Competitive Eating Foods

What do you eat when you're competing?

I'll eat anything, I really will. Rocky mountain oysters, frog legs, pickled eggs, I really don't care. I mean, put me on Fear Factor, you know I don't care. If I haven't eaten it, then I really need to try and I need to get in that contest. So I won't say no to anything.

What's the best food for an eating competition?

This is good. Soft, liquidly and lots of it. Because the reason that different numbers come up, you may have one eater that is number one in organization of 4 pounds this weekend of one food, and 20 pounds of some different food the next weekend. Well, it is the food. He or she may have done near 4 pounds in chicken wings but did 20 pounds in soft serve ice cream or pudding, something like that. Because with the steak or the meat or the hot dogs, your body has to process that a different way. Normal chewing is involved and water management and this and that. With ice cream or grits or oatmeal, things like that, carbs, liquidly, you just shovel it in, swallow it. You do not even have to really even think. It is just more of a movement. You know just getting it in. I mean the hands. It is great.

What foods can be used in competitive eating?

The foods can be used in competitive eating are the edible ones. If there is a food that can be eaten it can be in a contest. That's all there is to that.

How does a beginner choose a food for competition?

I know that whenever I began in competitive eating, I was really apt to take any contest, so my statement for any person looking in to getting in a contest, just like throw down your barriers, go at it, even if you don't like chicken wings, try it, if you don't like fried zucchini, try it, you won't know until you try it, and you may be surprised that you're better at it than the next person. So, so go.

What is the best strategy for eating ice cream competitively?

To eat ice cream competitively, there are a lot of factors you need to consider. You have soft serve; you have regular ice cream; you have custard; you have ice cream sundaes; you have ice cream sandwiches; you have this and that. So, before you actually get into an ice cream contest, you need to do your research and find out if this is Mayfield's Ice Cream, if this is Breyer's Ice Cream, or if this is like soft serve at your mom and pop's dairy, I don't know. You just need to look at the factors and educate yourself to find out which way you need to approach it. So if you're doing a sundae and you don't like nuts, maybe you should sit that one out if the sundae is going to have nuts on it. If it is pineapple and you like pineapple and it is ice cream and fudge, dig in.

What is the best strategy for eating hot dogs competitively?

If you're going to sit down and do hot dogs competitively you need to make sure you know what the rules are involved. In most sanctioned contests there's one of two ways you can do it. You can either eat it any way you want to, any style, that's commonly used by the IFOCE. If it's an independent contest, usually sanctioned by the AICE, then you have to go by picnic style rules. Now with the IFOCE it's basically any way you can get it down. That is dunking the hotdog and bun in water or, I think they call it solemnizing, Japanizing, that's where they separate the hotdog from the bun, dip the bun in water. Obviously the bun is going to be softer and easier to eat so you just swallow that and then you just start working on the hot dog. In the ASCE you have to adhere by picnic style rules. That's where you have to eat it like you would at mom and dad's, or your grandma's house. Grandma doesn't want to see you dipping that hot dog and bun in water and eating it, I mean who the hell does that. It all depends on what the rules are with your contest.