Personal information | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nickname(s) | BadlandsChugs, Badlands Booker | |||||||||
Born | Queens, New York, U.S. | |||||||||
Occupation | Competitive eater | |||||||||
Years active | 1997–present | |||||||||
Height | 6 ft 5 in (196 cm) | |||||||||
Weight | 400 lb (181 kg) [1] | |||||||||
Spouse | Regina Booker | |||||||||
YouTube information | ||||||||||
Channel | ||||||||||
Years active | 2012–present | |||||||||
Subscribers | 3.6 million [2] | |||||||||
Total views | 413 million [2] | |||||||||
Network | Fox/FS1 | |||||||||
| ||||||||||
Last updated: March 12, 2024 |
Eric James "Badlands" Booker, also known by his online pseudonym BadlandsChugs, is an American competitive eater, rapper, and YouTuber. He holds seven Major League Eating recognized world records, [3] three Guinness World Records, [4] is a four-time Nathan's Lemonade Chugging Contest champion, and competed in the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest every year from 1997 to 2018. [5] [6]
By 20, Booker began training his chug skills and training to compete in food championships. Booker lives on Long Island. Booker is 6 ft 5+1⁄4 in (1.96 m) tall and weighs 400 lb (180 kg). [1]
Booker trains for competitions by trying to stretch his stomach and develop jaw strength. He eats large amounts of fruit and vegetables and drinks gallons of water in a sitting position in order to stretch his stomach and chews over twenty pieces of gum at a time to build jaw strength. [7] He maintains that competitive eating is a healthy sport and has lost weight since he began competing. [8] As of 2022, he is ranked 27th by the IFOCE. [9] Booker is also known for his YouTube channel, BadlandsChugs, in which he primarily performs soda chugging challenges. [10] In 2019, over the span of a year, his YouTube channel amassed over 3 million subscribers.
At the 2021 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, Booker won a lemonade drinking contest, drinking a gallon of lemonade in under 40 seconds. [11] He captured his second lemonade chugging contest title in 2022, [12] and repeated in 2023, setting a record of 23.08 seconds. [13] In 2024, he continued his lemonade-chugging winning streak, breaking his 2023 record with a time of 21 seconds. [14]
Some of Booker's accomplishments include:
Since 2004, Booker has performed and recorded competitive eating themed hip-hop as Badlands Booker, and he frequently performs selections from his albums at competitions. [21] [1] Besides his own nine albums, Booker has also made guest appearances on albums by Jendor and Loser's Lounge. [22] Much of the music used on his YouTube channel is created by himself and his son Brandon Booker (OKHIPHOP).
Title | Year |
---|---|
Hungry & Focused | 2004 |
Hungry & Focused II: The Ingestion Engine | 2005 |
Hungry & Focused III: The Reframing | 2006 |
Hungry & Focused IV: Fork, Knife & Mic | 2007 |
Extended Play | 2009 |
Surf & Stillwell | 2010 |
Big Man Mentality | 2011 |
Surf & Stillwell 2 | 2017 |
Surf & Stillwell 3 | 2018 |
Big Man Mentality 2 | 2019 |
Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi is a Japanese competitive eater. Described as "the godfather of competitive eating", he is a six-time Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest champion and widely credited with popularizing the sport.
The Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest is an annual American hot dog competitive eating competition. It is held each year on July 4 at Nathan's Famous' original, and best-known, restaurant at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island, a neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City.
Sonya Thomas , also known by her nickname The Black Widow, and "The Leader of the Four Horsemen of the Esophagus", is a South Korean-born American competitive eater from Alexandria, Virginia. Thomas joined the International Federation of Competitive Eating in 2003 and quickly rose to the top of the ranks, beating competitive eaters such as Eric Booker.
Competitive eating, or speed eating, is a sport in which participants compete against each other to eat large quantities of food, usually in a short time period. Contests are typically eight to ten minutes long, although some competitions can last up to thirty minutes, with the person consuming the most food being declared the winner. Competitive eating is most popular in the United States, Canada, and Japan, where organized professional eating contests often offer prizes, including cash.
