A short guide to hot sauce with manners
The Story
A short account of how a sauce acquired its manners
Chapter I
Hot sauce has been misbehaving.
It has grown hotter, louder and more extreme, and it is rather pleased with itself. Somewhere along the way the question stopped being what is on the plate and became how much a person can bear.
We think that is a shame. Chili is an ingredient, not a dare. Mr. Chili is the gentleman who teaches hot sauce some manners.
p. 2The question is never how hot it is. The question is what you are eating.
Chapter II
Eric, Luca, and the first sauce.
Mr. Chili began at the family table, not at the drawing board. Eric and his son Luca started experimenting with chilis, ingredients and homemade sauces, more for the joy of it than with a plan. The sauce turned out rather good.
Friends and family joined in. Recipes were developed, ingredients questioned, bottles filled, tasted, changed and tasted again. Somewhere along that road Mr. Chili was born, and the first sauce carried Luca’s name.
Every sauce since is a chapter of Lucas Discovery, and each carries a story of its own.
Chapter III
The gentleman.
The name is meant literally. The bottle wears a black top hat and a bow tie, and the lettering is set directly into the glass, with no label at all. It was designed as an object for the table rather than as mass-produced ware, with a character somewhere between fine dining and considered design.
It belongs on the table, not in the fridge door, like a good bottle of wine. It is the most sophisticated and mischievous dinner guest you will seat.
He is not here to challenge you. He is here to see that dinner goes well, and then to sit quietly at the edge of the table until he is needed again.
Heat, with manners.
Chapter IV
House rules.
- 1.
No macho heat challenges.
Nobody at this table is proving anything.
- 2.
No heat for heat’s sake.
No shortcuts, no extracts. If it does not make the food better, it does not go in.
- 3.
No setting fire to a perfectly good dinner.
A sauce should be noticed, then forgotten, then asked for again.
Chapter V
A sauce that earns its place.
Real ingredients, nothing hidden. Fresh chilis, ripe fruit, herbs and spices, carefully chosen, prepared by hand, balanced through countless tastings.
Every batch is made in small quantities by Eric, his family and a group of friends, and adjusted until the heat supports the flavour instead of dominating it. No shortcuts, no extracts, no heat for heat’s sake. Only honest craft, and layers of flavour that make simple dishes unforgettable.
No shock factor, no loud promises. Substance and style, for people who value taste and good looks in equal measure.
