Eating challenges are popular at many restaurants but questions have been raised about whether they promote excess and waste. Some challenges involve eating large amounts of food within a time limit, while others test tolerance for spicy foods. Restaurants earn revenue from challenge entrants but may provide free meals if completed. Challenges attract spectators and publicity but have led to some customers requiring medical attention.

1. 32| May 2015 | restaurant| bighospitality.co.uk
Strap
Gross
marginsEating challenges are big business for many restaurants
but do they make financial sense and what place do they
have within an industry that’s increasingly trying to
avoid excess and waste?

2. theworlds50best.com | restaurant| May 2015 | 33
Words/Joe Lutrario
P
anic is setting in. Ladish
optimism has given way to more
grown-up concerns as we silently
contemplate the ways one can
disgrace themselves while
participating in an eating challenge and how
much fun the local newspaper is going to have
with its headline if we expire mid chomp.
After three minutes of our 10 minute time
limit has ticked by we decide that this eight
inch-high monster of a burger is a tall order,
and a few minutes later we realise that all hope
is lost: we’re not even going to come close to
beating Red Dog Saloon’s Devastator burger,
not to mention the plus-sized milkshake and
fries that flank it.
Punters have never been keener to put their
money where their mouth is, it seems. Eating
challenges are big business for many
restaurants. Around 60 people attempt The
Devastator Challenge across Red Dog Saloon’s
two London restaurants each week and this
3,000 calorie bruiser has a suitably-hefty price
tag of £27.50.
The US-made TV programme Man v. Food –
which has been endlessly repeated in the UK
– can take much of the credit for bringing this
greasy portion of US food culture to the
UK masses.
Eating challenges can no longer be
considered niche and a number of larger
restaurant and pub entities are now getting
in on the action. Not least managed pub giant
eating challenges
As our obesity rate attests,
excessive eating is an
ingrained part of our
culture. It’s just a normal
thing for Americans and
a natural fit for Stax
Spirit, which runs a number of challenges across
its brands including Flaming Grill’s Trashcan
Challenge, featuring a large rack of ribs, a burger,
chilli sundae, chicken skewer, onion rings and a
somewhat tokenistic serving of baked beans all
presented on a full-size dustbin lid.
But is it all getting a bit out of hand? Earlier
this year The Corner Café in Portishead, near
Bristol, launched what it claimed to be Britain’s
biggest ever breakfast containing 8,000 calories.
Challengers have one hour to complete the
£15 meal and – unsurprisingly – nobody has
come close to clearing their plate within the
time allotted or, indeed, finished the 59-item
meal at all.
Red Dog Saloon’s challenge is tough – just 6%
of hopefuls manage to complete it – but the
problem is the time limit rather than the total
volume of food: we both pretty much finish
our meals, it just takes us twice the time allotted.
And it must be said that this is a truly excellent
burger, although its meaty allure does start to
dwindle as the challenge progresses.
Here’s looking at goo: Restaurant
attempts The Devastator Challenge