David "Coondog" O'Karma is a competitive eating champion, entertainer, and writer from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. He was formerly a member of the IFOCE, but is now the director of a Competitive Eating organization called the Association of Independent Competitive Eaters (AICE).
Bob Shoudt, also known as "Humble Bob" or "Notorious B.O.B.", is an American competitive eater from Royersford, Pennsylvania.
Gutbusters is a 2002 Discovery Channel documentary following the efforts of three competitive eaters seeking to gain entry into the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest.
Joseph Christian Chestnut is an American competitive eater. As of 2024, he is ranked first in the world by Major League Eating.
Tim Janus is an American entertainer, media personality and retired competitive eater known in the competitive eating community as "Eater X". He was a member of the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE). He performed in contests wearing a painted mask and once stated, "I'd eat anything. One of my goals in life is to eat everything in the world at least once. I'd eat a roll of pennies if I thought I could set a world record. Some day I hope we make contact with beings from other planets. I'd love to eat alien."
Patrick "Deep Dish" Bertoletti is an American competitive eater from Chicago. He takes part in a variety of different eating competitions—notable wins include the 2024 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest and the first-ever world poutine eating competition in Toronto. He also holds numerous world records, including the most milk consumed in an hour.
Charles Hardy, known as Hungry Charles Hardy, was an American competitive eater from Brooklyn, New York, United States. Hardy was a long-standing member of the International Federation of Competitive Eating. He retired from the sport in 2005 to become the IFOCE's commissioner. During the latter half of 2004, Hungry Charles displayed dominance in eating, placing second and third in major events throughout the USA. Hardy secured victory for six consecutive years in the Civil Service qualifier for the hot dog circuit and he maintains records in sushi, shrimp, and cabbage.
Matthew Kai Stonie is an American competitive eater and YouTuber. Stonie won the 2015 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, dethroning 8-time defending champion Joey Chestnut. Stonie has gained fame from his YouTube channel, to which he uploads video footage of his eating challenges.
Dale Boone is an American competitive eater who holds several records for, among others, devouring pelmeni and hot dogs. Having been featured on numerous television programmes, he has proclaimed himself "Mouth of the South". Boone claims to be the great grandson of Daniel Boone.
Kevin Thomas Strahle, better known as the L.A. Beast, is an American professional competitive eater who hosts a challenge-based channel on YouTube. Strahle started making videos in his hometown of Ridgewood, New Jersey, before moving to Los Angeles, California. After several years at his home in California, he moved back to his hometown of Ridgewood. As of 2024, his channel has over 2.9 million subscribers & over 500 million total views. In addition to his online presence, he has made appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Today Show Australia and Tosh.0.
Miki Victoria Sudo is an American competitive eater. She has been undefeated in the women's competition at the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, with a ten-year winning streak since 2014, unseating Sonya Thomas, who had won the women's competition since its inception in 2011. She captured a record tenth title in 2024. She has the current women's record for the contest, with 51 hot dogs eaten in it, which she did in 2024.
Adam Moran, better known as BeardMeatsFood, is a British competitive eater and YouTuber from Leeds.
Yasir Salem is an American triathlete, marathon enthusiast, cyclist, and competitive eater. He is currently ranked number 11 in Major League Eating’s list of competitive eaters.
Carmen Cincotti is an American competitive eater and holder of multiple records in Major League Eating, who earned $10,000 for his second-place finish in the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest in 2017 in which he ate 60 hot dogs in ten minutes, twelve fewer than repeat champion Joey Chestnut. From August 2018 to June 2019, he was ranked number two in Major League Eating.
Edward “Cookie” Jarvis is a retired competitive eater and a member of the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE). He is a real estate agent, married father of two, and cancer survivor. When Cookie Jarvis became a competitive eater in 2001, he was 365 pounds, and retired in 2006 reaching 525 pounds. His best finish in the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest came in 2003, when he set an American record of 30½ hot dogs in 10 minutes. This put him in second place behind Takeru Kobayashi.
El Gallo Taqueria was a Mexican restaurant in Portland, Oregon, United States. Owner and chef Jake Brown established the business as a food cart in 2009, in southeast Portland's Woodstock neighborhood. In 2015, El Gallo relocated and began operating as a brick and mortar restaurant in 2015. The business closed in 2022.