It was down to national pie-eating champion “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti versus Tom “Goose” Gilbert.
The two appeared Wednesday on “The Chris Tabb Show,” a program that was recorded at the Comcast studios in Cambridge and airs nightly in towns throughout the Bay State.
Menchetti, a 38-year-old ticket broker from Wallingford, Conn., went into the contest ranked No. 1 in the Association of Independent Competitive Eaters, a national group with 50 ranked “food warriors” waging battle in the U.S. and abroad.
Gilbert, a 27-year-old mental health worker from Amherst, had been stuck at number two—until Wednesday.
With cameras rolling and host Chris Tabb looking on, the two men sat at a table with 14 pumpkin pies laid out from Petsi Pies, which has locations in Cambridge and Somerville. They gazed stoically at the fare while awaiting instructions from Arnie “Chowhound” Chapman, association chairman.
“We’re playing under picnic rules,” Chapman said. “You will not mush, mutilate or mash the New England icon known as pumpkin pie.”
Under picnic rules, food warriors must eat their grub in the same manner as people from the home culture—in this case with a utensil. Both men chose spoons and ate a combined 9.16 pounds of pie over the next five minutes.
Gilbert came away with a bigger slice, inhaling 4.66 pounds to Menchetti’s 4.5. When asked how he felt after claiming the association’s top ranking, Gilbert shrugged and said, “I’m not hungry anymore.”
Menchetti still holds the world pumpkin-pie eating record, at 5.89 pounds over a 5-minute period. The two will square off in a rematch July 18 in Chicago.
While they’ll be eating meatballs in the Windy City, association food warriors swallow an impressive—if not digestive—range of delicacies in their competitive eating careers. Menchetti packed away 89 cicadas in 60 seconds during a contest in Washington, D.C. in 2005.
“I could have done more, but they were low on the bugs,” Menchetti said. He took first prize at the bug buffet, gobbling more insects than the second and third-place finishers combined.
Tabb, a Boston-based comedian, said he contacted Chapman about filming a contest on his show after watching competitive eaters on television.
“It was crazy,” Tabb said. “Because I called him and asked if he had anyone local who could come in and film, and he said, ‘Only our No. 1 and No. 2 in the country.’”
Cambridge