Gordon Gekko may have said “Lunch is for wimps,” but he never ate 244 raw oysters in an hour.
Wall Streeters have famous appetites for wealth and influence — and now some are turning mealtime into a power sport, too. The trend is new and only spottily documented, but high-stakes eating contests are catching on among traders and other employees at hedge funds, banks and investment firms in New York City and beyond.
Participants might try, for example, to choke down 100 Dunkin’ Donut Munchkins, 6 feet of Subway sandwiches or 85 Wendy’s chicken nuggets, for sums large enough to pay their rent.
The finance world calls these feats of stomach Food Eating Challenges, and with the slow pace of financial dealings during the summer months — and plenty of interns around to cajole into the action — FECs are as common as cufflinks.
Last week, for instance, a Citigroup trader attempted, and failed, to eat a basketball-sized sugar bomb known as a Crumbs Colossal Cupcake in 35 minutes. Doing it without puking would have earned him $600. However, with 96 percent of it gone, the cupcake made a “messy appearance on the floor,” observers reported. Most challenges have a “no puke” clause.
There has also been a recent spate of so-called Vending Machine Challenges, in which the competitor attempts to eat one of everything — from the Funyuns to the Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies — in a given vending machine.
At one Midtown Manhattan hedge fund, competitors vied to see who could eat the most KFC Double Downs — featuring two thick boneless chicken filets, two pieces of bacon, melted slices of Monterey jack and pepper jack cheese and the Colonel’s sauce — in 30 minutes. The winner wolfed four Double Downs without doubling over.
The unofficial presiding authority over these eating contests is Bess Levin, the editor of Dealbreaker.com, a blog that chronicles Wall Street gossip. “If the challenges aren’t mentioned on this here site, well, it’s like they never happened,” she once wrote.
She seems to relish the role. “I think it’s fun,” Levin told The Daily. “People on Wall Street appreciate the competitive aspect of anything.”
Tim Janus, a 34-year-old day trader turned professional competitive eater, agrees that it makes sense finance workers would be drawn to the sport.
“You have to have a very strong stomach to succeed at both things,” said Janus, a top contender in the annual Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, who once downed 53 dogs and buns in 10 minutes.
Janus is not Wall Street’s biggest eating star, however. That honor goes to Ian Roncoroni, a 27-year-old energy options broker who ate 244 raw oysters in an hour, earning $3,500. He accomplished the feat at Ulysses, a popular watering hole in the Financial District.
One day after work, a friend bet Roncoroni $1,000 he couldn’t eat 12 dozen raw oysters in a sitting. “I had an hour to do it and I put them down in about 10 minutes,” Roncoroni said.
So the stakes were raised: If Roncoroni could finish off another 100 — along with a few Irish car bombs and tequila shots — he’d get $2,500.
“I paid my rent for the next three months and didn’t even get sick,” Roncoroni said. He followed up this feat by devouring 100 Dunkin’ Donuts Munchkins in an hour, a challenge he calls his most difficult.
“The first 70 or 80 were totally awesome, but the last 20 or 30 were significantly less awesome,” he said. “It was like, ‘Sweet, These donuts are f***ing delicious.’ Then after 95, I was thinking, ‘I hope they are just as delicious on the way back up.’”
Roncoroni has developed such a reputation that he has lately had trouble finding people willing to bet against him. But he expects others will step forward.
“All it takes is a new summer intern or a slow day in the market for the guys and gals to look for other competitive outlets,” he said, “I could pretend that it builds morale, or team spirit, but most people just like to have an excuse to call a client and say, ‘You’ll never guess what this a****** is going to do for 50 bucks.’”
Wall Streeters have famous appetites for wealth and influence — and now some are turning mealtime into a power sport, too. The trend is new and only spottily documented, but high-stakes eating contests are catching on among traders and other employees at hedge funds, banks and investment firms in New York City and beyond.
Participants might try, for example, to choke down 100 Dunkin’ Donut Munchkins, 6 feet of Subway sandwiches or 85 Wendy’s chicken nuggets, for sums large enough to pay their rent.
The finance world calls these feats of stomach Food Eating Challenges, and with the slow pace of financial dealings during the summer months — and plenty of interns around to cajole into the action — FECs are as common as cufflinks.
Last week, for instance, a Citigroup trader attempted, and failed, to eat a basketball-sized sugar bomb known as a Crumbs Colossal Cupcake in 35 minutes. Doing it without puking would have earned him $600. However, with 96 percent of it gone, the cupcake made a “messy appearance on the floor,” observers reported. Most challenges have a “no puke” clause.
There has also been a recent spate of so-called Vending Machine Challenges, in which the competitor attempts to eat one of everything — from the Funyuns to the Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies — in a given vending machine.
At one Midtown Manhattan hedge fund, competitors vied to see who could eat the most KFC Double Downs — featuring two thick boneless chicken filets, two pieces of bacon, melted slices of Monterey jack and pepper jack cheese and the Colonel’s sauce — in 30 minutes. The winner wolfed four Double Downs without doubling over.
The unofficial presiding authority over these eating contests is Bess Levin, the editor of Dealbreaker.com, a blog that chronicles Wall Street gossip. “If the challenges aren’t mentioned on this here site, well, it’s like they never happened,” she once wrote.
She seems to relish the role. “I think it’s fun,” Levin told The Daily. “People on Wall Street appreciate the competitive aspect of anything.”
Tim Janus, a 34-year-old day trader turned professional competitive eater, agrees that it makes sense finance workers would be drawn to the sport.
“You have to have a very strong stomach to succeed at both things,” said Janus, a top contender in the annual Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, who once downed 53 dogs and buns in 10 minutes.
Janus is not Wall Street’s biggest eating star, however. That honor goes to Ian Roncoroni, a 27-year-old energy options broker who ate 244 raw oysters in an hour, earning $3,500. He accomplished the feat at Ulysses, a popular watering hole in the Financial District.
One day after work, a friend bet Roncoroni $1,000 he couldn’t eat 12 dozen raw oysters in a sitting. “I had an hour to do it and I put them down in about 10 minutes,” Roncoroni said.
So the stakes were raised: If Roncoroni could finish off another 100 — along with a few Irish car bombs and tequila shots — he’d get $2,500.
“I paid my rent for the next three months and didn’t even get sick,” Roncoroni said. He followed up this feat by devouring 100 Dunkin’ Donuts Munchkins in an hour, a challenge he calls his most difficult.
“The first 70 or 80 were totally awesome, but the last 20 or 30 were significantly less awesome,” he said. “It was like, ‘Sweet, These donuts are f***ing delicious.’ Then after 95, I was thinking, ‘I hope they are just as delicious on the way back up.’”
Roncoroni has developed such a reputation that he has lately had trouble finding people willing to bet against him. But he expects others will step forward.
“All it takes is a new summer intern or a slow day in the market for the guys and gals to look for other competitive outlets,” he said, “I could pretend that it builds morale, or team spirit, but most people just like to have an excuse to call a client and say, ‘You’ll never guess what this a****** is going to do for 50 bucks.’”
