Paul Smith Being Saucy

Developed in 1899, the HP Sauce brand has been with us since 1903, which was the inaugural year of the Tour de France.

HP Sauce has been splashed on pork chops and sausages for over a hundred years. The name is derived from the Houses of Parliament. I always thought its classic bottle shape was too. Of course, times change and it's now a Heinz product, manufactured by our neighbours in the Netherlands. Is there an artisanal British maker of chop sauce out there? If so, I'd like to know.

Drowning a bacon sandwich

HP's Paul Smith-designed bottle was one of the quirkier collaborations by the designer. The bottles were sold by Harrods in 2005 and I imagine many remain untouched as collectables. A later HP collaboration was the HP Guinness. You may think HP with a splash of Guinness wouldn't work, but I trialled it by drowning a crispy bacon sandwich in the stuff. I must say there was a distinctly yeasty finish in the taste. Not too bad at all.