Eating Champion Tackles St. Cloud Food Challenge

This October 1st will be my 36th anniversary of working in radio, and during my career I’ve been blessed enough to meet a ton of celebrities. Musicians, Actors, Athletes and Television personalities comprise the list of folks I’ve had the chance to be around.  

Get our free mobile app

Some of these folks were awesome, and some... Well, were not.  

Tuesday was a new experience for me, meeting a Competitive Eating Champion. Randy Santel was going for his 1,265th Eating Challenge Win at Up in Smoke BBQ in St. Cloud.  

I wasn’t sure what to expect before getting there, but upon arrival, I realized that this was special. People were lined up out the door, 45 minutes before the event was set to start. And the line stayed out the door right up until the competition started.  

Not only were people lined up out the door, the Staff at Up in Smoke provided tables and chairs on the sidewalk for folks to enjoy their food at while waiting on the competition to start.  

Some of the people who met Randy before he started lined up along the windows outside to look through the windows at the competition.  

Randy’s challenge was to eat a platter of food that contained a full rack of ribs, one pound of brisket, a half-pound of smoked pulled pork, a half-pound of smoked pulled chicken, three whole chicken wings, 2 medium sides, and 2 cornbread muffin tops.  

And Randy had to eat all of this in 45 minutes or under. A tall task, because Radny had failed one previous BBQ Challenge.  

During the process, Randy was recording all of this for his YouTube Channel, and he left fans there see a little behind the scenes as he would record more than one “take” so when the video is edited together, the final product is smooth and correct. 

As Randy started, he would talk with the crowd at Up in Smoke, and those watching online, letting them know his thoughts of the food, and what he was thinking as he made his way through the platter.  

The more he ate, the less he talked because of the difficulty of this task. Several times the crowd packed in the building would begin to chant “Randy, Randy, Randy”. 

Another thing Randy would do was give time updates of how much time he had left. He went from sitting to standing, occasionally bouncing up and down, moving his arms around, trying to make room for what was left on the platter.  

The deadline was looming, and Randy finished off the final pieces of food, ending the challenge with a time of 44:47. That’s 13 seconds to spare. 

I walked away with tremendous respect for Randy and what he does. But I left with a terrific appreciation for him, for how he treated his fans. The contest was a little late getting started because of the crowd and the time he spent with the people who came out to see him.  

Then after scarfing down 7 pounds of food, he spent more time with fans, taking pictures, signing autographs, and selling merchandise. The respect and gratitude he showed for his supporters was up there with the best I’ve ever seen. 

Fans came from as far away as Fargo and the Twin Cities to be on hand for this event.  

Kudos to the staff at Up in Smoke BBQ as well, they worked very hard to get food out in a timely manner to customers and make sure everyone enjoyed the experience.  

Oh yeah, if you think you can tackle this challenge as well, you are welcome to try. The Up in Smoke Platter Challenge is now available. Win or lose, you get a T-shirt for the effort. But if you take the loss, you also get the bill of $120.  

If you think it was easy, here is my post challenge interview with Randy.