A man in China who has been working as a latiao taster for 20 years is so dedicated to his work that he eats the spicy gluten snacks as main meals and turns down lucrative job offers from other companies.
As research and development director at the Jialong latiao factory in central China’s Henan province, Li Zili, 44, counts among his responsibilities tasting about 40 sticks of the snack a day and helping to develop new flavours.
The snack made of wheat flour and spicy sauce is one of most popular in China.
The key to its success is the sauce, usually made from oil and chillies, Sichuan pepper, cinnamon and galangal.
News of Li’s job went viral recently after the Latiao Museum in central China’s Hunan province paid 1,888 yuan (US$260) a day for a part-time worker to taste and offer feedback.
Li had reportedly rejected another company that offered to pay him one million yuan (US$140,000) a year.
He said the dozens of flavours he had developed were his factory’s secret.
Li was born in Pingjiang, Hunan, where latiao was invented.
He grew up in a family that ran a spicy bean curd snack business, and had been tasting different kinds of chillies since he was young.
After studying landscape architecture at university, he chose to return home and support his family business, which was not thriving because his father was getting too old to focus on it.
Li developed a new spicy and salty flavour for the products, and rebooted the business, but left home for bigger challenges, which was when he discovered latiao.
The cheap snack was already a favourite among children, but when Li had a taste, he was shocked at how awful the flavour was – it was just pungent and spicy.
Li approached a latiao factory and volunteered to develop better products for the company.
To protect his taste buds, Li stays away from cigarettes and alcohol, and even quit other spicy foods and the areca nut, two favourite snacks among Hunan people.
Li tastes the latiaos produced by the factory every day to ensure quality and consistency. He also samples the latiaos produced by other factories to remain competitive.
Li said latiao had literally become his daily meals.
He keeps a diary to document all the data and inspirations from his tasting routine.
Li is one of the top latiao taste developers in the industry. The dozens of products he developed are reportedly top sellers.
