Stories From The Table

What is one of your greatest wins in competitive eating?

One of my greatest wins in competitve eating was beating the great gentleman Joe Manchetti, the legendary Joe Manchetti, in a food item that I thought I had no chance to beat him in, and I won the Philadelphia, excuse me, the Pennsylvania Hoagie Eating Championship and I was able to pull out a victory over Joe in that ; and another great victory I had was when I set the world record for chili. I had no idea I would eat as well as I did, so I was pleasantly surprised and that was a great victory.

What is one of your greatest losses in competitive eating?

One of my greatest losses in competitive eating was, I went to a wing eating contest, it was "The War Of The Wings" out in Coshocton Ohio. I thought I was going to eat well that day and I ended up finishing fifth or sixth place and I finished behind some eaters I normally wouldn't lose to. So I just had a really bad day and at the time I was considered a real strong contender to win the contest. So that was a little bit disappointing but I have to take my hat off to the guys who stepped up their game and did well.

Who do you love to compete against?

I love to compete against.. in a lot of these contests, there will be a combination of both amateurs and professionals. So I love to compete against the big meat head type guy who comes in, and despite the fact that he knows that some of America's best eaters are at the contest, comes there and talks about how he's going to kick everybody's ass. That's the person I like to send home crying.