Students in Mr. Roger’s World Lit class gathered around a table on Thursday, January 10th, to partake in the Hotter than Hell cooking contest.

The contest was in conjunction with the class’ “Dante’s Inferno” unit.

“One of the things we do in this class is examine the different cultures of the world,” Rogers said. “So one of the ways I like to show that to my students is through food, which can easily represent a culture.”

Rogers had to come up with a nifty way to incorporate food into a unit where the book is set almost entirely in Hell. Rogers decided that in order to represent hell, he would make a spicy food cooking contest.

“I’m trying to make the hotness of hell come alive in their senses.” Rogers said.

Ethan Kline ’13 made chili and brought in homemade hot sauce.

“Mr. Rogers was incorporating food to world lit,” Kline said. “So it was just about following protocol, I decided we ought to make something for Dante’s Inferno!”

Omar Martinez made Salsa. There was one key ingredient Martinez needed to make his salsa spicy.

“I used a whole mess of Jalapenos,” Martinez said. “A ton so I could make it nice and spicy.”

Niall Oliver made Guacamole. Oliver’s attempts to make the Guacamole spicy failed.

“I tried to make hot Guacamole,” Oliver said. “But somewhere in the process something went wrong and the Guacamole did not end up being spicy.”

Omar is not usually a fan of these kinds of foods, but was willing to partake for this unit.

“i’m not really a fan of spicy foods,” Martinez said. “But I’m making an exception for this unit, because I love the book.”

Kline was confident of the outcome of the contest.

“Did I win yet?” Kline asked.

The judge of the cooking contest was Hall Monitor Chip Hardesty.

Hardesty deemed that while Kline’s salsa was the spiciest, Oliver’s Guacamole tasted the best.

“I knew it!” Kline said.