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MONSTER MUNCH


emirates man apr/may 2015


| FEATURE | EATING


Competitive eating is now so popular, some advocates are trying to get it recognised as an Olympic sport. But just what kind of people are prepared to devour 66 hot dogs in ten minutes?


D


eep within the folds of hip London eatery Meat Liq- uor, neon lights flicker, music booms from speakers and the stench of barbecued meat hangs thick in the air. As waitresses contort between diners brandish- ing trays the size of tractor tyres, there’s not a vacant chair in sight and a queue grows ever longer outside. Yet such hullabaloo is mere white noise compared to today’s main attraction – a 6’5” man mountain from


Missouri stopping by for lunch. He’s not hard to spot, either. Striding into the restaurant dressed


head to toe in his own-branded sportswear and flanked by a six- strong documentary crew, 28-year-old Randy Santel approaches the table where a few eager spectators have already assembled and retrieves some industrial sized cutlery from his backpack, before stopping to pose for photos with two female fans who have travelled halfway down the country just to say hello. It’s the kind of entrance you’d expect from a film star, or perhaps a Premier League footballer. But then, Randy Santel is indeed an athlete, albeit one whose biggest asset is his cavernous stomach. On a 42-date culinary tour of the United Kingdom – by the end


of which he will have consumed over 200,000 calories – Santel’s visit here is on official business, to tackle a challenge he hopes will form win No 246, as he takes the field in a sport rapidly growing around the world: competitive eating. On the menu today is Meat Liquor’s Triple Chilli Challenge: a


3,420 calorie meal featuring a chilli con carne-covered hot dog, a burger stuffed with jalapeno peppers and a large helping of fries bur- ied under yet more spicy beef chilli, all covered in cheese and driz- zled with bright yellow mustard. The feast weighs 1.6kg and costs £23 (Dhs130), but is free if competitors finish within ten-minutes. It sounds big enough to feed an entire family. However, Santel doesn’t look fazed. This is a man who’s always had an appetite for the ex- treme. Weighing a gigantic 24-stone when playing American football at


Missouri State University, portly Santel would’ve been deemed mor- bidly obese by the reckoning of any doctor, yet could convert his size into freakish power in the gym – his bench press record an outright scary 385lbs (27.5 stone). After growing tired of both American football and weighing the


same as a refrigerator full of bricks, Santel switched curly fries for carrot sticks in his diet and upped his exercise regime in order to shed some fat. Then, in 2010, he entered a magazine competition that offered a holiday to New Zealand and guest spot on TV show Spartacus: Gods Of The Arena to the entrant with the greatest body transformation within 12-weeks. Problem was, as he learned of the contest one month after it’d already started, Santel was left with just eight weeks to get ripped like no other. Armed with a strict diet plan and a training schedule that meant working out three times a day – not to mention an all or nothing


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