Czech kitchens hold the line on smoked klobása, dumplings off the Sunday table and a pickle shelf the rest of Central Europe quietly copies. Zach's pesto & chilli, a small-batch hot sauce kitchen run by Lukas Zach in Praha, has placed Silver (6th place) in Mild Chili Sauce at the European Hot Sauce Awards 2026 (heatawards.eu), Europe's flagship hot sauce competition, with LA PIÑA LOCA, a pineapple-led mild sauce.
Zach's pesto & chilli works under the line "crazy stories create crazy sauces", with Lukas Zach building each recipe out of that brief in Praha. LA PIÑA LOCA carries the same logic at sauce level, set by the maker's own tagline "because classics are already boring". A second-year EHSA medal off that posture, judged blind by a European panel, says the bracket is not a one-off.
Nathan Austin on LA PIÑA LOCA:
"LA PIÑA LOCA is the kind of mild sauce that does not start where most milds start. Pineapple in the lead, named for the fruit, and built off Lukas's own line that classics are already boring. That is the recipe-side intent the Mild Chili Sauce panel was scoring this year, not a safe register." – Nathan Austin, Tasting Editor, Republic of Heat
LA PIÑA LOCA took Silver (6th place) in Mild Chili Sauce: a pineapple-led mild sauce from the Zach's pesto & chilli kitchen in Praha, built around the producer's own "because classics are already boring" hook. The name itself, LA PIÑA LOCA, plants a flag on the pineapple as the lead ingredient.
"It is a great honor for me to win a medal in our second year of participation as well, because there is enormous competition in this contest." – Lukas Zach, Zach's pesto & 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. Mild Chili Sauce is one of the most crowded brackets in the competition, where producers compete on flavour build and balance rather than heat, and a Silver placement at 6th puts LA PIÑA LOCA inside Europe's tight top tier.
"A second-year Silver in Mild from a Praha kitchen working off a 'crazy stories create crazy sauces' line, with a pineapple-led sauce taking the placement, is exactly the kind of result EHSA exists to surface. Crowded category, blind panel, returning producer holding the line." – Neil Numb, Founder, European Hot Sauce Awards
LA PIÑA LOCA is available through Zach's pesto & chilli at lukaszach50@gmail.com. Full EHSA 2026 results across all 16 categories: heatawards.eu/results/2026?utm_source=press_release&utm_medium=press&utm_campaign=ehsa2026&utm_content=zachs-pesto-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: - 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/1JZM-QE8LUk34z3UsqwVaSWKMi2bcvUys?usp=drive_link
ABOUT ZACH'S PESTO & CHILLI Zach's pesto & chilli is a small-batch hot sauce kitchen in Praha, Czech Republic, founded and run by Lukas Zach. The kitchen works under the line "crazy stories create crazy sauces", with LA PIÑA LOCA, a pineapple-led mild sauce, as the EHSA 2026 medal entry. Contact at lukaszach50@gmail.com.
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
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