At a Lincoln Park taqueria, Tim Brown orders two football-sized pork burritos … and a Diet Coke. “Got to keep this figure” he chuckles. His figure is surprisingly fit, considering that he’s arguably Chicago’s greatest burrito eater and a serious contender for next Sunday’s jalapeno-eating contest.
In this obese America, it’s hardly a surprise that competitive eating has gone mainstream, making celebrities of hot-dog eaters Takeru Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut. Locally, Patrick Bertoletti (who you may remember from a ribeye-eating contest with the Guy Page a few months back) and Brown are threatening to enter that greasy-mawed pantheon. Both competed at the Super Bowl of eating — Nathan’s Famous 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Competition. Bertoletti holds the jalapeno long-form record with 177 eaten in 15 minutes. Brown plans on taking his challenger’s spicy crown.
“I’d like to be considered the Pigpen of competitive eating,” says Brown, nicknamed “Gravy” for the cloudy fluid that seeps from his nostrils when he’s downing, say, two massive burritos in 64 seconds.
So what’s the trick to eating hundreds of jalapenos? “Well, I could fit 300 in my stomach if I wanted to,” boasts the 29-year-old Chicagoan, who works in marketing. “But they’re hot and fibrous, so they are hard to keep down. As long as I don’t stop eating I’ll be fine. When you stop, you burn.”
(Major League Eating, the governing body sanctioning this and most large eating contests around the nation, has outlawed milk-drinking during the pepper popping.)
In the weeks before the competition, Brown has been practicing with cans of peppers, in addition to his normal burrito routine. And he has been looking for a tiny, fork-shaped stud to replace the ball in his pierced tongue, which should make him unbeatable.
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The La Costena Feel the Heat Jalapeno Eating Challenge takes place at 3 p.m. Sept. 16 at Fiestas Patrias (Plaza Garibaldi, 2600 S. California Ave.) See majorleagueeating.com. For Gravy Brown’s speed burrito-eating technique, visit chicago tribune.com/peppereater.
