{"id":128391,"date":"2026-03-03T13:20:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T13:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/128391\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T13:20:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T13:20:06","slug":"pitt-pantry-spices-it-up-with-hot-ones-blaze-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/128391\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitt Pantry spices it up with \u201cHot Ones Blaze Battle\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pitt Pantry<\/a> turned up the heat with its \u201cHot Ones Blaze Battle,<\/a>\u201d and for a good cause. Pitt Pantry is a mission-driven and volunteer-based program that provides the Pitt community with food, resources and other essential items. Pitt Pantry accepts an array of donations<\/a>, including nonperishable food, household items and other necessities.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 28, Pitt Pantry hosted a \u201cHot Ones\u201d-inspired event in the O\u2019Hara Student Center Ballroom. The event consisted of sampling a range of \u201cHot Ones\u201d sauces<\/a>, a Kahoot game with Pittsburgh trivia and a competition for themed-prize baskets, including grocery, Pitt spirit, cozy night-in, smoothie and energy.<\/p>\n

Pitt Pantry\u2019s event was inspired by one of the hottest shows on YouTube \u201cHot Ones.\u201d<\/a> Featured on the channel \u201cFirst We Feast<\/a>,\u201d hosted by Sean Evans, and boasting 15.3 million subscribers, \u201cHot Ones\u201d is known as \u201cthe show with hot questions and even hotter wings.\u201d Evans interviews celebrities in the hot seat as they eat progressively spicier wings.<\/p>\n

Upon arrival, participants were met with a donation drop-off box, a required waiver to compete and the aroma of hot wings from Oakland restaurant, CHiKN. The pillars of the O\u2019Hara Student Center Ballroom were decked in orange and yellow streamers in celebration of the competition. While some attendees were fans of the show, others were there to play for prizes or for free food on a Saturday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Pitt Pantry\u2019s Blaze Battle was lower stakes than the real \u201cHot Ones\u201d game, there was one catch \u2014 to stay in the game, players must finish their entire wing.<\/p>\n

Meera Mayreddy, a junior pharmacy student, attended the Blaze Battle last year and reflected on her surprising experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though it\u2019s pretty painful, it\u2019s still fun and a good experience. I won the spa basket last year. However, I\u2019ve never watched the \u2018Hot Ones\u2019 channel, so the first time, I just thought we were going to be eating spicy food,\u201d Mayreddy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When 9 p.m. hit, players gathered around their tables, volunteers passed around cartons of milk to tame the spice and the first wing was served.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sanjana Chebolu, a junior neuroscience major, was ready for the competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI love \u2018Hot Ones.\u2019 My dad\u2019s company does the \u2018Hot Ones\u2019 challenge for work, so we always have the \u2018Hot Ones\u2019 sauces at home. I\u2019ve done it at home, so I thought it should be OK,\u201d Chebolu said.<\/p>\n

The spice level started off tame, and Pitt Pantry coordinators made silly, sarcastic comments to encourage the players. On wing one, they remarked, \u201cI almost died,\u201d and on the second wing, \u201cI gotta tap out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aragya Goyal, a senior computer engineering major, made it through all 10 wings without relying on milk to ease the pain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI went through all 10 rounds without drinking milk, then I had a sip of milk, and then it got worse, but now I\u2019m alright,\u201d Goyal said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Other students faced unpleasant challenges while competing. Mikayla Bisignani, a medical student at Pitt, experienced pain during the Blaze Battle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was wing number six that I started to cry, and on wing number seven, I wiped a tear from my left eye and immediately regretted that decision. Before wiping, I unfortunately used my fingers to move the chicken around. One of the helpers filled a container with water to help flush it out,\u201d Bisignani said.<\/p>\n

Instead of tapping out, Bisignani kept a positive attitude, wiped her tears and finished strong for her table\u2019s fate in the competition. Still, she found enjoyment in the event despite the physical difficulties and reminisced about her favorite sauce flavors.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn that note, I think wing number one was my favorite flavor \u2014 a little sweet and tangy. Also number 10, because it meant we were done,\u201d said Bisignani.<\/p>\n

Gianna Reed, a sophomore majoring in teaching secondary education and studio arts and a student coordinator at the Pitt Pantry, helped organize and emcee the Hot Ones Blaze Battle event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe worst thing that went wrong was that I tried that dang hot sauce from wing number 10. I almost died, and you saw me collapse on the stage. I don\u2019t even eat sriracha on my food. I have no spice tolerance,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n

As a reward for beating the heat, five winners of each prize basket were announced. Winners of the Kahoot games were given extra raffle tickets, and those who finished all of their wings won a total of 10 entries.<\/p>\n

Nathan Cho, a junior chemistry and teacher education double major volunteer at Pitt Pantry, explains the appeal of the Hot Ones Blaze Battle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my third year doing this. The first year we did it was just for fun, then it became part of the budget. It\u2019s cool that we can get a bunch of people from campus late at night to eat a bunch of spicy chicken,\u201d Cho said. \u201cIt\u2019s a unifying \u2018in-pain\u2019 reaction. I always find it so funny to watch my friends suffer a bit. That\u2019s why I volunteer for it every year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the pain, pressure and chaos of it all, Goyal was left asking, \u201cIs there any extra chicken left?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pitt Pantry turned up the heat with its \u201cHot Ones Blaze Battle,\u201d and for a good cause. Pitt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59771,8034,73,75,74,35648],"class_list":{"0":"post-128391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-hot-ones","9":"tag-pitt-pantry","10":"tag-pittsburgh","11":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","12":"tag-pittsburgh-news","13":"tag-youtube"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}