Add a Little Chilli: Inside the film and design for Bukayo Saka’s new Nando’s sauce

Nando’s has released its first ever restaurant sauce collaboration, Peri Peri Saka, created by the professional football player Bukayo Saka. Launching today, the sauce fuses the Arsenal player’s favourite flavours with the restaurant’s Peri-Peri staple, promoted with a film and bottle design by Reuben Dangoor.

Spotted in London in the past week, there were elusive billboards featuring a still from the film and a teaser of the bottles illustration, leaving passers by intrigued. Now unleashed as a limited edition sauce, Nando’s continue to play on the footballer’s connection to the restaurant and heat; from his nickname Little Chilli (given to him by the former Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang), his cameo in the Nando’s UK This Must Be The Place television ad of last year, to the restaurant previously hosting his father’s birthday. “I’ve been going to Nando’s since I was little so to have my own Peri-Peri sauce in every restaurant in the country is quite mad,” says the footballer in a press release.

The short film, Yes Chef, reflects the hands-on involvement the winger had in its creation; Saka plays head chef and oversees the unique mix and fusion at every stage, before saying “it needs a little kick”. Reaching into his chilli jar he creates the perfect mix – smoky BBQ, tomato and Peri Peri – that is, Peri Peri Saka. The restaurant has described the sauce as “sweet and fiery with a little (free) kick”.

Peri Peri Saka’s design is both on-the-nose and quite subtle. It acts as a layer of reference to the footballer’s journey and associations, as well as the restaurant’s famed chilli identity, used to differentiate its heat ranking. The player’s hair and face is tucked into the chilli silhouette and it is coloured full red to represent the heat. When it comes to the bottle, Reuben’s previous illustrations of Gareth Southgate, design for David Beckham’s kit for Fifa 22 and his artwork wrapping the Emirates (Saka’s home) stadium made him a perfect fit. The chilli is contrasted by a vibrant blue, that we guess is there to reflect the limited edition nature of the sauce and Nando’s first collaboration, as the restaurant rarely dabbles in the colours that stray away from orange tones.

While the collaboration between the South African, Portuguese-style, UK-staple restaurant is made possible by a range of coincidences that allow it to be so rich in reference, it is primed by Nando’s and Saka’s ability to cease the opportunity to connect the dots. Turning a cameo into a leading role, a nickname into a winning ingredient for a new sauce, and a much-loved restaurant full of childhood memories to a campaign and sauce that will provide memories for others. Peri-Peri Saka will be available in Nando’s restaurants throughout the UK from 20 March.