The hottest event of the calendar year is here. It’s the 8th annual Chilli Eating Championship on Saturday April 29, where spice-fiends and heat-seekers will hit The Beast on Lygon St to battle it out against chillies up to 2.5 million Scoville Heat Units (SHU) - for reference, your average eye-watering Thai chilli sits at around 100,000 SHU.
It’s an all-out fiery flavour fest at The Beast, with free entry all day. The kitchen and bar will be churning out a special food and booze menu just for the spicy event (plus cold froths to crush the burn). Join in the most dangerous raffle of your life, the Wheel of Doom. Will you land on a prize, or a blistering shot of Tabasco? Let fate decide. Local legends Melbourne Hot Sauce will be slingin’ the good stuff, and the all-day entertainment stays hot with Lucha Libre Mexican wrestling matches and a night-time party with a performance by Fuzzrays.
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
But the gastro-gladiatorial face-off is the main event. Over multiple rounds, 24 brave contenders will build to the gut-shattering mouth-destroying crescendo of Carolina Reapers. They’re competing for status, glory and over $1000 in cash and prizes. The star of this year’s contest is none other than Greg ‘Iron Guts’ Barlow, Southern Hemisphere chilli eating champ. He’ll attempt to smash the record for the most Carolina Reapers eaten in 10 minutes. He currently holds a record for downing almost a kilo of the bad boys in one sitting. This man’s a machine.
It’ll surprise you to hear Greg wasn’t a chilli fan before entering. Not a hot sauce obsessive, a heat-seeker, a “leave the bottle” sriracha guy. He’s just a natural, entering The Beast chilli eating contest with a good dose of blind faith.
“I didn’t do too much research into it,” he said. “But I do know that around the world people have been eating chillies a lot. Like, I’m pretty sure that’s all they eat in South America and India, and I’ve never heard of anyone dying from it.”
Starting out, he was an unlikely underdog of the contest. Just a regular bloke who repaired the fridges at The Beast, heard about the contest, and reckoned he could give it a shot.
“When I first walked in for the first comp, there were 10 people in my heat,” he said. “Jeb started at the other end of the table, “Do you think this person will win?” and the crowd went nuts. But by the time he got all the way to me the crowd was over it. Fast forward a couple of hours, the crowd of 200 plus was chanting ‘Gregory! Gregory!’”
It didn’t take long for his chili status to grow. He’s now known and renowned – a celeb of The Beast event.
“Next year, the mother-in-law came to watch,” he said. “She thinks it’s silly, but wanted to see what it was all about. Once the crowd found out she was with me, they gave her a seat at the front of the stage and got her drinks. I think she had a better night than I did!”
After his big win, Greg found himself whisked onto the Today Show and got a burning taste for glory.
“I decided I wanted to be the world champion,” Greg said. “The people that organise this, the League of Fire, said that if I want my shot at the top I would have to prove myself by doing their little challenges or do more comps. The challenges would give me some points but I would have to do a lot of them. So, I did the biggest, craziest challenge out there and ate a bucket load of the world’s hottest chillies – the Carolina Reaper. Well, that gave me enough points to finish the year as the second best in the world, so they have to take me seriously now. I’m off to New Zealand at the end of May for my shot at the top. I’ve done two comps here at The Beast and one over in New Zealand, to win the Oceana belt. The comps here were bigger and better.”
What prep does it take to make a champion chilli destroyer? Well, for Greg, basically none. Emphatically none. This is a bloke who doesn’t actually dig chillies.
“I don’t like chilli and I don’t train,” he said. “This stuff hurts! Why would I do it more than I have to?
“I did ask a doc before I got the world record for eating the most Carolina Reapers in one sitting. The previous record was 121 (714g) held by an American, and I managed to eat 160 (953g). I’m really upset about not eating 1kg but I didn’t want the chillies sitting in my gut.”
And how about that nickname?
“I registered my name with the League of Fire as Gregory ‘My butt is burning’ Barlow,” he said. “But one of my friends came up with ‘Iron guts’, and, well the name just stuck. I don’t think – wait up – I know I don’t have iron guts! When I eat it, it burns for days.”
After-effects include a loss of taste and, well, exactly the kind of downstairs discomfort you’d expect when Reapers find their way out. But Greg’s hooked on the chilli champ rush now, and loves the whole spectacle.
“My secret is I like pain, but nowhere near as much as I like the attention I get from the crowd,” Greg said. “I think it’s funny – and I like seeing people next to me throwing up.”
The waivers are signed and the tastebuds are primed, so whether you want to witness a champion smash a record, or just see how dramatic losing a chilli chomp-off can be (buckets provided), lock in The Beast Chilli Eating Championship for April 29. It’ll be a bite to remember. (Ouch).
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