Forthcoming — date unconfirmed
Dutch Limburg keeps a food table built on Limburgse vlaai out of Weert's bakeries and the long-braised zoervleisj that anchors the regional kitchen, with the Belgian Trappist and lambic country sitting a few kilometres over the border. Chilisaus.be, a craft kitchen in Weert run by Kerri Innes and trading under a deliberately cross-border Belgian-Dutch identity, has placed four times at the European Hot Sauce Awards 2026 (heatawards.eu), Europe's flagship hot sauce competition, including Best in Category Extract Based with The Level 20 - Shit That's Hot and Gold in Asian Style Chili Sauce with The 2024 Edition - Coconut Curry.
Chilisaus.be operates out of Weert in southeast Limburg, a few kilometres from the Belgian border, and trades under a .be domain by design: the kitchen sits Dutch-side, the audience reads on both sides of the line, and the brand-mark commits to both. The catalogue runs as a year-by-year body of work, with each year carrying a flagship edition, alongside a numbered "Level" line that ladders up the heat-extract end. Four placements across Extract Based, Asian Style and Extra Hot is the multi-year line cashing out: a Best in Category at the extract end, a Gold on the Asian-fusion end, and two earlier annual editions still scoring in Extra Hot.
Nathan Austin on The Level 20 - Shit That's Hot:
"Extract Based is the category usually written off as just heat for the sake of it, and Best in Category landing on a numbered Level sauce out of a Limburg kitchen is the form being taken seriously. A heat-level line that runs as far as Level 20 is a kitchen showing its working: each release a deliberate position on the heat ladder, not a one-off." – Nathan Austin, Tasting Editor, Republic of Heat
The Level 20 - Shit That's Hot (Gold, Best in Category, Extract Based Chili Sauce): the top rung of Chilisaus.be's numbered heat-level line, naming itself plainly and taking the category's top Gold in the bracket that asks producers to commit to extract-driven heat without hiding behind anything else.
The 2024 Edition - Coconut Curry (Gold, Asian Style Chili Sauce): the 2024 flagship edition, a coconut-and-curry build entered into the Asian Style bracket and Gold against a continent-wide field, two Golds at opposite ends of the same kitchen's range.
Two earlier annual editions placed in Extra Hot Chili Sauce, the same flagship-edition line still scoring two and three years on:
The 2023 Edition - Asian Mango (Bronze): a mango-and-Asian-fusion build, the 2023 flagship.
The 2022 Edition - Chocolate Smoked (Bronze): a chocolate-and-smoke build, the 2022 flagship.
[MAKER QUOTE PENDING - Kerri Innes confirmation, Chilisaus.be] – Kerri Innes, Chilisaus.be
The European Hot Sauce Awards 2026 ran over 200 sauces from across the continent through blind tasting this year, scored on five criteria by a deliberately mixed panel of chefs, sommeliers, critics and chilli specialists. Best in Category, the top Gold within a category, is awarded once per category. Landing Best in Category in Extract Based, the bracket built around heat-extract work, plus a second Gold in Asian Style at a very different end of the flavour map, asks for a kitchen that can read very different briefs and meet the panel in each.
"Best in Category Extract Based plus a second Gold in Asian Style is the kind of pairing you don't fluke. Extract Based rewards a producer who treats heat as the discipline, and a Dutch kitchen on the Belgian border landing it alongside a coconut-curry Gold is exactly the kind of result EHSA exists to surface." – Neil Numb, Founder, European Hot Sauce Awards
The Chilisaus.be range, including The Level 20 - Shit That's Hot, The 2024 Edition - Coconut Curry, The 2023 Edition - Asian Mango and The 2022 Edition - Chocolate Smoked, is available through chilisaus.be. Full EHSA 2026 results across all 16 categories: heatawards.eu/results/2026?utm_source=press_release&utm_medium=press&utm_campaign=ehsa2026&utm_content=chilisaus-be-eu.
The European Hot Sauce Awards 2026 are announced ahead of the Berlin Chili Fest, 29–31 May 2026. Republic of Heat's EHSA 2026 Top 3 winner box is live at republicofheat.com/de-en/discovery-set/euhsa_top3, with further EHSA selection boxes at republicofheat.com/de-en/hot-sauce-sets.
PRESS RESOURCES Reveal videos on YouTube, embeddable: - Extra Hot Chili Sauce: https://youtu.be/WXVJ6Qcbjzw Press kit (photos, logos, AI lifestyle composites credited Republic of Heat / European Hot Sauce Awards 2026): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1P7-evLnQWOzUgtVf3SeO0pIhlYaeHRAi?usp=drive_link
ABOUT CHILISAUS.BE Chilisaus.be is a craft hot sauce kitchen in Weert, Limburg, the Netherlands, run by Kerri Innes and trading under a deliberately cross-border Belgian-Dutch identity. The range is built on annual editions, with each year carrying a flagship release, plus a numbered "Level" line for the extract-based end of the catalogue. The Level 20 - Shit That's Hot, The 2024 Edition - Coconut Curry, The 2023 Edition - Asian Mango and The 2022 Edition - Chocolate Smoked all medalled at EHSA 2026. Range and details at chilisaus.be.
ABOUT THE EUROPEAN HOT SAUCE AWARDS The European Hot Sauce Awards (EHSA) is the professional competition for commercially produced hot sauces in Europe, run annually since 2024 from heatawards.eu. EHSA was born out of the Berlin Chili Festival, which has run since 2019 and returns 29–31 May 2026, and became an independent competition in 2024. Over 200 sauces from producers across the continent were entered in 2026. Entries are judged blind across five criteria: aroma, heat profile, flavour, creativity and finish. The 2026 edition covers 16 categories, with Gold, Silver and Bronze medals awarded across multiple positions in each. Each category also names a Best in Category, the top Gold. EHSA is run independently of any single producer or retailer.
ABOUT REPUBLIC OF HEAT Republic of Heat is a European hot sauce subscription designed to show off the flavours coming out of Europe and help solve the distribution problem independent makers face. Founded June 2025 in Berlin by Nathan "Naga" Austin and Simon "Scoville" Gardner. The Discovery subscription delivers three handpicked craft sauces plus a spicy extra to subscribers across the EU each month. Press partner of the European Hot Sauce Awards 2026. republicofheat.com.
PRESS CONTACT Press: Republic of Heat, on behalf of European Hot Sauce Awards contact@republicofheat.com +49 176 41601284
— End –
Press contact
Contact the Council