QUEENS — Wayne Algenio, an amateur competitive eater from Jamaica, Queens, was a little bit nervous before a recent beef patty eating contest.
Earlier that day, he had lunch with his family to celebrate his mother’s birthday and later went to a barbecue organized by his friends.
“I was like: 'I’m kind of full, but I know I can still eat at least five [patties],'” Algenio, 30, said.
Eventually, he ended up beating five other competitors after eating seven patties in five minutes.
Algenio, who has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from John Jay College and always wanted to become a state trooper, currently works as a sterile processing technician for Huntington Hospital on Long Island.
But he said his passion for food led him to competitive eating.
He first participated in an eating competition in 2004, when he ate 16 hot dogs in 12 minutes during the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. The winner ate 30, he said. He tried again next year with a similar result.
“At that time [Takeru] Kobayashi was doing 50 [hot dogs], so I was like: 'all right, I’m not that good of an eater',” he said. “So I just quit.”
Several years later he tried again, but with a more relaxed approach.
“For the most part it's just a fun hobby for me,” he said. “Other people take it really seriously.”
Sometimes he wins money, other times trophies.
“I really like trophies,” he said. “But it doesn’t bother me if I’m going to lose.”
Recently he received a trophy that was 5-feet tall for winning a kimchi eating contest in Brooklyn. “That’s the biggest trophy I’ve ever gotten,” he said. “It’s pretty cool.”
He also won a belt for eating 18 baluts, fertilized duck eggs, in five minutes at the now closed DeKalb Market in Brooklyn in 2012. He has since beat his own record twice. In 2013, he ate 38 baluts, last year — 40.
He follows EatFeats.com, a website listing most of the eating contests throughout the country and picks those that he likes.
He said that while serious eaters practice in a more systematic way, his only daily preparation is drinking large amounts of water to stretch his stomach.
With every dinner, which usually consists of a soup and the main dish, he drinks more than a gallon of water.
Before each contest, he usually eats only something light, like a salad, and drinks lots of water.
He also comes up with new eating techniques during each competition.
“Every food is different so you just have to figure out on the spot how to eat it,” he said.
For example, during the beef patty eating contest earlier this month, Algenio said he realized that the patties had hard edges.
“So as I was eating on that stage I decided after I got a few bites in that I would eat the edges first because it was harder and then I would use the water to get that down and then I would get to the middle which was easier to eat,” he said.
Algenio says he enjoys “really big meals.”
He does not have a favorite dish, although he says he really likes Mexican and Hawaiian cuisines.
“I love food,” he said. “I want whatever I’m craving at the moment, sometime it’s the steak, another time — tacos.”
To avoid gaining too much weight, Algenio who is 5-foot-10 and weights 270 pounds, goes to the gym every day.
He also runs with his dog, Weston.
He said he does not have any goals for the future, instead he just signs up for “whatever contest comes up.”
The best part of the experience, he said, is meeting “really cool people.”
“I've made a lot of friends in the eating circle,” he said. “You never know where eating is going to take you.”
