Whew! Too Hot to Handle! Mason Dining Takes on the Cool with Spicy Heat!
As summer cooled into fall, Mason Dining warmed up the community with their Too Hot to Handle Spicy Expose’. On a quest to find those Mason Patriots who can “handle” Mason Dining’s sneaky hot wings, Too Hot to Handle started in September as a one-time event. But it became so popular that event became a series. With 6,378 views on the first video of Paul J Wyche , with the student body president, and Anike Oladeji the director of Aquatics, Sophia Nelson Mason Dining’s Too Hot to Handle interviewer, the program made event popularity history.
Inspired by YouTube’s Interview Show Hot Ones, where celebrities are pummeled “with hot questions, and even hotter wings”, Mason Dining added their own celebrities and incorporated the entire community as part of the audience. Hot Ones has grown in popularity and is now streaming on multiple channels – popularity mirrored in Mason Dining’s Too Hot to Handle.
Mason Dining collaborated with the diverse patriot community asking “hot questions” of students eating the even hotter foods all while hearing them talk about their cultural communities and describing their dining traditions. The Muslin Student Association Students taught all Patriots "bismillah” a traditional thanking for the food before eating it – a custom widely-shared by all Muslims.
Originally designed as an event to add a little heat as the summer cooled, September’s, Too Hot to Handle became so popular that Mason’ Dining’s marketing team built continuous, hotter, spicier events as the weather continued to chill. “So, how would you describe the Students at Mason?” was the original question. Paul and Anike answered calmly and professionally until – on the next take while eating the third and hottest wing - they had challenges even talking. Apparently, the conversation sparked so much interest amongst the patriots; they asked when the next one would air and how they could sign up.
Just as the wings got spicier, so did the questions. “So, what major do you avoid dating?” In this episode, when this question was answered, the next participant was a person studying from previous participant’s response. Eventually one commented that he just avoided dating and the conversation ended. On the other side of the dating question, on Valentines Day, an alumni couple who started dating while students at George Mason answered the romantic question – “What Makes A Relationship Work”. The wings got spicier and so did their insistence that honest communication is the real key to making it last.
With such tremendous success with the program, a grander week-long event was created to see what exactly is “Too Hot to Handle”. In March, Mason Dining took it to the next level and hosted a five-day Too Hot to Handle challenge featuring spicy foods from different cultures that would increase in spice level throughout the week. Mason Dining chefs were challenged with bringing to light cultural dishes that bring heat to new and impressive heights. Never fear for the wing, however. On the final day – the spiciest of all wings were created to determine WHO WILL MAKE IT?
The challenge had over 200 students who started on day one. In keeping with Mason Dining ’s commitment to culinary diversity, foods from South Korea, India, Caribbean, and trending classics were featured throughout. The Mason Culinary team each collaborated on spice level curation but independently owned a different creation on their day. Since every dish was from a different region, students got to kick it up a notch with spicy heat and learned about spices from various localities and how they differ dish to dish; country to country. Students from the countries represented in the challenge often sought out the chef and discussed the foods and what it means in them.
Mason Dining has promised a reprise for the next year. They warn, however, “It will be, of course, spicier yet and almost impossible to handle.”