Six Bradley students did their best to devour a mighty sub sandwich in the Guy (or Gal) vs. Grub competition at One World Cafe, and despite a rallying cry that “there can only be one winner,” three students walked away with the prize.
The Association of Residence Halls planned the event with Sam Eid, one of the owners of One World. After preliminary eating competitions, ARH picked the students from different residence halls, and Eid slowly pieced together the recipe for the mammoth submarine sandwich the contenders would eat.
“We’ve been linking with ARH forever,” Eid said. “The Food Channel is so popular, we decided to make this a big competition.”
Eid said he had been thinking of events to have at One World for a while now, but this was the first one to manifest.
Of the six students, only one “gal” was present to represent her dormitory, Heitz Hall, but Kristin Henrichs had already proved she was a worthy competitor in the preliminaries by eating the most buffalo chicken wings. The secondary education and English major was up for the new challenge.
“I’m a little nervous, but I’m here with pride representing the women,” Henrichs said.
The competitors had their own strategies for finishing the 3-and-a-half pound sandwich. A few hadn’t eaten anything in hours in hopes of being hungry enough to complete the challenge.
Sophomore accounting major Dewayne Sexton, Jr. (E.J.) had his secret weapon – a tall glass of water.
“It helps push the food down,” Sexton said. “That’s why you don’t drink it. You sip it.”
The competition started when two servers brought out the sandwiches wrapped in tin foil. Each ball of foil was larger than a football – and messier, too.
Underneath the two thick buns was a heaping mound of sliced gyro meat, lettuce, tomatoes, chicken tenders and French fries to name a few of the ingredients.
Lathered on top of the food was a thick cheese sauce. Any contestant who could finish the meal in 30 minutes would win the prize.
Some of the contestants asked for dipping sauces such as ranch or bleu cheese to accompany their sandwich.
Sophomore civil engineering major Salvador Lopez, representing Williams Hall, asked for a side of jalapenos. Lopez said he grew up eating spicy foods and hoped it would help him win the competition.
Only ten minutes into the competition, Sexton had managed to finish the entire sandwich with Clint Boone, a secondary education and mathematics major, finishing seconds behind.
Sexton celebrated his win by ordering another glass of mango-lemonade while the losing students continued to stare at their half-eaten sandwiches.
With only seconds left on the clock, senior construction major Michael Carter, representing the singles complex, was the last competitor to finish eating the sandwich.
“It was a lot of food,” Lopez said. “Weighed more than me.”
The three winners, Sexton, Carter and Boone, were treated to a free coffee mug, a One World t-shirt and a semester-long reward of free coffee drinks.