Posts Tagged ‘competitive eating’
“The food of the true revolutionary is the red pepper”*…
… and a favorite of many others. Hannah Bentley explores the growing number of extreme enthusiasts– chiliheads– who are competing across the globe, devouring millions of Scoville units, and fighting off agonizing capsaicin cramps in the process…
“I’m not like normal people,” declares Stephen Curgan, better known in the chilli-eating world as Fiery Redd. “Not many people can say they’ve achieved world status at something.”
The 37-year-old corporate engineering manager from South Carolina currently holds the League of Fire’s (LoF) World Champion Belt Title – the highest honour in competitive chilli [the more common spelling of “chili” in the UK] eating. Last March, he travelled to Cape Town, South Africa and beat Gary ‘Scorpion Slayer’ Conar, revelling in the rapturous applause as he hoisted the red-trimmed leather belt above his head.
Achieving such a feat means enduring roughly 10 punishing rounds of chomping down on the hottest chillies on earth. Bouts usually begin with Carolina Reapers – which measure around 1.8 million Scoville Heat Units (roughly 300 times hotter than a jalapeño) – before escalating to even more brutal chillies like Pepper X (over 2 million SHU), and sometimes spoonfuls of concentrated chilli extract reaching as high as 16 million SHU.
During a match, competitors consume around 50 superhot chillies, many of which aren’t readily available to the public because of how dangerously potent they are. And to break a tie, the contest ends in a speed round, where whoever wolfs down the most peppers is hailed the winner. The LoF is the sport’s governing body, sanctioning professional matches and maintaining an international ranking system…
… But the sport comes with a serious occupational hazard: capsaicin cramps. Capsaicin, the compound responsible for a chilli’s heat, binds to pain receptors throughout the digestive tract, triggering violent muscle spasms as the human body tries to cope with what it interprets as a threat.
Competitors have compared the pain to ranging from a heart attack to childbirth, with each successive chilli only escalating the intensity. “I’ve broken my femur before,” Stephen says, with subtle terror flashing across his eyes, “but those cramps are the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced.”
To stave off the inevitable reckoning, Stephen – like all pro athletes – sticks to a strict nutrition plan, lining his stomach with “lots and lots of mashed potatoes” before every competition. “I need something heavy and starchy to clog the pipes and hold those cramps off for as long as possible.”
And as an extra precaution, once that final pepper has been choked down, competitors scatter to the nearest bin or bathroom to make themselves sick, expelling the capsaicin from their systems and hopefully shortening the hours of agony that may follow. That’s assuming the chillies didn’t make a surprise reappearance on stage – vomiting means instant disqualification…
… “I really love the psychological aspect of the sport,” Stephen explains. “It shows you can achieve anything you set your mind to. I think pepper eating is a good way to test yourself and see how well you can set the physical aside and maintain focus.”…
… This show of “mental fortitude” is one of the reasons Shahina Waseem, the undefeated 97-time UK Chilli Queen, co-founded the League of Fire alongside her partner Paul Ouro and fellow British competitor Matt Tangent. After outgrowing the previously limited competition circuit, she wanted to build the chilli-eating scene into something bigger than simply novelty entertainment at food festivals.
Since its launch in 2019, the LoF has expanded internationally, hosting competitions across four continents, attracting sponsors and bringing together chilli growers, craft hot sauce makers and competitive eaters under a simple ethos: everyone is respected, recognised and welcome…
The League of Fire: “Inside the searing, strangely wholesome world of competitive chili eating,” from @huckmag.com.
Pair with: “All Day I Dream Of Curry Fries“
* Mao Zedong (quoted in an article on the history of fiery peppers in Chinese cuisine)
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As we turn up the heat, we might celebrate peppers in one of their natural habitats, noting that today is National Fajita Day. While the marque ingredients are chicken or steak, sweet peppers, and onions, spicy peppers are the key…
“Every time you learn you can do something, you can go a little bit faster next time”*…
Joey Chestnut set a new world record by eating 75 hotdogs in 10 minutes at Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4
… at least, up to a point. Readers will know that (Roughly) Daily has checked in on the competitive eating circuit before (e.g., here), with special attention to the the event hosted by the iconic Nathan’s. So imagine your correspondent’s surprise to learn that the era of dramatic new records year after year might be coming to a close…
The four-minute mile and the two-hour marathon were once believed impossible: now a new gauntlet has been thrown down for the world of elite competition. A scientific analysis suggests competitive eaters have come within nine hotdogs of the limits of human performance.
The theoretical ceiling has been set at 84 hotdogs in 10 minutes. The current world record, set by Joey “Jaws” Chestnut earlier this month, stands at 75.
James Smoliga, a sports medicine specialist at High Point University in North Carolina who authored the research, described 84 hotdogs as “the maximum possible limit for a Usain Bolt-type performance”.
The analysis is based on 39 years of historical data from Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, an annual spectacle of gluttony held on Coney Island, New York, combined with the latest sports science theory, which uses mathematical modelling to project trends in performance.
Hotdog composition and size have, reportedly, remained unchanged at Nathan’s Famous in the fast food company’s 104-year history, allowing for valid comparison between competitors across years.
Improvement curves in elite sports ranging from sprinting to pole vaulting tend to follow a so-called sigmoidal curve, featuring an initial slow and steady rise, followed by an era of rapid improvement and finally a levelling off. “Hotdog eating has definitely reached that second plateau,” said Smoliga…
The limit of progress? The end of history? “Competitive hotdog eaters nearing limit of human performance.” See also “Scientists Have Finally Calculated How Many Hot Dogs a Person Can Eat at Once.”
* Joey Chestnut, competitive eating champion [pictured above]
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As we chow down, we might recall that it was on this date in 1762 that Catherine II– better known as Catherine the Great– became the Empress of Russia after the murder of her husband (in a coup that she’d helped arrange). While her personal habits (largely her love life) tend to dominate popular memories of her, scholars note that her reign (through 1792) was a “Golden Age,” during which she revitalized Russia, which grew larger and stronger, and became one of the great powers of Europe and Asia.
Catherine enthusiastically supported the ideals of the Enlightenment; and as a patron of the arts, presided over the age of the Russian Enlightenment, including the establishment of the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens, the first state-financed higher education institution for women in Europe.
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