Czech Silesia's kitchens run on smoked klobása and the long-pickled cabbage that grounds the region's table. Gaston Chilli, a craft kitchen in Ostrava run by Radovan Fron and his wife with chillies grown for them by a family-run nursery on the city's outskirts, has placed four times at the European Hot Sauce Awards 2026 (heatawards.eu), Europe's flagship hot sauce competition, including Best in Category Freestyle with DEAD MORUGA and Gold in Extra Hot Chili Sauce with KRAKENOVY SLZY (Kraken's Tears).
Gaston Chilli ("KDYŽ JE CHILLI TVOU VÁŠNÍ", roughly "When chilli is your passion") is built and bottled by hand by Radovan and his wife in Ostrava, with every bottle passing through Radovan's hands. The chilli peppers are grown exclusively for the kitchen by a family-run nursery on the outskirts of Ostrava, with Habaneros for the mild range raised in the producer's own greenhouses. The ingredient card runs to San Marzano tomatoes, Demerara sugar, extra-fine Italian wine vinegar and glutamate-free spices, and the recipes are all Radovan's. Four placements across Freestyle, Extra Hot, Asian Style and Mild speaks less to a single bottle than to a kitchen that can read four very different categories.
Nathan Austin on DEAD MORUGA:
"DEAD MORUGA is built to look like a Depeche Mode record. Cuttlefish ink and blueberries pull the colour almost black, with Moruga peppers carrying the heat, and that combination of marine umami and dark fruit underneath the Moruga is not a flavour profile you see on the shelf. Best in Category Freestyle is the right place for it." – Nathan Austin, Tasting Editor, Republic of Heat
DEAD MORUGA (Gold, Best in Category, Freestyle): Radovan's tribute to Depeche Mode after forty-five years of listening, built to be black like a proper DM sauce. Blueberries and cuttlefish ink darken the base, with Moruga peppers as the chilli. The label is designed to evoke the band's Violator era.
KRAKENOVY SLZY / Kraken's Tears (Gold, Extra Hot Chili Sauce): a tomato-led extra-hot built on Italian San Marzano tomatoes and seven different chilli peppers, layered so the heat lands in waves rather than a single hit and lasts for a very long time. Radovan's personal favourite in the range. The label imagery, eyes building anticipation, is built for what's behind the cap.
FERMENTÁTOR / The Fermentor (Bronze, Asian Style Chili Sauce): the first fermented sauce in the Gaston Chilli lineup, brand-new for 2026 and built at customer request. The name nods to the Terminator, with the line "he always comes back, just like your craving for this sauce".
TEARS (Bronze, Mild Chili Sauce): a small-batch mild sauce built for Los Capolitos, a Czech chain of Mexican bistros, with mango, papaya and Habaneros raised in the producer's own greenhouses. The inspiration came from a book about Mexico, and the name lands on the tears of joy after the first taste.
"We are thrilled that a small producer from Ostrava like us has succeeded against competitors from all over the continent. Handmade production, quality ingredients, and our own original recipes have helped us win four awards." – Radovan Fron, Gaston Chilli
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 Freestyle, the bracket that asks producers to invent rather than work to a profile, and a second Gold in Extra Hot at the opposite end of the heat range, asks for a kitchen that can read very different briefs and meet the panel each time.
"Best in Category Freestyle plus a second Gold in Extra Hot is the kind of pairing you don't fluke. Freestyle rewards an idea that holds up on the palate, and a husband-and-wife kitchen in Ostrava landing it with a Depeche Mode tribute built on cuttlefish ink is exactly the kind of result EHSA exists to surface." – Neil Numb, Founder, European Hot Sauce Awards
The Gaston Chilli range, including DEAD MORUGA, KRAKENOVY SLZY, FERMENTÁTOR and TEARS, is available through gastonchilli.cz. Full EHSA 2026 results across all 16 categories: heatawards.eu/results/2026?utm_source=press_release&utm_medium=press&utm_campaign=ehsa2026&utm_content=gaston-chilli.
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 - Mild Chili Sauce: https://youtu.be/nQsGH0tPhZ8 Press kit (photos, logos, AI lifestyle composites credited Republic of Heat / European Hot Sauce Awards 2026): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MmW8VIxJegA7nD4cYV76KkQ28G1Qlcaf?usp=drive_link
ABOUT GASTON CHILLI Gaston Chilli is a craft hot sauce kitchen in Ostrava, Czech Republic, founded and run by Bc. Radovan Fron with his wife as co-maker. Every bottle is made by hand in small batches, with chillies grown exclusively for the kitchen by a family-run nursery on the outskirts of Ostrava, and Habaneros for the mild range raised in the producer's own greenhouses. The range covers Mild through Extra Hot plus Asian Style and Freestyle, all built on Radovan's own recipes. The motto on the label reads "KDYŽ JE CHILLI TVOU VÁŠNÍ", roughly "When chilli is your passion". Range and details at gastonchilli.cz.
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