From a crazy variation of Elvis' favorite sandwich to a pancake meal that'll make you feel full just by the sight of it alone, these are the most insane breakfast challenges ever seen on "Man v. Food."
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00:00From a crazy variation of Elvis' favorite sandwich to a pancake meal that'll make you
00:05feel full just by the sight of it alone, these are the most insane breakfast challenges
00:10ever seen on Man vs. Food.
00:13Even after taking into account the many episodes that have aired since 2008, the very first
00:18breakfast challenge on Man vs. Food remains one of the biggest in the series' history.
00:22In Season 1, Episode 5, Adam Richman attempts to eat eight overstuffed breakfast tacos at
00:28an Austin, Texas-based diner called Juan in a Million.
00:32Each taco the restaurant serves as part of its breakfast taco challenge weighs three-quarters
00:36of a pound and is filled with what can only be described as a small hill of bacon, eggs,
00:41cheese, and potatoes.
00:42Mid-challenge, after Richman finishes his fourth taco, restaurant founder Juan P. Meza
00:48claims that he has already surpassed 90 percent of the thousands of competitors who have attempted
00:53the feat in the past.
00:54However, even after a lengthy break, Richman is unable to finish his fifth breakfast taco,
00:59but that doesn't mean he isn't a winner in his own right.
01:01There's a woman's category, there's a man's category, now there's a celebrity host category.
01:07All right!
01:10In Season 1, Episode 12, Richman visits a decades-old diner in Seattle, Washington called
01:15Beth's Cafe.
01:16The restaurant's signature challenge requires participants to finish a 12-egg omelet called
01:21the Southwestern Exposure.
01:23First we see how the omelet is prepared in the kitchen.
01:25On top of a sprawling bed of eggs are cheese, sour cream, salsa, and beef brisket chili.
01:31That's all served with a large portion of hash browns and a side of toast.
01:35Before attempting to eat all of that himself, Richman decides to raise the stakes by racing
01:39against a previous winner of the Southwestern Exposure challenge.
01:42For the entirety of the competition, Richman maintains a healthy lead, but with what he
01:46estimates to be just two bites of food left on his plate, he finds himself virtually unable
01:51to finish.
01:53My eyes, they burn!"
01:55While Richman ultimately wins the head-to-head when his challenger taps out, it's the omelet
01:59that wins out against both men.
02:02The signature food challenge at Jack and Grill in Denver, Colorado asked adventurous eaters
02:07to take a stab at finishing a breakfast burrito that weighed a whopping seven pounds.
02:11Of course, Adam Richman is up for the task, attempting to down the so-called Monster Breakfast
02:15Burrito in Season 1, Episode 16.
02:18At the time of the episode's filming, more than 2,000 had attempted the challenge.
02:22Only about 100 of them succeeded.
02:24Richman, however, is unable to count himself among the challenge's success stories.
02:28I think by the time I finish this, you'll have grandchildren."
02:33While he passes an estimated halfway point, after about 30 minutes, there looks to be
02:37at least a few pounds of burrito left on his plate by the time he taps out.
02:41Unfortunately for anyone inspired by Richman's attempt at the Monster Breakfast Burrito,
02:46Jack and Grill is no longer in business as of 2018.
02:49Despite a bump in popularity, courtesy of this Man vs. Food episode.
02:54Richman leaves the contiguous 48 in Season 2, Episode 6 in order to attempt the Mac Daddy
03:00Challenge at a diner called Mac 24-7 in the Waikiki neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii.
03:05Comprising the Mac Daddy are three pounds of pancakes and a pound of toppings.
03:09Competitors can choose from among a few options, and Richman decides on blueberries and butter.
03:14Everything must be eaten within 90 minutes.
03:16More than 300 diners attempted the challenge before Richman, and only four of them succeeded.
03:21Competitors are allowed to order whatever additional items they want, and Richman enlists
03:25the aid of a cup of coffee and a plate of bacon to cut through what quickly becomes
03:29a monotonous flavor.
03:31About 24 minutes after starting, Richman is able to down half of his pancake platter.
03:35Of course, it's that second half that poses the biggest challenge, and he's unable to
03:39finish with what he estimates to be just over a pound of blueberry pancakes remaining.
03:43"...in Battle of Ann vs. Pancake.
03:47Today, sadly, food won."
03:52Skipping ahead to Season 5, we see Casey Webb replace Adam Richman as the host.
03:56For whatever reason, though, the season is lacking in the breakfast food department.
03:59Season 6, however, brings breakfast challenges back with a vengeance.
04:03The first time Season 6 earns a spot in the show's Breakfast Food Challenge Hall of Fame
04:07occurs in Episode 2, when Webb visits Flann O'Brien's Pub in Boston, Massachusetts.