3. 34| May 2015 | restaurant| bighospitality.co.uk
Three 6oz beef patties carefully
cooked to a blushing pink, a
handful of pulled pork, six
rashes of thick-cut bacon, six
slices of American cheese,
barbecue sauce, lettuce, tomato
and a few pickles. The thought of
undertaking something similar but
made with poor quality ingredients –
let’s face it, a lot of restaurants serve
total rubbish to keep food costs in check
– makes us shudder.
Eating challenges are a US export
through and through and the spike of
popularity they are currently enjoying in the
UK can be directly attributed to our seemingly
insatiable appetite for American food. But as
Red Dog Saloon founder Tom Brooke explains,
the model in the US is rather different.
“In the States eating challenges are designed
to be very difficult to complete because those
that triumph don’t have to pay for it. In the UK,
challenges tend to be a bit easier but those that
succeed still have to pay.” Diners who complete
The Devastator Challenge receive a T-shirt and
– if they’re quick enough – their name on the
restaurant’s wall of fame. The fastest ever time
for the challenge is three and a half minutes, set
by an American competitive eating champion.
Apparently he didn’t chew much.
“As our obesity rate attests, excessive eating is
an ingrained part of our culture,” says Bea Vo,
the Virginia-born restaurateur behind Soho’s
Stax Diner. “Every town has a pie-eating contest
and kids in high school will do silly challenges in
the canteen until milkshake starts coming out of
their noses. It’s just a normal thing for
Americans and a natural fit for Stax.”
Vo launched Stax Diner’s eating challenge at
the beginning of the year. It’s a similar spread to
Red Dog Saloon: a huge burger made with five
beef patties, family-size fries and a double
milkshake. Arranged as a year-long tournament,
it’s rather more involved than most other
challenges. Each month the fastest finisher is
declared the winner and at the end of the
year the 12 finalists will go head to head to
win a £500 Stax Diner gift voucher.
“The burger isn’t too bad, the
milkshake is the killer. People usually
leave it until last – every sip is like
torture. I enjoy watching the light go
out in the eyes of some of our more
macho contestants when they
realise they can’t go any further,”
says Vo. In common with most
other quality restaurants, Stax
Diner makes some money on the
food it sells for eating challenges but does
take a slight hit on the margin.
Responsible retailing?
We waddle from Red Dog Saloon largely
unscathed. We wouldn’t have been the first
journalists to come unstuck while getting a bit
Gonzo with an eating challenge. Last year, two
reporters from Brighton newspaper The Argus
were hospitalised after sampling a chilli burger
made with a sauce that’s claimed to be more
potent than a policeman’s pepper spray from
Hove burger joint Burger Off.
Red Dog Saloon’s Hot Wings Challenge is one
of the UK’s most notorious heat-based
challenges. Contestants must consume six
chicken wings slathered in its homemade hot
sauce, which is packed with Naga Viper
peppers, within 10 minutes and then endure a
further five minutes of ‘burn time’ before
The milkshake is the killer.
People usually leave it till
last –every sip is like
torture. I enjoy watching
the lights go out in some
of our macho contestants
Bin there, failed it: Flaming Grill’s dustbin lid challenge is only for
those who think big is beautiful
Restaurant goes large...
Forget the MP expenses scandal, WikiLeaks and even Watergate. Restaurant’s editorial team
redefines investigative journalism as it takes on Red Dog Saloon’s The Devastator Challenge.
Turn the page to see how we did...

4. theworlds50best.com | restaurant| May 2015 | 35
leaving the table or having a drink.
While chillies aren’t toxic, the shock of
ingesting large quantities can have serious
consequences, particularly for those with
underlying health conditions. As such, nearly
all restaurants that offer a heat-based eating
task will ask the participant to sign a waiver
absolving the venue of all liability for what
may occur during or after the challenge. Vo
at Stax diner asks those that attempt her
challenge to sign a waiver too after one of her
staff experienced heart palpitations half way
through the meal.
With allergies and customer wellbeing in
general very much at the forefront, all this begs
the question: can challenges that require
people to eat so much food they throw up or
consume so much chilli they experience
excruciating pain be considered responsible?
“In this day and age people should be
responsible for their own actions. It’s the
customer’s responsibility to know their own
limits,” is Brooke’s matter-of-fact reply.
But isn’t he encouraging reckless
behaviour by offering the challenge in the
first place? “I don’t see it like that. These
people are grown-ups. When people do
the Hot Wings Challenge and it all gets a
bit much – they’re still smiling,” says
Brooke, who did apparently incur the
wrath of his mother for making his little
brother and business partner Will a
guinea pig when developing the Hot
Wings Challenge.
“We have had a few people go to
hospital,” he later admits. “But they just
panicked. Chillies don’t do long term damage –
there wasn’t really anything wrong with them.
One guy had put away a lot of booze and I think
the chilli pushed him over the edge. His blood
pressure was dropping so the paramedics
decided to take him in. But that’s just a couple
of people out of thousands of challengers.”
Wastage problems
Then there’s the issue of what’s left when the
challenger throws in the towel. Clearly
restaurants are in the business of consumption
and some plate waste is inevitable but,
arguably, the more extreme volume-based
eating challenges – including the Corner
Cafe’s aforementioned 8,000
calorie breakfast – are inherently
extremely wasteful.
At Red Dog Saloon we both finish
the vast majority of meals each leaving
no more than 10% on the plate. Brooke
says this is typical and that it’s rare for a
significant amount of the food to be left
on the plate, as people continue to eat
beyond the finishing line.
At Stax Diner, Vo says the plate waste
associated with her challenge is
comparable to a regular meal. “We
designed the challenge to be doable – it’s
not like some of the stuff you see on Man v.
Food. I could do it with a bit of practice. Only
10% of people might finish it, but in nearly all
cases the plate waste is quite low. People
know they’re paying for it and make a sincere
effort to finish it,” she says. “I sell US comfort
food and people do come in with eyes that are
bigger than their stomachs so there’s always
going to be some food waste.”
Casual dining chain MeatLiquor is one of the
few UK businesses to give away a meal if the
challenger is successful. The Triple Chilli
Challenge comprises a chilli burger, chilli dog
In this day and age people
should be responsible for
their own actions. It’s the
customer’s responsibility
to know their own limits
Stack it high and watch ’em struggle: Stax Diner’s eating challenge
includes a five patties burger, family-size fries and double milkshake
Eating Challenges

