Hot Sauce: In Conversation with Paul Easson

By Ben Stephens

It would be foolish to open an Asian fusion laneway bar in Melbourne without doing thorough research on the the flavours and culture. Living in a multi-culture environment like Australia, you can walk into any capital city and point your compass in the direction of Chinatown and tuck into traditional goods, though something is always missing in this situation.

There is that authentic vibe that you can only get by walking through Kowloon Bay in Hong Kong or down a back alley in Osaka, where you stumble upon a bao or a piece fried chicken that changes how you think about life.

With the opening of Hot Sauce, QT Melbourne’s tip-of-the-hat to the street food wizards of Asia, I caught up with Executive Chef Paul Easson to discuss the menu provisioning the late night hot spot.

Hello, Paul.

Hello, Ben.

I’ve been going over the Hot Sauce menu, it’s a collection of delicacies that make my mouth water… Where did you get the inspiration for the menu?

Well, David Seargeant (CEO of EVENT Hospitality & Entertainment, the originator of the QT brand) sent me over to Asia for a two weeks. The brief was to steer away from restaurants and get into the street food scene. We were looking for original flavours that we could bring to Melbourne. Hot Sauce is an industry laneway bar where everyone is welcome and the food is fun.