04:13Flann O'Brien's dares adventurous eaters to down a four-and-a-half-pound Irish breakfast
04:17consisting of staples like sausage, eggs, baked beans, potatoes, tomatoes, toast, and
04:22more.
04:23Complicating matters is a 30-minute time limit.
04:25Before Webb, about 400 people had tried their hand at the Guinness Irish Breakfast Challenge.
04:30While roughly 50 of them succeeded, about half of them did so when the challenge was
04:34markedly easier and had less food.
04:36Utilizing a sort of when-in-Rome philosophy, Webb washes everything down with a pint of
04:41Guinness, an optional addendum that earns finishers a hat as a bonus prize.
04:45That decision ultimately proves unwise, though, as Webb reaches the time limit without finishing
04:49his more-than-full Irish breakfast.
04:52I gave it my all, but in the end, I was bested by the Irish breakfast.
04:58In Season 6, Episode 6, Casey Webb takes a trip to Burlington, Vermont, in order to try
05:02his hand at a food challenge at a historic diner called Handy's Lunch.
05:07There, customers can attempt to eat a sandwich that shares a name with the storied star of
05:10action movies and mid-2000s memes, Chuck Norris.
05:13What are my chances of taking down Chuck?
05:16He's gonna punch you in the face.
05:17Comprising the Chuck Norris are four French toast sandwiches, each of which contains egg,
05:22cheese, and a different kind of meat.
05:24They're stacked on top of one another to form a single, three-and-a-half-pound sandwich
05:28tower.
05:29Two ramekins of Vermont maple syrup accompany the Chuck Norris, and while they're not necessary
05:34for the challenge, Webb eventually adds some syrup to his Chuck Norris to introduce some
05:38variety to the salty meat monolith.
05:40With the help of some coaching from a professional taekwondo instructor, Webb ends up finishing
05:45the entire monstrous sandwich.
05:48Man vs. Food returns to San Diego for a second breakfast food challenge in Season 6, Episode
05:538.
05:54This time around, Webb visits a diner called Brian's 24 to attempt what the restaurant
05:58calls the Pancake Monster Challenge.
06:00The so-called Pancake Monster that competitors must finish consists of five plate-sized pancakes.
06:05In between each one is a different food, a ham steak, potatoes, three strips of bacon,
06:10two sausage patties, a country fried steak, and three eggs.
06:13The whole thing weighs in at just about five-and-a-half pounds and must be finished within an hour.
06:18Webb kicks his meal off with a strategic decision to separate the meat and eggs from the pancake
06:22stack, presumably because carbs are heavier than protein.
06:26He finishes most of those proteins before digging into the pancakes.
06:29While Webb makes it past the halfway point, he doesn't get much further than that.
06:33Mapping out, well, he still has about 20 minutes left to go.
06:36In what's quite possibly one of the biggest breakfast challenges of them all, featured
06:45on Man vs. Food or otherwise, Season 6, Episode 10 sees Webb attempt the Classic Whale Sandwich
06:50Challenge at Spread Bagelry in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
06:54Two things make the Classic Whale Sandwich Challenge unique from typical Man vs. Food
06:58fare.
06:59The challenge is intended for three people, and the challenge had yet to be successfully
07:03completed at the time of filming.
07:05The Classic Whale Sandwich is a four-pound bagel, housing a whopping nine pounds of toppings
07:10— smoked salmon, white fish, cream cheese, tomato slices, raw red onions, and capers.
07:15Complicating matters further is a 30-minute time limit and a $250 price tag, for teams
07:21that don't finish.
07:22Webb and two Spread Bagelry regulars make solid progress on the gargantuan bagel through
07:26the first half of the challenge, but one of the regulars bows out with time to spare.
07:30With just five minutes to go, Webb estimates that only 20 percent of the Classic Whale
07:34remains.
07:35Even after Webb's teammate makes a surprise return, however, that last bit proves too
07:40formidable, as the clock strikes zero.
07:42If there's one factoid adventurous eaters should know about Elvis outside of his life
07:51as a rock star, it's that he had a thing for peanut butter, jelly, and bacon sandwiches.
07:56It wasn't Elvis who invented the combination, but he did help popularize the combo.
08:00One of his favorite versions was served at a restaurant in Denver known for its Fool's
08:04Gold Loaf, an entire loaf of bread sandwiching a jar's worth of peanut butter, a jar full
08:08of jam, and a pound of bacon.
08:11Webb attempts to eat a version of Elvis' favorite sandwich in Man vs. Food Season 8, Episode
08:155, at a Kansas City, Missouri brunch spot called Suck-A-Tash.
