Heat is on for pals in chilli championships after success at UK contest

Their double helping of success means Rob Eadie from Cardington and Nick Latham from Sandy will spice up their lives by competing in the World Food festival in Las Vegas in November. The pair who are no flash in the pan will also be hungry for the $25,000 prize money - they will face a tall order in challenging 70 American cooks for the world title in the World Chilli Cook-off.

Rob said: “Think of the Great British Bake off but with chillis! We started off doing what most blokes do on a Sunday in the summer - having a BBQ and a beer. We decided to enter last year’s UK competition on a whim as we thought it would be a good craic - and it went from there.”

Nick said: “We use chillis such as smoked chipotle for the depth of flavour, some heat, texture and aroma normally with pulled pork. However, for the finals in Las Vegas we will be using the original cow - bison.”

Rob added: ““The scale is the difference in the US. It’s all televised and they have 6,000 chilli cooking contests - in the UK we have 15. That’s not to be sniffed at - but we are going to Vegas to show that British chefs can cook chilli too.”