We will be having a special series of blog posts from our Pepper Staff in honour of Pepper’s 13th Anniversary. Pepper Events’ Sunil Ramdeen gives some insight into his time working on Mario’s Pizza Eating Championship, which is currently underway.
For the last 3 years, I’ve helped work on Mario’s Pizza Eating Championship every summer. This is by far one of the most interesting events that I’ve had the pleasure of working on for Pepper and here’s why.
The championship is made up of 4 preliminary rounds, followed by a final at the Trincity Mall atrium. It’s usually a big do, with attendees in the hundreds and a whole decorating theme. The theme is always topical; this year we went with a Football theme to coincide with the 2018 World Cup. Last year, we had a medieval theme inspired by the TV show ‘Game of Thrones’, which the whole country was consumed by. The theme was a huge hit, with fans excited to take pics atop the replica Iron Throne that we had commissioned.
In the 4 weeks leading up to the final, we host the preliminaries at 4 Mario’s locations, typically one in the west, one east, one central and one south. The preliminary rounds are always a lot of fun to work at; they take me to places that I wouldn’t normally visit and I get to interact with the local populace. It’s charming to see local Mario’s fans coming out to support their hometown heroes as they vie for a spot in the finals.
The competition can get pretty fierce as there is a lot on the line— not just bragging rights, but a year’s supply of Mario’s Pizza and a bunch of cash for the top winners in each category. With 4 categories, that’s a lot of prizes and a lot of competitors. Contestants sign up on the Mymarios.com website and our team chooses from those registrants and contacts them the week before the preliminary to confirm their attendance. We also contact 5 extra standby contestants in case there are no-shows.
On the morning of the preliminary, we have a check in list for each category; individual men’s, women’s, Bertie’s Pepper Pizza and the team category. This can take some time as Trinis are notorious for being late; but once all that is completed, the fun begins!
In addition to Mario’s personnel and Pepper Events staff, we are also joined by the team from SLAM 100.5. They’re responsible for a live broadcast of the activities and MC services for the event. They always do a fantastic job of getting the crowd involved and ramping up the excitement factor. Children and adults alike are captivated by their antics and the upbeat music gets everyone moving.
The finals are always a spectacle. They never fail to deliver on excitement— with so much up for grabs, each competitor brings their A-game and we really enjoy being a part of it. It all seems to fly by so quickly that before you know it, we’re planning for next year’s championship… I wonder what next year’s theme will be?