08:20The Fool's Gold Loaf at Suck-A-Tash is a bit different, utilizing almond butter and a homemade
08:24blueberry jam, as well as six eggs, six slices of cheese, and 12 slices of the requisite
08:30bacon.
08:31Diners must finish the loaf in 30 minutes, a time limit that proves difficult for Webb.
08:35Nevertheless, with less than a minute left on the clock, he downs his last bite of the
08:39sandwich, adding the Elvis challenge at Suck-A-Tash to his list of Man vs. Food victories.
08:44In a battle of Man vs. Food, Man won!
08:50In Season 8, Episode 6, Webb treks to Omaha, Nebraska, to try his hand at what Bailey's
08:55Breakfast and Lunch calls the Porkasaurus Challenge.
08:58At play is a plate loaded with a wide variety of breakfast foods that weighs in at three
09:02and a half pounds.
09:03Naturally, the pork in the Porkasaurus refers to a large amount of pork and pork-derived
09:08breakfast meats, like sausage, hot links, Canadian bacon, regular bacon, and ham.
09:13Accompanying that meat are a biscuit, eggs, toast, potatoes, gravy, and more.
09:18Everything must be downed in 30 minutes or less, and winners walk away with a commemorative
09:22t-shirt.
09:23While the plate lacks anything out of the ordinary, eating all of those breakfast staples
09:27in such large quantities unsurprisingly turns out to be a challenge for Webb.
09:32Eventually, he whittles his plate down to just some ham, sausage, and hash browns with
09:35five minutes left on the clock.
09:37However, the challenge ultimately proves too difficult, scoring a point in the win column
09:41for the mighty Porkasaurus.
09:47Season 8 Episode 12 features a food challenge at Old Timers Cafe in Red River, New Mexico
09:52that's plenty simple in theory, but absolutely daunting in practice.
09:57Competitors must finish a mere three pancakes, but each pancake boasts a formidable 15-inch
10:02diameter and weighs more than a pound.
10:04It's aptly called the Four Pound Pancake Challenge.
10:08Those up to the task of eating four pounds of pancakes have an hour to do so.
10:12In the 12 years prior to Webb's visit, only 50 customers were brave enough to take a stab
10:17at the Four Pound Pancake Challenge.
10:19Just two of them were successful, perhaps scaring some customers away as Old Timers
10:23Cafe's wall of shame, requiring anyone who fails the challenge to have their photo taken
10:28as they wash their pancake dish in the restaurant's kitchen.
10:31Unsurprisingly, even after finishing well over two of his three pancakes, Webb is unable
10:36to eat the four-pound platter in its entirety.
10:46After chaffing out with 16 minutes left on the clock, Webb earns his place on the wall
10:50of shame.
10:52Season 9 Episode 4 tasks Webb with completing the Corned Beef Omelette Challenge at the
10:57Egg Bistro in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
11:00In this challenge, ambitious eaters must finish a corned beef omelette, which weighs a grand
11:04total of three and a half pounds.
11:06As it turns out, Webb is the first diner to even attempt this challenge at the time this
11:10episode was made.
11:11The Egg Bistro prepares its gargantuan corned beef omelette with 16 ounces of corned beef,
11:2312 eggs, 10 slices of Swiss cheese, a generous helping of sauerkraut, and Thousand Island
11:28dressing.
11:29Rounding out the dish is a side serving of corned beef hash.
11:31Even with just 30 minutes on the clock, Webb is able to eat the whole thing with about
11:35a minute to spare.
11:37His prize is an outdated t-shirt reading,
11:39Keep Calm and Egg On.
11:41In Season 10 Episode 5, Webb makes a trip out to one of the cities responsible for some
11:46of the best clam chowder in the U.S., Newport, Rhode Island.
11:50There he tries his hand at the Hungry Monkey Cafe's Go Bananas Challenge.
11:53While no monkeys are harmed in the making of the episode, the same can't be said of
11:57Webb, who walks away from the ordeal uncomfortably full.
12:01But that's just another day at work for the Man vs. Food host.
12:03Challengers must finish a plate of French toast weighing four pounds, courtesy of ample
12:07helpings of cream cheese, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, whipped cream, powdered sugar,
12:13and maple syrup.
12:14And they only have 30 minutes to do it.
12:16Webb, it turns out, is the Go Bananas Challenge's very first contestant.
12:20Though the Hungry Monkey Cafe dared diners to finish a gargantuan omelette in years past,
12:25Webb clears about half of his plate in roughly half of his allotted time.
12:29But unsurprisingly, he starts to slow down after passing that halfway point.
12:33In the end, the clock strikes zero, while he has a good eight or nine slices of French
12:37toast remaining, proving that even trained stunt eaters just aren't meant to consume
12:41that much food.