Blazing a trail as maker of world's hottest pepper

Mr Currie with his Carolina Reaper peppers, which have been deemed the world's hottest by the Guinness Book of World Records.

FORT MILL (South Carolina) - Mr Ed Currie holds one of his world-record Carolina Reaper peppers by the stem, which looks like the tail of a scorpion.

   On the other end is red fruit with a punch of heat nearly as potent as most pepper sprays used by police.

   The Guinness Book of World Records recently decided that Mr Currie's peppers were the hottest on earth, ending a more than four-year drive by him to prove that no one grows a more scorching chilli. The heat of Mr Currie's peppers was certified by students at Winthrop University who test food as part of their undergraduate classes.

   The world record is nice, but it is just part of Mr Currie's grand plan. He has been interested in peppers all his life - the hotter the better. Ever since he got the taste of a sweet hot pepper from the Caribbean a decade ago, he has been determined to breed the hottest pepper he can.

   The 50-year-old entrepreneur is also determined to buld his company, PuckerButt Pepper Company, into something that will let him retire before his young children grow up.

   The hot pepper market is expanding. In less than five years, the amount of hot peppers eaten by Americans grew 8 per cent, according to United States Department of Agriculture statistics.

   Mr Currie's world record has created quite a stir in the world of "chilliheads", said blogger Ted Barrus, who has a following among hot pepper fans. He tapes himself eating the hottest peppers in the world and posts the clips on YouTube under the name Ted The Fire Breathing Idiot.

   He said Mr Currie's world record is just the latest event in a series of pepper growers to top one another with hotter and hotter peppers. "That's the biggest bragging rights there is. It is very,very competitive," he said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS


Measuring the hotness

THE science of hot peppers centres on chemical compounds called capsaicinoids. The higher the concentration, the hotter the pepper.

   The heat of a pepper is measured in Scoville heat units. Zero is bland, and a regular jalapeno pepper registers around 5,000 on the Scoville scale, devised by pharmacist Wilbur Scoville 100 years ago.

   Mr Ed Currie's world record batch comes in at 1,569,300 Scoville heat units, with an individual pepper measured at 2.2 million. Pepper spray used by the police weighs in at about two million units.

   When grading, the capsaicinoids are first separated from the rest of the peppers. Liquid chromatography detects the exact amount. A formula converts it into heat units.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Celeb chef 'gorged on junk food'

EATS: Celebrity TV chef Nigella Lawson is said to have loved takeaways.

She may have built a reputation as a kitchen goddness who prepares home-cooked meals with the freshest ingredients but celebrity TV chef Nigelia Lawson loves snacks and junk foods, her former personal assistants claimed.

Ms Lawson and her 19-year-old daughter Cosima are said to have gorged themselves on pizzas, fried chicken and takeaway Chinese food, her former employees Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo told Britain's The Sun.

   Ms Elisabetta Grillo said: "For Nigella staying up late with Mimi (her nickname for her daughter) was a bonding experience, a special time where the two girls could talk.

   "They loved takeaways - McDonald's, Domino's Pizza, Chinese, KFC, Wagamama (Japanese noodles), fish and chips.

   "It was surprising how much takeaway food they ate given her reputation as a fabulous cook using only the best ingredients.

   "The kitchen and Mimi's room would be littered with takeaway boxes, pots and pans because they were always hungry - especially after their late-night chats."

   The pair appeared to have a "best friend relationship", rather than a mother-daughter one, Ms Grillo said.

   She also said Ms Lawson installed an expensive ventilation system in every room to mask the smell of junk food and cooking.

   The Grillo sisters were cleared of defrauding Ms Lawson and her former husband Charles Saatchi.

   Meanwhile, British police yesterday said they are reviewing evidence that Ms Lawson took cocaine, reported AFP.

   During their trial, the Grillos said Ms Lawson took cocaine and smoked cannabis.

Slurpee's birth an accident

The 7-Eleven Slurpee might be one of the world's best-known beverages, but how it was invented was a complete accident.

   In 1967, some carbonated drinks had been left in a freezer, and ended up half frozen - like slushies - in the cups.

   When staff tried it, they loved the drink and 7-Eleven agency director Bob Stanford ended up calling it Slurpee.

   By 1998, the drink was so popular that Slurpee-flavoured lip balms were launched in the US.

   A 7-Eleven spokesman said that the most popular Slurpee flavour among United States is green apple.

   Customers also mix flavours such as green apple and Coke together.

   Popping candy was also introduced last year to make drinking Slurpee a more exciting experience for the customers, said the spokesman.

   There is even a special technique on how to fill up your Slurpee cup.

   "It's best to fill the cup with the lid on to prevent spilling and you could get the most out of a cup," said the spokesman.

DID YOU KNOW?

• The early prototypes of a Slurpee machine made use of a car's air-conditioning unit.

• Half of all Slurpee drinks are sold between 4pm and 11pm and the most popular months for Slurpee purchases are in June, July and August.

• The amount of Slurpees sold each year can fill 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to slurpee.com.

• Slurpee Day is on July 11.

• Winnipeg in Canada is widely known as the Slurpee capital of the world for its residents' fanaticism for the drink.

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White House greens go to seed

WASHINGTON - In the famous White House kitchen garden, tomatoes are rotting on the vine. Herbs have gone to seed. And the sweet potatoes - a favourite of President Obama - have become worm food.

   It is another consequence of the government shutdown, one that only the fox and the squirrels that live on the grounds could love.

   A foodie blog called Obamafoodarama that obsessively covers the White House "food ephemera" and the administration's food policy has posted photos of the normally immaculate garden looking more like what most gardeners' plots appear at this time of the year - overgrown.

   "Due to the shutdown, garden maintenance has been reduced considerably and only being watered as needed," a White House official confirmed.

   First Lady Michelle Obama started the garden on the White House south lawn in 2009, the first time vegetables had been grown there since Eleanor Roosevelt's "victory garden" during World War II.

   Mrs Obama uses the garden as a vehicle to talk about healthy eating and reducing childhood obesity. Some of the produce is used at the White House, while much is donated to a local soup kitchen.

REUTERS