About The League

How it All Began...

Our range of hot sauces are all based on the original recipe and methodology of Maximinous Mark Francois.  Maximinous Francois was a master chef who refined his craft in the kitchens of the La Terrace at The Dorchester Hotel, in London during the 1970s & 1980s, under the watchful eye of Anton Mosiman. During this time the restaurant was awarded two Michelin Stars.

Maximinous Francois died in May 2007. But fortunately for us, long before then, he passed his recipes, notes and techniques on to his son and close friends. It is from these notes that our sauce range - The Hillary & Blemish Collection - were born.

Max's original sauce is a traditional Caribbean recipe from St Lucia, which is still in use by his family today. Although the recipe is not really a secret, his version of this traditional St Lucian Hot sauce is a bit more refined than usual. But that doesn't mean the recipe lack punch! Like Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, this amazing concoction has a both a refined persona and a fierce bite.

By carefully altering the types of chillies and ingredients, but maintaining the methodology he used, we have created a signature set of flavours which, whilst remarkably different, all retain the same signature profile of Maximinous’ original recipe.  Each recipe in this classic collections were approved by the great man (and the rest of the family) before he passed away.

Since then we’ve continued to experiment and search for new techniques and ideas, which, despite diverging from from Max’s technique and recipe, maintain his principles. Flavour & Quality first. Heat Second.

Our Sauces

All of our recipes are quite complex when compared with other sauces. Many hot pepper sauces have only two or three ingredients - chillies, vinegar, salt and/or sugar. But our sauces have several. Each one has a chilli & vinegar base, a ground spice and fresh herb core and several intense flavour accents. Some also have a vegetable or fruit body. They vary in heat from very mild to extremely hot. 

They are cooked sauces, and use no additives or enhancers . They are completely suitable for vegetarians and vegans, although some contain ingredients which might be considered allergens (such as cashew nuts).

You can use them as a condiment (like ketchup) or you can use them in cooking (as a marinade or paste). There are probably other uses for them, but we won’t go into that here, save to say that someone once found that Max’s Original Recipe was served as a great pain relieve for tooth ache (probably due to the person not being able to feel anything in his mouth after eating a tablespoon of it). We shall also not speak of spirit animals here.

They have a shelf life of about 6 - 12 months or longer. If you always use a clean spoon (to avoid contaminate particles) the sauces won’t go off (although over time they will lose flavour eventually and in some cases change colour slightly. They might even change in heat levels… both up and down. Of course, there’s a good chance they won’t last long enough for you to ever find that out.

It’s also worth noting that due to seasonal differences and variations that are inherent in fresh produce, each batch is slightly different from each other, even within the same recipe.

The League from 2023

Unchartered Flavours has now ceased small scale public sales via our website.

The past few years have been testing and despite some activity in the background, we have arrived at the decision to redact our consumer shop.

If you have any sauce queries, please get in touch and we will endeavour to respond promptly.

The League will still exist and we will continue to explore and innovate in our own way.

We hope to see you along the way.