WIDOW MAKER is a local chilli sauce bringing tears to the eyes of people around the world, brags creator Leigh Nash.
The Scoville scale is used to measure chilli heat, with anything over one million considered extreme.
“The Widow Maker is 689,000; it’s brought men to tears on many an occasion,” the North Fremantle resident says.
It’s also been a red-hot hit on YouTube show Hot Ones, where celebrities like Margot Robbie are interviewed while they try increasingly spicy chicken wings.
“It’s very popular in the chilli world,” Mr Nash says.
He concocts a range of chilli sauces in a kitchen at Sunshine Harvester (formerly The Mantle) on Beach Street in Fremantle.
• Chilli expert Leigh Nash. Photos supplied
A chef at Vans Cafe for 16 years, he made his own sauces rather than buy off-the-shelf brands with preservatives and artificial colours, and eventually launched his Dingo Chilli range.
It sold well locally, but wife Ailbhe Travers wanted to know if it was a case of a “big fish in a little pond” and sent samples to experts at renowned sauce company Heatonist in Brooklyn.
They were so impressed they place a large order, but Nash’s fledgling company wasn’t in a position to fill it.
A year later Heatonist came back wanting 20,000 bottles of Widow Maker.
“In six weeks,” Mr Nash says. “I said yes, not knowing how I was going to pull it off.”
As luck would have it, a Carnarvon chilli supplier was about to throw out a ton of excess chillies and offered them to Nash.
Widow Maker is now the second spiciest sauce on Hot Ones.
There are 13 varieties with varying heat in the Dingo Chilli range.
I cautiously sampled the medium chillberry.
The strawberry/chilli sauce has a heat rating of seven out of 10.
It’s fantastic – sweet with a hint of sharpness and went exceptionally well with cheese and biscuits, and over stir fry and just about everything else.
But I wasn’t willing to give the Widow Maker a go.
Dingo Chilli has a food stall at Sunshine Harvester and Mr Nash does catering – not necessarily with chilli.
To find out more go to dingosauceco.com
by JENNY D’ANGER
Dingo Chilli
0435 250 139