Jorge Leonardo Guerrero is better known as the fiery Chef Tabasco who took down a potful of chili enthusiasts at Bubba’s Fourth Annual Chili Cook-Off last October. He followed that by blazing his way to another victory in Suzhou, this time at the local Zapata’s chili cook-off. But before becoming China’s reigning chili champion, Chef Tabasco was struggling to find a way to bring the traditional flavours of his native Sonora to Shanghai – a feat that required a lot of bureaucratic hoop-jumping and red tape-clearing. Luckily, his impressive wins brought him legions of admiring fans, including Bryce Jenner, the owner of expat favourite, Big Bamboo. Now, almost a year later, Chef Tabasco is gearing up to defend his title and also holding down the fort at Big Bamboo-owned Pistolera, a Mexican joint in Jinqiao serving up some of the best fiesta food this side of the Pacific.

The 27 year old chef has always been a natural in the kitchen – he’d actually only tried to make chili twice before he displayed his culinary prowess at Bubba’s. “Chili isn’t a Mexican dish, but I spent a lot of time in Texas and I ate a lot of chili, so I was familiar with the flavours,” explains Tabasco. His culinary beginnings are rooted in cooking by taste. In fact, his first recipes were attempts to replicate his favourite dishes from different restaurants, including a successful experiment that recreated McDonald’s legendary Egg McMuffin.

He can thank his mother, a local celebrity chef with her own cooking show, for his uncanny palate and ability to pick out flavours. “When I was a kid, we would have our big family meal at 3pm. My mom would pick me up from school and give me her hands to smell,” remembers Tabasco. “Then I’d try and guess what she had cooked that day. I was pretty good at it, but onions made it hard!”

Now he’s importing the traditional scents and flavours of his mother’s kitchen into Jinqiao. He created the entire menu at Pistolera with Sonora in mind – a state considered the homeland of flour tortillas and grilled meat. During a trip back home, Tabasco picked up a handful of native pepper seeds. The fruits of his labour should be ready for picking this fall, so expect some piquant pepper-heavy recipes cropping up at Pistolera in the next couple months.

Foodies who have missed out on Chef Tabasco’s winning chili can sample them at Pistolera or head to Bubba’s on 18 September to watch him defend his title. While he’s keeping mum on his homemade recipe, he admits chipotle peppers were one of his winning ingredients and shares his secret for success. “At these cook-offs, a lot of people try to get outside the box, but at the end of the day, it’s a chili cook-off,” the master explains. “If it doesn’t look or taste like chili, then it’s not chili. Stick to the basics and spice it up.”

Pistolera, 777 Biyun Lu, near Lan'an Lu. Tel: 5030 4228