Competitive Eating Champion Ready To Take Bite Out of St. Cloud Challenge

(KNSI) – A local restaurant will put a competitive eater to the test Tuesday evening, daring him to down seven pounds of food in under an hour.

Up in Smoke BBQ Owner Tim Hoefer spoke with KNSI about the gauntlet that is being laid down for Youtube star Randy Santel. “He’s going to be eating a rack of ribs, a pound of our smoked beef brisket, half pound of pulled pork, half pound of pulled chicken, three chicken wings, about one pound [of] medium sides, [and] two cornbread.”

Santel is a former college football player who slimmed down after his career. He entered his first eating contest as a way to reward himself for reaching a weight loss goal, and he quickly turned it into a career.

Santel holds a record, having successfully beaten 1,262 eating challenges from coast to coast, covering everything from pizza to burgers and more. Hoefer says Santel will have a crew filming. The public is welcome to meet and root him on as he tackles the barbecue platter. The challenge will begin at 6:00 p.m.

Hoefer says this is the first of many initiatives to roll out in the coming years. He wants Up in Smoke BBQ to be a staple in the community. “We’re starting to look at: One, a new bigger location. Two, we’re looking at getting a big food barbecue trailer to go out and do big events such as, Stearns County Fair wants us out there this year. We have had requests from other big venues like We Fest.”

Up in Smoke already has a catering business. Hoefer says the key to the company’s growth comes down to the quality of the food. He considers the secret to good barbecue to be simplicity. He says if you avoid the traps of overseasoning or overstuffing your entrees, the meat can do the talking, and it usually has a pretty good story to tell.

Up in Smoke is located on 2nd Street South behind the Liberty Bank branch in St. Cloud.

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