabid fan base -- Fly By Jing has over 25,000 Instagram followers -- has put Gao in the enviable, albeit complex, position of managing a very fast-growing company.  In an interview included in this episode, Gao discussed the origins of her passion for Chinese food culture and why she set out to create a brand that could elevate consumers’ expectations for the cuisine’s flavors while increasing Americans’ accessibili