Busselton chef Alex Gibson brings the heat at 2022 Mr Chilli Awards

A pandemic hobby has turned into a flaming success for one Busselton chef, who has claimed a clean sweep at the 2022 Mr Chilli awards.

Alex Gibson started making his Jibba’s Hot Sauce in 2020, fulfilling his passion for creating food when his work was closed because of COVID-19 restrictions.

Four years on, now with a wide variety of sauces, jams and jerkies to his name, Mr Gibson has claimed a handful of national accolades for his homemade delicacies.

Competing against 225 hot-sauce companies across Australia and New Zealand, Jibba’s pulled off four podium wins claiming first place for the habanero category, second place for hot barbeque and chipotle categories and third place for the 10+ heat category.

The young chef said he was “pumped” to have such a strong result in his first competition.

“I was sort of going in hoping for one place and I would have been stoked,” he said.

“I ended up getting first place in the first (category) that was announced and I was like, OK, now I want it all. . . but I was pretty happy with how it all ended up.”

The Mr Chilli Awards winners are determined through a blind-tasting process by judges across the nation, with Mr Gibson attributing his win to “beginner’s luck,” happy to “get the silverware”.

He said the result gave him confidence in himself and his product going forward.

“It’s a bit of validation, if anything, because I put in quite a bit of work like outside of my standard work,” he said.

“This is just something I do on the days off, and I drive around town in the afternoons delivering all the local deliveries so it makes it worth it for sure.”