Andrew Zimmern Shared The Spiciest Food He's Ever Eaten On Hot Ones
Andrew Zimmern might be a big softie, or at least that's how he comes across when sharing his favorite food memory from childhood, and his penchant for using family recipes to spark nostalgia in his followers. But when it comes to spicy foods, the man has taste buds of steel.
The YouTube show, "Hot Ones," in which celebrity guests fight their way through plates of spicy chicken wings while answering questions from the host, Sean Evans, is evidence of just how tough Zimmern's palate is. Evans discusses everything from disc golf to the perfect gas station food with the host of Magnolia Network's "Family Dinner," and the two snack on wings doused in hot sauce, seemingly, without even breaking a sweat.
But that's not entirely true, as one or two of "Hot Ones'" famously spicy sauces packs enough heat to cause Zimmern to pause; specifically, a hot sauce called "Da'Bomb: Beyond Insanity." The sauce has a Scoville Scale level of 135,600 and is made with Scotch Bonnet peppers. It's a sauce that even Evans admits makes him nervous. "This one never gets any easier," he said before they dug into the barn burner. And sure enough, "Da'Bomb" had both gentlemen reaching for their napkins and cold chocolate milks in short order. But Zimmern earned his stripes by hosting "Bizarre Foods" on the Travel Network so perhaps he's sampled even spicier food in his day.
One spicy turn deserves another
"Oh yeah," Andrew Zimmern shares with Sean Evans while on "Hot Ones," upon being asked about some of the spicier dishes he encountered during his time with "Bizarre Foods." He recalls, "Chilis in Northern Thailand. It costs like fifty cents from a vendor on the street...." But then, he stops short of elaborating on the memory, as the next level of heat from the hot sauce sets in and renders him momentarily speechless. "This may be the hottest hot sauce I've ever tried," Zimmern manages to say. They two grab their glasses of ice-cold, chocolate milk — a Zimmern-endorsed antidote to spice — battling the physiological consequences of their actions.
Getting back to those Thai chilis; no story about spicy food should ever contain the words "next thing I remember." Alas, Zimmern's tale definitely does. "Apparently, I screamed," he tells Evans of the experience. "I had an out-of-body experience." But if you're looking for more details like the name of the chili, how much he actually ate, or whether or not it was cooked in a dish, sadly, you will find no further information here. He does go on to say that it was the spiciest thing he had ever eaten. The normally calm and collected chef struggled to conclude his story, due to what he described as spicy saliva, which his mouth was now producing as a result of the relentless hot sauce. The world may never know more, and perhaps it's for the best.