Reading Chilli Fest returned to the town centre on Saturday, bringing fans of the flaming-hot food to taste and try some spicy snacks and ingredients.
Vendors such as GingerBeard’s Preserves, Fair Dinkum Fare, Wiltshire Chilli Farm, and Tipsy Fruit Gins were set up on Broad Street in a promenade of picante products.
Reading residents Kaz and Whiskers have been running Saucey Lady since they entered the Fiery Foods Chilli Contest in 2012, after Kaz began making chutney.
“We started off just making stuff for family and friends, but then we won the amateur competition, and went from there.
“We did little fetes and church halls and grew bigger and bigger from there.”
They are also no strangers to Reading’s Chilli Fest: “We’ve done all of them, right the way from 2015.”
As well as catering to fans of fiery foods, Saucey Lady also offered lighter sauces for more delicate palettes, including an award-winning sauce which features citrus fruits and prosecco among its ingredients.
Fellow vendor Michael Price from Prices Spices says: “We’ve been coming to the Chilli Fest the last four or five times in the 10 years we’ve been trading.”
He said that people flock to the festival because: “Chilli gives people a bit of an endorphin rush, and there’s so many ways to go with it.
“It’s a way to jazz up your food, whether you’re cooking or just slapping it on an off-the-shelf pizza.
“The pain goes, and then they want to go again.”
John Maillard has run Johnny HoT Stuff from Henley-on-Thames since late in 2018, and says that the response from punters had been: “Really good.
“We’ve been so busy with people buying and trying, so Reading was quite hot today.
“People are understanding the nuances, the flavour and heat differences of chilli these days, so we’re quite gourmet in our flavour range and we like to mix and match different things together.
“There’s a taste for everyone, so we really try and cater to that.”
