At 6’ 7”, Chance DeWerth, 29, probably doesn’t need a strategy for eating. But he has one anyway. “It’s all mental. Your mind tells you you’re full, but you have to push on. I just put music on and don’t think about it,” he says. You might assume he can’t ignore the aftermath (to put it tactfully), but he says doesn’t have problems there either. What a trooper.
The self-proclaimed “cause of the 2012 potato famine,” DeWerth has been eating competitively for three years now. He once ate a large pizza in 21 seconds. He also boasts almost 4 pounds of wings in three minutes. And on Sunday, he brought his talents to West 6th, the locale of the fifth annual Rock the Tot, a national tater tot eating contest hosted by Bar Louie. Four other guys competed too, but as non-natives, we don’t really care about them.
Just as the name suggests, the contestants had 8 pounds of Oreida tater tots placed in front of them. Whoever downed the most won free tots for life and a trophy reminiscent of the Stanley Cup. But more importantly, free tots.
