Last night Thomasina Miers launched her new cookbook, Chilli Notes, over mezcal cocktails and shrimp tacos at Wahaca in Charlotte Street. Although chilli is one of her favourite ingredients — not least for its aphrodisiac qualities — they are not without their disastrous side-effects.
“Early on I was trying to make a sauce from habañero peppers. The chillis exploded and nearly blew my parents’ eyeballs out. Toxic fumes filled the whole house. There’s also a molé sauce where you have to burn the chilli seeds — but burning them also gave me incredible coughing fits.”
But beware getting on the wrong side of the statuesque ex-Masterchef winner. “I tried the infamous naga once — I think that would be the best way to kill someone, just secretly poison them with naga.”
