How Ethan Yong did it: The Umami Papi Story
During lockdown, while bored in his corporate finance job, Ethan Yong started making chili oil. He'd been making it for fun since uni because the only brand he was familiar with on the shelf was Lao Gan Ma. In 2020 a close friend posted an Instagram story of a chili oil he'd bought; Ethan replied "that's a pretty good business idea," went to an Asian grocery, spent $60 on spices and chillies, and started building the perfect recipe night after night until he could bottle it and sell the first jars.
The brand is a play on words: umami is a Japanese word for flavour, Papi is a Spanish word for father figure — put two and two together and it's "flavour daddy." Ethan drew the chili logo in Microsoft Paint, trying to mimic a cheeky smirking emoji, because he wanted the brand to feel fun and modern in a western market where foreign-branded products can seem less approachable. He wasn't thinking about how to compete; he was just passionate about making the best chili oil and getting it out there.
The grind was relentless. Ethan cooked Friday, Saturday and Sunday to fill orders out of his garage, drove around Melbourne with a boot full of jars approaching grocers and getting a whole day of rejections, and took the bus around Sydney with a backpack of jars in the summer heat because he didn't want to pay for Ubers. He waited for the "perfect moment" to quit his corporate job that never came — instead, after three "needs improvements" reviews in a row, he was pulled into a meeting room with his performance manager and a partner, and chose the chili oil.
The retail breakthrough was an accident. After moving to the suburb of Hawthorn in September for a bigger garage, Ethan drove to Coles Camberwell to buy salmon and a frying pan, got chatting with a checkout worker named Sarah on the store's launch day, and was pointed to Michael, the head of Coles Local. He always carried jars in the car. That conversation led to samples, a Chilli Fest promotion, and eventually 150 stores in Coles supermarkets. Now in year 5, with a Gordon Ramsay compliment, a Legos pasta-sauce collaboration, and an expansion into Malaysia behind him, Ethan finally feels like an actual CEO — leaning into delegation and coaching rather than cooking every jar himself.
What you'll hear
- The flavour daddy origin — how umami (Japanese for flavour) plus Papi (Spanish for father figure) became the brand, and why the logo was drawn in Microsoft Paint
- The imperfect quit — why the "perfect moment" to leave the corporate job never came, and how three "needs improvements" reviews forced the decision
- Scaling out of the garage — how a frozen-dumpling guy from Instagram unlocked a commercial kitchen with two wok burners on the weekends
- The Coles Camberwell salmon run — how buying a frying pan turned into 150 stores, because Ethan always carries jars in the car
- Cooking for Gordon Ramsay — being a contestant on the show and hearing his chili oil was "absolutely delicious"
- Going global the hard way — why you can't just send pallets to Malaysia and let a premium product sell itself
- Becoming the CEO — discovering the power of delegation and coaching in year 5
Key claims from this episode
Chapters
Quotes from this episode
Your naivety is your superpower.
— Ethan Yong, on starting a consumer brand from scratch (22:00) I used to go around Melbourne driving in my car with a boot full of jars approaching different grocers and stockers asking if they were interested in my product.
— Ethan Yong, on the early days (22:35) he said it was absolutely delicious
— Ethan Yong, on Gordon Ramsay tasting his product (10:44) it's the people that grow the business
— Ethan Yong, on his role as CEO (19:40) you can't give 100% to everything you do
— Ethan Yong, on balancing a job and a side hustle (18:18)
Themes Ethan returns to
- Naivety as an advantage — in the early days you have no idea about risk, and that lets you just do; now Ethan is "way too calculated"
- Relentlessness — being relentless with the recipe and with how you obtain information, doing it night after night until it's good
- Carry your jars — you never know when an opportunity arises, which is why the Coles break came from always having jars in the car
- The people grow the business — the shift from a one-man show to delegation, coaching and weekly check-ins
- Premium needs presence — in a new market people don't know your brand, so you invest in sampling booths and live activations rather than letting it sell itself