Aarón Sánchez Has Called This Spicy Food His Kryptonite
Aarón Sánchez is probably best known as a judge on the Food Network's competition series, "Chopped," but, per IMDb, back in 2011, Sánchez hooked up with Trinidadian-Canadian chef and spice maker Roger Mooking for a two-season show called "Heat Seekers." While it might sound like a show about the best places to get away to wait out the cold months of winter, "Heat Seekers" followed the two chefs as they traveled across the U.S. in search of delicious, but oh-so-spicy food. We're talking about the kind that makes your tongue do the cha-cha while you simultaneously reach for a glass of milk. And, to make it even more fun, Sánchez and Mooking squared off to see whose mouth could handle the heat better.
All you have to do is watch this YouTube clip, which features the duo sampling tacos to know that the level of spice they are sampling is the "real deal." Eyes are watering, noses are running as they consume what the restaurant owner labels as tacos with a "10+" spiciness. This is all to say, Sánchez is no stranger to spicy food and all the emotions and sensations it can bring out while you are eating it. But, even Sánchez has his heat limits and the celebrity chef shared with the Channel Guide the spicy food that is so hot, it's his "kryptonite."
This pepper sets Aarón Sánchez's mouth ablaze
Sánchez told Channel Guide that he doesn't wince with the Mexican chiles, but there is one pepper that makes for an Achtung baby! PSA warning because it always gets the best of him. Sánchez said, "For me, I really excel at the Mexican chiles — the chile habanero, the Scotch bonnet — all those kinds of chiles don't affect me that much. But the one thing that is like my kryptonite is the ghost pepper. I always have trouble with it." Sánchez humbly conceded that Mooking is better suited for the ghost pepper, noting, "Roger does a good job of eating it. But I have trouble eating that one, for some reason."
Don't feel bad Chef Sánchez. The ghost pepper is beyond hot. According to Small Axe Peppers, the ghost pepper or Bhut Jolokia, if you like using its Hindi name, registers at a whopping 1,041,427 Scoville Heat Units. To makes this more tangible for your taste buds, the site shares that kind of heat is about 400 times hotter than Tabasco sauce and around 200 times hotter than a jalapeño. To quote Paris Hilton, "That's hot."