HotZeg

Two Golds and a Bronze across three categories, from a family kitchen growing its own chilies in the city.

HotZeg is a small-batch family kitchen in Uccle, Brussels, run by Vlad Rojnik and his family, growing its own chilies in-house and sourcing the rest from Belgian organic farms.

Three sauces, three medals: CHEE-LY took Best in Category in Asian Style, ADIXION took Gold in Sweet and #6 in Europe's Top 10 overall, and KIKEBICHE a Bronze in Mild, all built without leaving the city.

The sauce: CHEE-LY is lychee folded into chili with a build of Asian aromatics, umami carrying through floral notes. Designed to cross multiple Asian cuisines rather than sit in one.

Peppers: Habanero, single-variety, with lychee (23%), ginger and miso.

“We started HotZeg with one goal, prove to ourselves that we could make tasty hot sauces with natural ingredients only and keep the pleasure hand in hand with spiciness.”

Find Vlad: Instagram @hotzeg.bxl