5. theworlds50best.com | restaurant| May 2015 | 37
and chilli fries. It’s spicy but it’s not a chilli-heat
challenge, like Red Dog Saloon’s. The problem is
eating it within a 10 minute window.
The cost of The Triple Chilli Challenge is
£24, the total menu price of the three dishes.
MeatLiquor only takes a hit if the diner beats the
clock, but with a comparatively high success
rate of 30% the restaurant has to give away quite
a lot of its food. Interestingly, MeatLiquor
co-founder Yianni Papoutsis notes that male
challenges outnumber females 10 to one but
that females that enter the challenge are far
more likely to succeed.
So with most restaurants selling food
at a reduced margin and sometimes even
at a loss, why do they do it? For starters it’s
the spectacle it creates. The MeatLiquor
Triple Chilli Challenge is quite something
to watch: a member of staff stands next
to the competitor (or often competitors)
armed with a stopwatch and a megaphone
and commentates throughout. People tend
to stand around and watch and there is
much whooping and
hollering, chiming nicely
with MeatLiquor’s boozy,
hedonistic vibe.
The focal point that an eating
challenge creates is also the key
motivator for Tom Brooke. “We
run lively venues with a party
atmosphere. People love to spectate
and crowd round the competitor’s
table to cheer them on. It makes for a
memorable night out,” he says.
Then there’s the PR and marketing
aspect. The six-strong Mission Burrito
group runs a Lucha Libre Man v. Burrito
challenge. There are two variants to make
the challenge more accessible, a double
burrito (£10) and a triple burrito (£15)
weighing in at around 2kg. Founder Jan
Rasmussen says the Man v. Burrito started
as a one off promotion to fill restaurants on
Valentine’s Day, but the huge traction it gets
on social media has seen it become a
permanent fixture.
“Each restaurant does 12 a week on average
so it’s not that big a bit of the business but nearly
everyone posts on social media. The burrito is
very long – we had to source special 90cm trays
from the US – so it has a lot of photographic
impact. Facebook and Twitter are the core
channels but we’ve had people doing Vine
videos of the challenge from beginning to end,”
says Rasmussen.
Eating challenges would also appear to be
We have had a few people
go to hospital. But they
just panicked. Chillies
don’t do long term damage
catnip to some national newspapers, not least
The Daily Mail which runs dozens of stories a
year on them. Its website is the most viewed
news source online so the PR value of appearing
on it is not to be scoffed at.
For many businesses that sort of exposure is
worth the price of a free T-shirt and the odd
unscheduled deep clean of the toilet cubicle.
“There have been a couple of people puking,”
concedes Papoutsis. “But we won’t be naming
and shaming. What happens in MeatLiquor
stays in MeatLiquor.”
Size really does matter: as Mission Burrito group’s whopper of a
burrito amply testifies
...and ends larger, but as losers