Chilli

I absolutely love chillies – they are my favourite spice. There is something so beautiful and exotic about them; from warming mild chillies to smoky dry chillies or the full-on punch-in-the-face hot chillies. They are all amazing to cook with.

The chilli has a really interesting story. It was discovered when Christopher Columbus bumped into America by accident, while trying to find a faster route to the spice islands of Indonesia. The Europeans weren’t very receptive to this odd-tasting spice, but the locals of a certain colony in India, called Goa, went mad for it. It quickly replaced the expensive black pepper as the piquancy in the local Goan food – and eventually made its way into dishes throughout the world.