SOME LIKE IT HOT

For over five centuries, chillies have set the subcontinent on fire, first in chutneys and curries, and now in an explosion of bottled heat. But how did we get here, and where is Indian hot sauce headed?

- Sharan Sanil

India didn't always eat this hot. Before the 16th century, our kitchens drew their fire from black pepper, ginger, mustard, and long pepper (pipli). The chilli as we know it today was a colonial interloper, first brought to Goa by Portuguese traders sometime after 1498, and then quietly absorbed into the Indian culinary bloodstream. Five hundred years later, it's almost impossible to imagine Indian food without it. That isn't just adoption; it's assimilation on a cultural level.

I say this not just as a journalist, but as an addict. I drown my fried eggs and every bruschetta, pizza slice and Bloody Mary in sight with Tabasco. I toss chilli oil into ramen by the tablespoon. I frolic amidst the hot sauce aisles in import supermarkets and have a rotating selection of bottles that-while usually used as toppings-are considered with nearly every meal I eat. Call it my Mangalorean genes, or some unexplained penchant for masochism, but I really freaking love my hot sauce. And yet, until recently, I hadn't really thought about where it all began-or why the most searing, sour, fruit-spiked sauces on my shelf rarely tasted recognisably Indian.

According to Chef Raghu Deora, Executive Chef at Loya (Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai), the chilli's meteoric rise was part flavour, part function. "India's climate made it ideal for chillies to thrive, so supply wasn't a problem. It was also the cheapest way to add flavour to your food, especially if you couldn't afford too many spices. And it helped preserve food in the pre-refrigeration era," he explains.

That combination-accessibility, flavour, and anti-microbial function-made the chilli an instant hit across caste, class, and geography.

Over the next few centuries, chillies took root across India's vastly diverse food cultures. In the Konkan belt, they turned fiery coastal seafood into a sensory gut punch.

In Andhra, they redefined what a curry could taste like.