Tokyo television sizes up big eater

A Pasco man has the chance to win $50,000 on a show that will pit his appetite against international competition.

By MATTHEW WAITE

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 31, 2001

Faced with a concept turning stale, producers of the Japanese TV show Food Battle Club are foraging for world-class appetites. In was only a matter of time before the search led to Pasco County.

Bob Middleton eats here.

Buffet managers and St. Petersburg Times readers will recall the 40-year old Middleton, who in April ran afoul of the all-you-can-eat China Dragon Buffet for, yes, eating too much.

His story has become part comedy bit, part urban legend. He has been on radio stations from Tampa to Phoenix and gets calls to make appearances.

This month, his story was retold in the tabloid Weekly World News, and he still introduces himself as "the Buffet King."

And now he has the chance to be on the Tokyo Broadcasting System show that will pit him against their home-grown talent and other world appetites. On the line: gut supremacy and $50,000.

"A chance to win $50,000 and go to Japan? Sign me up," Middleton said Monday after being contacted by the show's coordinators.

Middleton's dislike of sushi probably won't hurt him. Last year, the producers brought out a woman from Los Angeles who had won a local contest there to be on the show. She and another foreigner were given a first-round bye -- the sushi speed-eating contest.

The next round was more to Middleton's liking: buffet style gluttony.

Mazu Kikkawa, a coordinator for Global Photo Associates in Los Angeles hired by the station to find American gluttons, said that before the contestants start eating, each is weighed, and each weighed again after chowing down. The difference in weight determines who goes on.

The winner gets money. The loser, well, that isn't shown on television.

This might sound awful to exercise-and-diet obsessed Americans, but in Japan, food is much, much more than mere sustenance. Cooking shows are among the highest-rated programs.

Two years ago, the station ran a two-hour show called Tournament of the Gluttons, which, just like it sounds, had a dozen folks eat until, well, it came back up, and until there was only one left.

More evidence of Japan's obsession with food is the attention given to Takeru Kobayashi, a 131-pound kid from Nagano, Japan, who ate a stunning 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes on July 4. He was the fourth Japanese national in five years to win the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest in New York.

He's known as "the Prince" back home.

"He's pretty much a VIP in Japan," said Tomo Moribe, a coordinator with Top Spin Creative Corp., also working with the station.

The feat was enough to impress Middleton, who with another man ate 25 pounds of crab legs in an eating contest at a local radio station.

"I can eat, but I can't do that," he said. "I'm not a big hot dog fan anyway. I couldn't eat 50 hot dogs in a month.

"But crab legs. Crab legs I can eat."

Moribe said the production companies will most likely send a film crew to Middleton's Port Richey home and record a sort-of audition tape. If the Japanese producers like his "personality and lifestyle," he might be on the show, Moribe said.

Personality Middleton's got.

He has treated his short stint in the spotlight as a chance to make some money. He has called diet product companies and offered to make his story a marketing pitch for them. He tried to get on late night television shows.

But one thing he hasn't done is make his doctor happy. Middleton's got a back injury, and his weight doesn't help it. So he has been trying to watch his diet, which doesn't help his chances.

"I'll have to get back into buffet form."

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