London’s love affair with hot sauce is heating up, as fiery condiments become a staple in home kitchens and on restaurant tables alike. Independent brands are thriving, bringing bold flavours and small-batch sauces to the forefront. Many of them (including my own hot sauce label) are championed on platforms like Delli, the London-based food and drink retailer connecting curious eaters with craft producers.
I started making, bottling and selling my signature Too Hot hot sauce through my brand The Little Sauce back in 2018. I launched my Little Sauce Iraqi supper club, and with it the hot sauce, as a way to play on the name.
I was living in Stoke Newington at the time, where Scotch bonnets are easily accessible thanks to the many Afro-Carribean grocers, plus they’d always been my favourite kind of chilli – they pack a punch, with an irresistible fruitiness that bring meals to life. So it felt very natural for them to be my chilli of choice for the sauce, while romano peppers added sweetness and an orange hue, and lemon and lime balanced it with a zesty hit.
The supper club was the vision, but the hot sauce became the focus. Supper club diners all wanted to get their fix. Since then, the hot sauce scene has only grown bigger, with many chefs, restaurants and home cooks creating their own signature sauces.
From smoky ferments to tongue-tingling chilli oils, hot sauce is no longer just a sidekick. Hot sauce-obsessed Londoners are even attaching travel-sized sauces to our bags in case of an under-seasoning emergency. To understand the obsession, we spoke to five London chefs about their go-to bottles, the sauces they swear by and how heat has become a crucial ingredient in the capital’s culinary creativity.
Rahel Stephanie, chef and founder of Spoons supper club
Sauce of choice: ABC Sambal
“In Indonesia, spiciness isn’t optional – it’s a constant. Even when we snack, we’ll have raw bird’s eye chillis (cabe rawit) on the side, and before any meal someone always asks, ‘Mau pedas ga?’ (How spicy do you want it?). The answer is rarely ‘Not at all’. So it’s been interesting seeing spice become a sort of sport in the West – this competitive, macho-posturing thing. For me and a lot of Indonesians, it’s not about performance; spice is familiar, instinctive, comforting. It’s not filling a void of spice or personality; it’s just part of the flavour language I was raised with. My go-to hot sauce in London is Sambal ABC: a classic Indonesian bottled sambal that brings bold, punchy heat with real depth. It’s nostalgic, punchier than most of the mainstream sauces and packed with that unmistakable garlicky warmth.”
Philip Juma, chef and founder of Juma Kitchen
Sauce of choice: Encona’s West Indian Original Hot Pepper Sauce
“The London food scene is thriving with old-school classics and new independent hot sauce makers. My vote has to go to the OG: Encona. The papaya addition gives it such a fruity, acidic, spicy balance that hits different and always gets my mouth salivating.”
Ixta Belfrage, cook, writer and author
Sauce of choice: Eaten Alive’s Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce
“Eaten Alive’s Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce is the perfect balance of fiery and funky, with a proper, discernible Scotch bonnet flavour, which is surprisingly hard to find. So many Scotch bonnet-flavoured sauces bring heat but lack that all-important fruity flavour. This one nails it. The heat, acidity and fermentation are spot on, and it brings the simplest meals to life.”
Hasan Semay, aka Big Has, chef and author
Sauce of choice: The Rib Man’s Holy Fuck Sauce
“London’s got so many good places to eat, and those with a banging hot sauce selection always get my vote. Everyone has a hot sauce close to their heart, and mine’s The Rib Man. Whether it’s on a rib sandwich out or something I’ve made at home, it ticks all the boxes.”
Gizzi Erskine, chef and writer
Sauce of choice: sriracha
“I can’t live without sriracha. I feel like I was an early adopter of sriracha as I spent much of my youth living between Bangkok and London, and it was like ketchup [in Bangkok]. When I started cheffing I always instinctively used sriracha where I’d been taught to use tabasco, so everything from my cheese sauces and Marie Rose to Bloody Marys took on this chilli heat. I always feel it has more body, as it’s fermented so has umami from that, but it’s still tangy and has a sweet roundness that makes it so user-friendly. But honestly, sriracha on eggs and rice is one of my favourite simple dinners, and I eat it way more than I probably should.”
Suzie Bakos is a writer and chef, and founder of The Little Sauce and creator of Too Hot hot sauce.
