The Laoganma Story: How an Illiterate Widow Built a Chili Empire

Tao Huabi rose from poverty to become one of China's most successful businesswomen

If you know Chinese food, you know Laoganma (老干妈). But few realize that the woman behind the brand is very much real. “Laoganma” is the name her employees call her, and the name the poor students she once fed used to call her, back when she ran a tiny noodle shop in Guizhou, struggling to support her two children as a young widow.