Flavor Hunter

Hot & Spicy 3.0

Balance and dimension are the next big thing in hot and spicy food—call it Hot & Spicy 3.0—and they’re easy to achieve with the help of Kikkoman sauces.

“Hot and spicy is more than just a trend; it’s part of who we are and what we eat today,” says Andrew Hunter, Kikkoman Foodservice and Industrial corporate chef. “Americans have grown to love hot and spicy food. Ingredients that were once considered cutting-edge and daring, like chipotle chiles (let’s call them Hot & Spicy 1.0) and Sriracha hot sauce (Hot & Spicy 2.0), are woven into our diets and our recipes. They’re an expected part of today’s flavor pantry.”

The key now is to use heat like any other flavor to create balance and dimension in recipes, says Hunter. That’s Hot & Spicy 3.0. “It’s not just about throwing ghost chiles into a recipe and watching customers singe their hair off,” he continues. “It’s about achieving a nuanced balance of sweetness, acidity, salt and spice to make food taste more delicious and leave a memorable impression.”

Kikkoman has many useful tools in its spicy arsenal, including Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce, Thai Style Chili Sauce and Wasabi Sauce, each of which contributes a different type of savory, well-rounded heat. Other Kikkoman products that bring depth of flavor and dimension to spicy food include Kotteri and Salted Mirin, Ponzu Citrus Seasoned Dressing & Sauce and Rice Vinegar.

“Kikkoman Soy Sauce is another wonderful tool,” adds the chef, “contributing key notes of umami and salinity to round out the flavor experience.”

Chef Hunter provides some specific tips and techniques for creating balance and complexity when integrating heat into menu items:

• Vinegar and citrus add acidity and brightness, a bit of “ping” that enlivens food
• Sweetness can work to add dimension to food in the form of something like pureed caramelized onions, fruit juice or Kikkoman Preservative-Free Orange Sauce
• Toasting ingredients like spices or sesame seeds adds subtle smokiness; so do Aleppo peppers, chiles in adobo and smoked paprika
• Experiment with the variety of available chiles, each of which adds different characteristics of fruitiness and flavor
• Yogurt, coconut milk and tahini are great tools for mellowing flavor and adding dimension, as well as richer texture and “cling”
• Don’t be afraid to “layer” different sources of heat, which release sensation at different times, adding to complexity
• Look to the global pantry for balance; there’s nothing wrong with borrowing Korean products, like kimchee or gochujang, or Mediterranean staples, such as ground fennel and harissa, to create a signature flavor experience

Hunter lauds chefs like Roy Choi and Tal Ronnen, both friends and colleagues in his hometown of Los Angeles, for their skill in combining ingredients from different cultures to create intensely flavored food that’s spicy but multidimensional, electrifying but balanced and sophisticated.

“That’s the essence of what Hot & Spicy 3.0 is,” he says.