Adam Richman Dishes On The Time An Eating Challenge Almost Killed Him

Now that Adam Richman is done with Man vs. Food, the world gets treated every now and then to some crazy insights on what transpired behind the scenes.

In a recent interview with Strictly Dumpling’s Mike Chen, Richman dished on his battle against the 420 Hot Wings at Munchies in Sarasota, FL. It was the only spicy challenge he lost, but it also could’ve done Richman in. Turns out that the chef who made the wings admitted to putting an entire bottle of ghost chili extract onto the wings, making the challenge much hotter than expected.

“What happens is your nose swells, your mucus passages swell in your nose, and your throat swells. So it was like I can’t breathe, my tears burn, they are pretty intense… That was agony… I don’t want to feel the way I did that day.”

When it comes to spicy food, the former Man vs. Food host also admitted that habanero was a “kryptonite” of his. He alluded to a habanero fritter challenge where he thought he was okay at first, and then later felt like he got “kicked on the inside of a stomach by a mule.”

Richman also dished on some of the behind-the-scenes details of his new Cooking Channel show, Secret Eats, and how one country almost didn’t let him and his team leave.

“We almost couldn’t leave Vietnam because they didn’t trust us that our batteries were for cameras.”

The Secret Eats team also had different obstacles to navigate when filming in other countries for their second season. Richman detailed how Russia required a preview and approval of the script beforehand. Additionally, the Hong Kong episode had to be filmed “guerrila style” because it was shot in a large public area where the government was trying to “phase licenses out.”

Adam Richman tends to go in depth with the struggles of filming his shows and what it took to make them happen, giving us more respect for what he’s accomplished every time a revelation comes out.