Rabble Group owner Wes Heincke and Nugg-Off founder Kristoff Penc at the entrance to The Assembly, the scene of this Friday’s fundraiser. Photo: James Coleman.
There are various strategies to downing 30 chicken nuggets and a schooner of beer in the shortest amount of time.
One that Kristoff Penc sees a lot of involves squashing a bunch of them into small pieces in the hand and then stirring the resultant mash into the beer to create a sort of alcoholic chicken smoothie.
“People take all different strategies,” he says.
“I don’t really have one – mine’s just to throw meat in my mouth.”
Kristoff, a construction worker by day, is one of the founders of ‘Nugg-Off’, a fundraiser for Menslink and the Terry Campese Foundation.
From 2 pm on Friday, 15 November, a $100 registration fee at Assembly in Braddon will enter you into a competition to see who can eat 30 nuggets and down a schooner of beer in the fastest time.
The champion will walk away with two nights’ accommodation at the Casita Apartment Hotel in Batemans Bay and a fishing charter for eight people.
It’s a return of an event that was becoming an annual tradition prior to COVID.
“Construction is an obviously predominantly male-dominated industry, and we see a lot of these guys either with depression or not being able to communicate or talk about home problems,” Kristoff says.
“We wanted to try to help within our circle.”
The last Nugg-Off was held in 2019. Photo: Region.
The nugget component was inspired by Hamish and Andy’s ‘Nug Raid’ in 2015 when the comedy duo – joined by a busload of 70 others – dropped in on a Parramatta Hungry Jack’s with the simple aim of eating every single chicken nugget there.
“It’s just the competitive nature of who we are in construction,” Kristoff says.
“We’re always betting who can eat 20 hamburgers or 30 nuggets.”
An email to a group of friends later, and in 2017, KFC Fyshwick agreed to host their first ‘Nugg-Off’. And they may have overdone the amount.
“The first one started off with 50 nuggets, and that became a bit of a health issue,” Kristoff says.
“We had people who were a little bit sick after eating that many.”
But it still raised $700 for both charities, and the next year, when it moved to Assembly, the number of nuggets went down to 30, but the money went up to $10,000, and the following year, in 2019, it hit $80,000.
It’s worked in other ways, too.
“People loved it – it gave people more of a chance to mingle on a casual level,” Kristoff says.
“And Menslink said subcontractors and builders reached out to them on the back of that day and asked for help. And if you’re impacting one person, that’s enough reason.”
Nugg-Off 2019: this is serious stuff. Photo: Region.
A five-year break later, Kristoff and co-founders Joseph and Brendan want to bring the Nugg-Off back to its original glory, with Assembly as hosting partner, and as Kristoff observes, “Boys on the piss are more likely to donate”.
The chefs at Assembly, who typically don’t offer nuggets on the menu, have done the maths and will churn out 3000 nuggets this Friday. Entrants to the competition will be divided into teams of four each and given 120 nuggets and four schooners of beer to consume.
The goal is to raise $100,000. So far, donations are over $25,000.
As for the time to beat? The current record stands at two minutes and 10 seconds. You’re on!
The Nugg-Off will be held in the beer garden at Assembly from 2 pm, Friday, 15 November, with auctions, giveaways, and happy-hour prices all afternoon. Register online.
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