-177 and a Surreal experience with a Glutton for Punishment

I found out that Food Network star Bob Blumer would be in Calgary during the Stampede to try and break the Guinness World Record for most pancakes made in an hour.

I've been a big fan of Bob Blumer for years because of his show Surreal Gourmet. He always had interesting episodes that provided his unique and twisted spin on different foods. He once did a show about caviar and made gourmet burgers with Foie Gras in it.

He also made a savoury cake... the "cake" layers were meatloaf and the icing was mashed potatoes. The decorations were carrots and other veggies cut into flowers etc.. Very creative.

Oh did I mention that his portable kitchen is an aluminum trailer shaped like a toaster with two slices of toast popping out of the top?

Bob's new show "Glutton for Punishment" is a very different concept. Bob travels all over the world and spends a week or so learning a task or feat and then competes to accomplish the goal he has set out. He once did a show on oyster shucking and competed in a shucking contest. He also did a show where he competed in a BBQ cook off, a show where he had to chase a big wheel of cheese down a hill in England and this time, he was flipping pancakes for a world record.

Now, this episode although filmed in Calgary during Stampede, will not air until Spring of 2009, I got to see it all live!

So here's how things went down...

Lauren dropped me off downtown at 7:30 am. I haven't been at a Stampede breakfast all "stampede season" so I figured if I am going to any, it will be one starring Bob Blumer!

So by the time I got there, they had Olympic plaza equipped with 2 large and 2 small griddles under a canopy. There were many buckets of pancake batter and tools for cooking.. and of course Bob prepping everything.. He was scurrying back and forth oiling the griddle and pouring test batches of pancakes. By now, there were only maybe 4 of us watching him from behind a rope. He announced to us that he was nervous which was pretty obvious. But I have to admit, he was far more attractive in person than I anticipated!

So the Guinness Book of World Record guy was pacing in the background while the various people who were involved with Bob's training or whatever were interviewed by various media. Bob's producer was running around getting things ready and it was generally just a typical scene with cameras everywhere and at the time, more media than audience.

So the countdown was on and the pancake flipping began. Bob had an hour to try and make more than 555 pancakes and they had to be bigger than the 6" diameter according to the template the Guinness guy had. They also had to be thinner than 1cm. The Guinness guy was counting madly as Bob produced griddles full of pancakes. He did try at one point to make pancakes on the back griddles but they ended up not being the right temperature so he gave up on them and worked on the two larger griddles facing the crowd.

As Bob flipped, we cheered and encouraged. Some people chanted, I just yelled the occasional words of encouragement. The MC from one of the radio stations kept pushing and egging Bob on, telling him he wasn't working hard enough or fast enough. He kept telling everyone that he was behind in the quota. It was a good thing too because Bob needed that extra push.

So it came down to the final minute and the crowd counted down. Bob poured a last batch of pancakes and got them off the heat in time to get them to the Guinness judge. Then the waiting began. As we all waited, Bob was letting off his frenetic energy and was talking with the MC. It was getting down to the wire and we were only at maybe 490 pancakes. It wasn't looking good. Bob was obviously nervous because he started going through the pancake reject pile looking for potential pancakes to be reconsidered but as the final batch was counted, it was clear that Bob managed to beat the world record with a slim margin of 4 pancakes! He made 559 pancakes in 1 hour!!!

I have to say it was a thrilling moment to see Bob jumping up and down with excitement. He ran past the crowd and high fived everyone. (That was painful lol). So after it all, the MC brought Bob over to the audience while all the media followed. So there was Bob on my right, and me in the middle and the MC on my left all facing the camera. I was all smiles of course and I had my hand on Bob's sweaty shoulder. I patted him on the back and congratulated him. He thanked me and then they moved Bob on to the next segment of interviews as people started to clean up the pancake griddles.

I followed for a bit because I wanted to get my pic taken with Bob but it was seemingly impossible to get a picture so I went off to the side. I figured I would wait for the pancakes that he promised he would make for the crowd. (He couldn't serve the ones in the contest because of health reasons). So as I stuck around I noticed they were moving the griddles over to where I was standing which was convenient. After the plaque was given to Bob and he was congratulated etc.. Bob was finally almost all alone so I went over to his assistant or coach guy and asked if I could get a pic with Bob. He said he would take 2 and so I got the 2 pics taken.

It was finally time for Bob to flip some pancakes for the crowd. Not many people crowded around.. most didn't know what had happened just 30 minutes earlier but there Bob was, prepping the griddles again and pouring on the pancake batter. Suddenly without warning, all of Bob's crew left. Everyone left. He had a griddle full of pancakes and a stack of plates but no way of getting them to the crowd. He finally just said we would all have to cross the rope and come down to the griddle and collect the pancakes our selves... well the crowd was too chicken to cross the rope. I tried to encourage them to go down to the griddle.. I even held up the rope and everyone just stood there dumbstruck.. so there was Bob with a whole lot of pancakes about to burn so I went under the rope, dropped my bag and umbrella etc.. and grabbed plates of pancakes from Bob and handed them to the crowd with a squeeze of syrup.

Bob was stunned that I jumped in and thanked me. I dished out pancakes to the crowd until we ran out of paper plates... so I started tearing off paper towels and served the hot cakes on them.
Bob then asked me my name and thanked me again. He said he would make sure I got some pancakes of my own in the next batch. As he was pouring the second (and final) batch, his crew came back and started filming us.

It was hard serving pancakes on napkins. People were annoyed that they couldn't soak the pancakes in syrup and there were no forks.. I eventually just took a stack of 10 pancakes on the last plate I was using to serve and had people help themselves with napkins.. but still I managed to serve up all but the last 3 pancakes.. I offered Bob one but he declined. I tossed on some syrup but for my little tummy even 1 pancake was pushing it... I finally said goodbye to Bob, he thanked me again and I left to head to work. On the way to the train station, I had to toss the sticky plate and wash my hands with my bottle of water. Sticky indeed!

So overall it was a fantastic morning. By the time I got to work, the office had essentially shut down. The employees had the afternoon off for a Stampede party so I ended up leaving early and heading over to Enmax for their Stampede party (starring Loverboy, Chiliwack and Trooper). It was stormy, it hailed but it was a great time! (and I got my butt sketched!)

So that was my Thursday (July 10th).