THESE WILL GIVE YOU SUPERPOWERS

BOTTLED SAUCES AND DRESSINGS — FROM NAMES LIKE KOGI, JITLADA AND DINO’S — CAN PUNCH UP ANY MEAL STARTING AT $4.79 HI NOTE CHEEZIO PEPE SEASONING 3-PACK FOR $14.99

IH AV E A CONFESSION TO MAKE: The pandemic has turned me into the real-life version of the Condiment King, the most excellent, most underrated villain from “Batman: The Animated Series.” Instead of hoses that shoot powerful streams of ketchup and mustard, I’ve been wielding bottles of Hotville Chicken cayenne hot sauce and lashing bland food with spoonfuls of chile crisp from Yang’s Kitchen, Needle, Hui Tou Xiang, Go Go Bird and Rice Box — to name a few.

Truth is, condiments are the unsung heroes of the pandemic. These dabs of chile sauce, bottles of marinade and sprinkles of special seasoning helped me survive my own cooking and countless takeout meals for much of 2020 and all of 2021. They can elevate, enhance and transform the most mundane dishes and just about any home cook.

The global market for condiments, which includes dressings, sauces and spices, had an estimated value of $76.6 billion in 2020. That number is expected to jump to $103.7 billion by 2026, according to a new study published by Global Industry Analysts Inc., a market research company. That’s a lot of hot sauce and ketchup.

In Los Angeles, condiments played a dual role: The purchase of products made by local restaurants helped support your favorite struggling businesses while dining rooms were closed. Many started whipping up batches of their signature sauces and marinades as an additional form of income and as a way to reach customers well beyond their own ZIP Codes.

The following condiments, all highly covetable, are designed to give you a taste of your favorite restaurants at home. 8 OUNCES, $16 “I MADE A penne a la vodka using it.”

“It was even good as a salad dressing on a wedge.”

On a recent afternoon, chefs Keith Corbin and Daniel Patterson sat at a table inside their West Adams restaurant, Alta Adams, and contemplated the many uses for their new Red Ranch sauce.

“Mix it with yogurt for crudités,” Patterson said. “It’s great in cooking. For meatloaf. Fifty-fifty with ketchup, it’s a great dipping sauce for fries or chips …”

“Or on collard greens,” Corbin added.

“I douse it on my beans and rice,” Patterson said.

Patterson and Corbin have launched the first in a line of pantry products from their restaurant. Red Ranch is a combination of the restaurant’s signature Fresno chile hot sauce and the chefs’ take on a classic ranch, made with yogurt and buttermilk. It has a strong, vibrant kick of chile that mellows with the cool dairy and the many fresh herbs.

The idea for the sauce came from a conversation with Ted Chung, one of Snoop Dogg’s business partners. Chung mentioned a taste memory that involved mixing packets of ranch and hot sauce for his orders of fast-food chicken. The three considered the mix to be an “L.A. f lavor combination that is universal for people,” and the idea for Red Ranch was born.

The sauce is available at the restaurant and at Now Serving in Chinatown. Soon it will be for sale online, featured alongside recipes that incorporate the sauce.

“People love cooking, and they want to feel like they are elevating food at home,” Corbin said. “Giving them restaurant-quality product and giving them a taste of Alta feels really good.”

Red Ranch is just the beginning. Corbin and Patterson plan to sell the restaurant’s smoky oil (the secret to that unctuousness in the meat-free collard greens), apple barbecue sauce, barbecue rub and chicken fry (the f lour and spices used to coat the restaurant’s fried chicken) in the next four months.

5359 W. Adams Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 571-4999, altaadams.com

WHEN THE Kogi BBQ truck first started to roll through the streets of Los Angeles in 2008, people were enamored with Roy Choi’s short rib tacos. Fans fiercely updated their Twitter feeds, tracked the truck’s whereabouts, dashed to its location, then waited in line for hours for Choi’s Korean Mexican tacos, quesadillas and burritos. “People would always say, ‘How can I get your sauce?’ ” Choi said on a recent phone call. “For 10 years, I told them I’m just trying to prep the food and keep up. We ended up putting sauces in deli cups and selling them for $2.” Choi finally got around to selling his Kogi BBQ marinade and sauce as a wholesale item in 2018, supplying everyone from hotel chefs to amusement park cooks. He started selling the sauce at Smart and Final in 2021 and gradually expanded the line to include a sweet garlic teriyaki, sweet orange chili sauce and sticky spicy wing sauce.

“We tried to make a retail version of every sauce we use for Kogi,” he said. “We started with the marinade and then went on to the salsa roja, our wing sauce and, our secret weapon, a garlic roasted chile soy. They are straight-up representations of the actual sauces from the truck. Now they are so good we use the bottled sauces on the trucks.”

In January 2022, Choi started selling the Kogi BBQ marinade and sauce at Costco locations in the Los Angeles area and Hawaii, followed by Southern California locations of Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions in March. Beginning this spring, the Korean BBQ, sweet garlic teriyaki, Korean hot wing sauce and Boom Boom sauce (spicy with chiles and smoked paprika) will roll out at more stores in Southern California, Phoenix and Las Vegas.

“We never figured out how to expand the Kogi BBQ outlets, but the next best thing was the sauces,” he said.

Outside of the Kogi BBQ name, Choi recently started a seasoning company called Hi Note with a group of friends and a nutritionist. The company’s first launch in December 2021 was a seasoning packet called Cheezio Pepe. It’s a plantbased seasoning packet version of the popular pasta dish cacio e pepe.

“The idea was, ‘How can we take the old seasoning packet, whether it’s a taco mix or gravy mix or mashed potato mix, and all those things you see in the grocery aisle, and make them clean?’ ” he said. “I grew up on Kool-Aid packets and all these magical dust things, but now we live in a world where people are more conscious of what we put in our bodies.”

The seasoning is made with nutritional yeast, onion, sea salt, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, black pepper and garlic. You rip open the package, pour it into a pot of cooked pasta, stir and serve.

Next for the Hi Note line of seasonings is the launch of Sloppy Papi, a take on sloppy Joe seasoning for meat, plantbased meats and vegetables. Hi Note products are available only from the company website.

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