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Saritha Hegde, who launched this home venture in June this year, will fix you up with her collection of gourmet hot wok sauces, sambals, spice mixes, pates, marinades, infused oils, and chutneys, for when you want to throw together fiery flavours at home. Think, Andhra Chilli Sauce, Thai Chilli Oil, Lemongrass Wok Sauce, Mangalorean spice mixes, and several infused salts, among others. If you ask, she’ll even share some recipes on request.

Last year, as India was deep into a nationwide lockdown that kept most of the country stuck indoors, Saritha Hegde, a former corporate fashion executive, began to create her own line of sauces and condiments called Not Just Hot from her home in Bengaluru. The genesis, she said, was realising that what she wanted was just not available in the market. “So, I needed a product for people like me.” 

“My mother decided to start working when we were teenagers. It was then that she came up with these spice mixes. They taste so authentic, like the masalas you stone grind and slow roast,” says Hegde, former senior vice president - sourcing for Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein in India

Former corporate honcho Saritha Hegde speaks to CE about taking the entrepreneurial plunge with her gourmet business of sauces and spices, empowering women, and more

The brainchild of Saritha Hegde, not just hot was a culmination of her favourite things – food, travel and spice. From sauces inspired by her trips to Thailand and Italy to the Mangalorean spice mix created by her mother, she started making and selling hot sauces, wok sauces, chilli oils, spice mixes and more last year.