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Feeling Scaldy? The Irish spice bag's journey to London

FOR most people, the humble spice bag is a guilty pleasure - a messy, addictive mix of chips, crispy chicken, fried veg and bold seasoning, all doused (or dipped) in curry sauce.

For Max Spiro and Gavin Tucker, it’s become something more: a successful business with a mission to raise the standards of late-night food in London.

Launched in the summer of 2024, Scaldy started with a singular focus - bringing authentic, high-quality spice bags to London.

“We’ve been operating for just under a year now,” said Max, Scaldy’s founder and head chef.

“We’ve got a residency at Feeney’s, just by Fenchurch Street Station, and we do events too.”

Having spent nearly a decade in the hospitality industry, Max has experienced every aspect of the business.

“I started as a chef, worked my way through various kitchens, then moved to front of house,” he explained.

“I was an operations manager for a Filipino restaurant group just before launching Scaldy. I was running 11 different sites, heavily involved in everything from the food and drink to management and operations.”

His dream? To put his own food out there.

“I kind of knew from about 19 or 20 that I wanted to have my own restaurant one day.”

“I thought the best way to do it was to learn my way through it - learn from the best, figure out what works and what doesn’t, then launch my own.”

That dream took a sharp turn after a night out in Dublin with Gavin, his fiancée.

Gavin, who grew up in Roscommon and went to college in Dublin from 2011 to 2017 during the birth of the spice bag, remembers the moment clearly.

“I said the first thing you need to have in Ireland is a spice bag,” Gavin said.

After their romantic and culinary success, he joked, “I still think that was the right decision.”

For Max, who had never visited Ireland with an Irish person before, the experience was life-changing.

“We had a few drinks at some of Gav’s favourite pubs in Dublin,” he said.

“Then he took me over to Xian Street Food, and that was the first place I had a spice bag.”

“It was fantastic—the mix of flavours, the texture of the chips and chicken, I thought, this is better than any late-night food I’ve ever had in London.”

Max with his spice bag (Photo by Scaldy)

As someone who grew up between England and Singapore, Max knew what good late-night food could be.

“In Singapore, you can get hot pot at 2am or freshly made noodles throughout the night,” he said.

“In London, there’s a real gap for high-quality food you can get late at night.”

“From the moment I had that first spice bag, I started speaking to Gav about how to bring it here.”

The first step? “He just started making them for me,” Gavin joked.

But Scaldy isn’t just about copying takeaway food - it’s about elevating it.

“I was thinking, how good could this be if made by properly trained chefs using high-quality ingredients?” Max said.

“That’s the concept behind Scaldy - being authentic to the flavours of the spice bags you’d find in Dublin or across Ireland, but using premium ingredients and making everything from scratch.”

They now offer four different versions: classic chicken, tofu (which is fully vegan), beef made from hand-butchered whole sirloin, and spiced fries - a gluten-free option.

“The chip is critical,” Max stated.

“It needs to stay crispy even after being tossed in the wok. There’s nothing that kills a spice bag quicker than a soggy chip.”

The chicken version remains the most popular, and for Max, it’s his personal favourite.

“Good quality, juicy fried chicken that carries loads of flavour. And vegetables are so important - the white onion especially.”

He credits Gavin’s younger brother for advice on one key detail: “He said the most important part of the spice bag for him was the wet onion—where it soaks up all the flavours from the wok.”

The heat level is carefully managed too.

“I want a slowly building heat,” Max said. “I use Szechuan peppercorns in the spice blend to give that slow burn in the background. It needs spice, but not so much that it’s overwhelming.”

And then, of course, there’s the curry sauce.

“I’m a pourer,” Max admitted. “Other people dip. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way - it’s just preference.”

Naming the brand was a team effort, but credit for the final pick goes to Gavin’s younger brother, Jack.

“He came up with Scaldy,” Gavin said. “We wanted something that was a nod to Irish heritage but not too in-your-face. If you’re Irish, you know what it means.”

The word can mean feeling rough, a bit grimy, or very hungover: “You might say, ‘I’m feeling scaldy today,’” Gavin explained.

And it fits their mission perfectly: “The spice bag was born in Ireland,” Gavin says, “but it was made for everyone.”

As Scaldy nears its one-year mark, they are already thinking about what’s next.

“There are definitely expansion plans,” Max said.

“We’re trying to figure out how to move from one site to two. It’s a big step because it means splitting my attention between two places.”

The long-term dream is a permanent, brick-and-mortar restaurant - but Max is realistic about the challenges.

“The capital costs can be enormous. The property market in London is a big barrier right now. So that’s something we’re working towards gradually.”

In the meantime, they’re focused on growing through pop-ups, partnerships, and word of mouth.

“For people in Ireland who don’t have strong opinions on food otherwise, they do have strong opinions on a spice bag,” Gavin said. “And I adore that.”

Max agrees. “It’s about sharing something good with people you care about. That’s what food should be.”

And that’s exactly what Scaldy is offering - one perfectly crisp, wok-tossed chip at a time.