Hot, crunchy and umami-laden, it's easy to see how chilli crisp became today's condiment of choice for man. Once you've tasted it stirred through noodles, spooned over eggs and into sandwiches or even drizzled over pizza, there's no going back. A spicy, aromatic oil-based sauce, chilli crisp is the elevated version of chilli oil – while the latter is usually a simpler blend of oil and dried chilli flakes, chilli crisp has added crunch in the form of garlic, shallot, soybeans or peanuts. A few years ago there were only a handful of producers selling it – you've probably heard of Lao Gan Ma – but today there are hundreds putting their spin on the Chinese sauce. 

Chilli crisp deepens savoury notes in food and adds spice and aroma – it's a true all-rounder, sitting in the middle of the Venn diagram of heat, texture and flavour. And although it's incredibly easy to make at home – you can see our speedy how-to guide here, as well as a recipe for an oil with MSG and garlic – chefs whose chilli crisps have gone down a storm in their restaurants are also now bottling them and bringing them to the public. Some lead with spice, some dial up the garlic and others introduce new, vibrant flavours. Here, we've hand-picked just a few we think you should be ordering – pronto. 

A family recipe created by award-winning Bill Poon, whose eponymous restaurant first earned a Michelin star in 1980, it was in 2021 that his daughter Amy Poon decided their chilli crisp was too good to only share with friends and family. Their aromatic Extraordinary Chilli Oil is infused with the intensely savoury flavours of salted black beans in an umami-packed condiment you'll be spooning onto everything. It's available on Poon's website for £6.80, but you'll soon be able to pick it up at their new retail space at Spa Terminus in Bermondsey.

Shuko Oda's Koya is known for its freshly-made udon noodles and dashi, which you can stock up on from its website if you're keen to recreate its dishes at home. We're big fans of its signature Bitsy Chilli Oil (£6.50 on Omiyage By Koya) – filled with crunchy cashew nuts, chilli and citrusy sansho peppercorns, it's nutty, spicy and zingy and an every day go-to, though it's hard to top spooned onto udon noodles with a drizzle of soy sauce.

When he's not putting the finishing touches on dishes at his Japanese-meets-European restaurant Dinings SW3 in Chelsea, Masaki Sugisaki can probably be found whipping up batches of his secret recipe Umami Chilli Oil (available on his website for £13). Moreish, crunchy and with a punch of heat, it's fantastic on everything from noodles to sandwiches. The exact recipe might be a mystery, but we know it's made with twenty ingredients, including Korean chilli flakes, cayenne powder, sansho powder, sesame oil and bonito flakes. 

James Cochran might be best known for his Scotch Bonnet Chilli Jam, but his Crispy Caribbean Chilli Crack (available on DELLI for £5.50) definitely shouldn't be overlooked. A true lover of all things chilli, James has channelled his West Indies heritage to create his bold chilli oil, which he makes with desiccated coconut, tamarind, pineapple vinegar and dried chilli. Sweet and sharp notes with a nutty texture – try it on eggs, or anything you've fired up on the barbecue. 

The lemongrass and lime-spiked Original Chilli Oil was the first flavour Xien and her chef mother Jolene created when they started their now hugely popular Malaysian-Chinese chilli oil brand Mama Yu. Since then, they've added black bean, Malaysian curry and garlic numbers to the line-up, as well as the always moreish Peanut Chilli Oil, which is packed with crunchy peanuts and fiery chilli peppers (£5.95 on DELLI).

Ramen brand Tonkotsu's chilli oil proved so popular with its customers that they decided to bottle – or jar – it and sell it separately (on its website for £5.95). It's on the lower end of the spice spectrum, with an array of umami-rich ingredients like shichimi togarashi, miso, garlic, onion and sesame, as well as a generous sprinkling of d'Arbol chilli flakes. Follow their lead and heap it onto ramen, fried chicken and dumplings.

If we've whet your chilli appetite, don't miss our collection of chilli oil recipes.