Ahhh the food challenge. If you’re not familiar with the phenomenon, it’s an epic right of passage usually restricted to teenage boys in which participants race to finish large quantities of low-quality food. At Buzzillions, this vestige of adolescence is alive and well. Coney Island has the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest and Buzzillions has… the Wendy’s Dollar Menu challenge, the Milkshake challenge and the deceptively difficult Cinnamon Teaspoon challenge.

When it comes to food challenges, certain employees among us like to push the envelope. While our staff has yet to produce a hot dog eater as celebrated as Takeru Kobyashi, we have our fair share of cult heroes and unlikely champions. Enter Matt Wendling and Gautam Prabhu. Anything they may lack in stomach capacity, they make up for in sheer ingenuity. Since we’re all about reviews here, here’s my assessment of two food challenge all-stars:

Gautam aka The Unsung Hero ****

Pros: Boundless enthusiasm for challenges, Puts his money where his mouth is

Cons: Rarely actually participates*

Best Uses: Instigating, Betting on food challenges

Review:

Behind every good food challenge is a good instigator. If a sentence starts off with “Wouldn’t it be gross if…" Gautam happily lays down a $5 bill for whoever will take said dare. Gautam rarely participates in food challenges, but without him, the Wendy’s Dollar Menu challenge never would have come about. Who could take the idea of racing to eat each item of 10 items of the Wendy’s Dollar Menu from dream to reality? Who could rope at least 10 of his colleagues into participating without participating himself? Who would be elated rather than disgusted watching the spectacle from beginning to bitter, super-sized end? Gautam, that’s who.

*There is only one known instance of Gautam participating in a food challenge. Rumor has it that he attempted the Cinnamon Teaspoon challenge in the Fall of ‘07, but lost on a technicality.

Matt Wendling aka The Machine *****

Pros: Impossibly large stomach capacity, Loves food

Cons: Never lets anyone else win, Susceptible to food comas

Best Uses: The Wendy’s Dollar Menu challenge, Chugging frozen concoctions

Review:

Since I joined the company in November, I’ve witnessed Matt’s food challenge prowess on two occasions. One involved a blender, a Wendy’s frosty and a large order of fries. Imagine a sludge made of cold potatoes and chocolate milk. Now imagine drinking it in 3 minutes flat. But Matt did not rest on his laurels. Some months later, Matt took on some stiff competition from across the company, and came out ahead. Remember the Wendy’s Challenge? Using the weaving and bobbing technique he went from fries to chicken sandwich to chili and finished all ten 10 items in 10 minutes. Tasty.

Stayed tuned for more adventures, but never, ever try this at home.

Angela