Holy guacamole! Joey Chestnut downs 14.5 burritos to win Qdoba's first world championship in Deer District

When Milwaukeean Brittany Kachingwe, a lifelong Joey Chestnut fan, found out the top-ranked competitive eater was coming to Milwaukee, she said she dropped her phone and "screamed of excitement."

For the past few years, Kachingwe has traveled around to see Chestnut compete. She'll be attending the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, which Chestnut has won 15 times, for the first time this summer.

On Thursday, National Burrito Day, Chestnut and seven other competitive eaters took part in the first-ever Qdoba World Burrito Eating Championship in The Beer Garden in Deer District. And, Kachingwe couldn't "pass up a chance to see him."

"Joey's gonna win," she said ahead of the competition. "Joey's gonna crush it."

Kachingwe was right.

Though Chestnut got off to a slower start than he would've liked and was battling it out with Geoff Esper, Chestnut pulled out the victory. He ate a whopping 14.5 Qdoba burritos in 10 minutes, walking away with the World Burrito Eating Champion belt and a $5,000 giant check.

And, not to mention, he avenged his 2018 loss in the Wisconsin State Fair Cheese Curd Eating Championship.

"I'm feeling pretty good," Chestnut said. "I feel like I could've eaten more if I needed to, but I'm happy I got the win."

Chestnut is ranked the No. 1 competitive eater by Major League Eating and holds at least 55 world records, according to MLE's website. One of those records is in the category of "burritos, longform" for eating 14.5 pounds of burritos in 10 minutes at Illegal Pete's Burritos in 2016.

Throughout the competition, chants of "Joey! Joey! Joey!" rang out. Chestnut said the fans motivate him to "push it to the limit."

Chestnut said he could tell that the fans were worried when he was eating slower than expected at the beginning. But he said he tried to remain calm, breathe and not worry.

"Then they saw I was closing the gap, they got amped up and it amped me up even more. And I was able to just get the win," Chestnut said.

How the other competitors performed

At Thursday's contest, Esper ended up in second place, eating 13.5 burritos, and Miki Sudo took third, with 11.25 burritos.

Nick Wehry came in fourth with 10.5 burritos eaten, and Pat Bertoletti finished fifth, having eaten 9.25 burritos.

Peter Klepacz, Eric Hucke and Joe Valdez all ate 3.75 burritos each.

"I'm really impressed we got so many great eaters to come out," said Richard Shea, president of Major League Eating, which sanctioned the contest. "We have the one, two, three and fourth ranked eater in the world in Milwaukee today."

MLE ranks Esper No. 2, Sudo No. 3 and Wehry No. 4.

This competition also marked the start of the Major League Eating circuit, which runs through the fall.

How Joey Chestnut prepared for the competition

The last time Chestnut ate prior to the championship was "a little bit" of salad on Wednesday. Otherwise, he was on a liquid protein diet Wednesday until the Thursday contest.

The World Burrito Eating Championship Burrito featured chicken, cilantro lime rice, black beans, three-cheese queso, roasted tomato salsa and guacamole.

After his performance, Chestnut said he was expecting to "be lethargic and want to go to sleep." The rest of the day, he was planning to stick to a few beers and water. He said he'll eat healthy tomorrow.

Chestnut did multiple practices ahead of the competition. He needs about five days to a week between practices to give his body time to recover.

Before each practice, he goes through a cleanse period of drinking lemon juice and water so that he's "empty and loose," as well as hungry.

When practice time comes, he lines up burritos, sets up a timer and gets "all amped up and ready to eat." Then it's go time.

So, just what makes Chestnut the best? He said a couple of his own theories include having a long torso and growing up a big eater.

It was this Milwaukee attorney's first official eating competition

While Chestnut is a seasoned pro, this was Milwaukee attorney Peter Klepacz's first official eating competition ever. He applied online and got picked.

"I was stoked," Klepacz said. "I've always seen it on TV, the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Competition and whatnot. So being alongside Joey Chestnut and trying to do his thing was a lot of fun."

While Klepacz almost lost it — and you know what we mean by "it" — at one point, he was able to drink some water, keep the burritos down and continue on.

"Just pushing your body to the limit is pretty cool to see," he said.

He ended up getting down 3.75 burritos in the 10 minutes.

"I thought I was gonna be able to take more down," he said. "Definitely full. But it was fun. Props to Joey for taking down 14.5. That's ridiculous."

Prior to this competition, Klepacz said he's done fun food challenges with buddies, such as attempting to eat 100 chicken nuggets.

But, will he do another competitive eating championship like this again? "We'll see," he said. He might go after restaurant-eating competitions next.

More: A guide to Deer District restaurants and bars around Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee

How the competition came to Milwaukee

Milwaukee Bucks executives met with Qdoba a couple months ago "wondering how we could engage with them" and with National Burrito Day, according to Michael Belot, senior vice president of the Bucks. The result? Deer District playing host to Qdoba's brand-new burrito-eating competition on the holiday.

"Deer District is Milwaukee's gathering place," Belot said. "Not only is it known for Bucks playoffs, but I think really anything Milwaukee in all things. We like to have the best and the biggest, and that's what this is."

Belot said the competition was "a great first step" in attracting more events like this in the future.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Joey Chestnut wins Qdoba World Burrito Eating Championship, Milwaukee