Ranking The Best And Worst Man V. Food Challenges

There are some TV gigs where it's easy to sit on your couch and think "anybody could do that." "Man v. Food" is definitely not one of those TV jobs just anybody could do. From 2008-2011, Adam Richman crisscrossed the United States "in search of America's greatest pig out spots." (The show has carried on with a new host, but for the purposes of this article we're sticking with its original run.)

What made "Man v. Food" such fun was that Richman wasn't some super human competitive eater like Takeru Kobayashi or Joey Chestnut, but just a regular guy. There was no guarantee he was going to beat the challenges, but when he did, it was glorious.  

Some challenges of course were better than others, and some were even downright painful to watch. It's time to revisit some of the greatest glories and most crushing defeats in "Man v. Food" history. We'll look at what made some challenges so spectacular to watch, while others were nothing short of stomach-turning. On to the challenges!

Quantity challenges seemed to be especially tough for Adam Richman and by the end of many an episode he looked like he'd been put through the ringer. Going up against this sandwich at the Ohio Deli, Richman was given the task of eating a comically tall sandwich and pound of fries. In an interview with The Guardian, he discussed just how tough bread and potatoes can be. "If you do a quantity challenge, the problem you'd face would be a starchy challenge," he said. "If it has a lot of potatoes, a lot of bread or fried elements, that's difficult."

While the Dagwood match was far from the biggest challenge — it was actually one of his easiest — it lands on our list because it was pivotal for the success of the show. In an interview with "Bizarre Foods" host Andrew Zimmerman, Richman said it was a real learning experience. "This bout was the one that helped me realize the importance of a developing a specific game plan when tackling the challenges." If he hadn't stumbled upon a strategy and won this challenge early on, who knows, "MVF" could have been over and done with after a few episodes.  

Scarfing down 12 wings in just 10 minutes seems doable. In theory, one should be able to just shove them in their mouth and be done with it. The problem is that these wings were coated with 6 ounces of dried habanero pepper and out of the 9,000 people who have attempted the challenge, 80% failed (via YouTube). The good news is that Adam Richman wasn't one of those folks and won the challenge. So why include a challenge he completed in our "worst" category? Well, the sheer pain that he was in during and after the challenge is enough to make a person think twice about ever eating a hot wing again. If eating the wings wasn't bad enough, Richman had to lick the thick sauce from his fingers or be disqualified. 

Hey, at least it couldn't get any worse, right? Wrong. Upon finishing the wings and licking his fingers clean, Richman had to sit in tongue-searing pain for five minutes before he could extinguish the fire with a glass of milk. We'd like to tell you that's where the pain ended, but even after the challenge was over Richman was still pacing around behind the restaurant waiting for the burn to subside. "Those last five minutes almost killed me," he said. 

No free T-shirt is worth that sort of pain. 

The saying "things are bigger in Texas" is true to ridiculous proportions at this Texas steakhouse. The Big Texan is no stranger to food shows and has appeared on "The Great Food Truck Race" (via Facebook) and "No Reservations" via (YouTube). When this "Man v. Food" episode premiered though in 2008, Adam Richman was still a rookie in the food competition game.

The 72-ounce steak is the final boss of food challenges and competitors are only given an hour to eat it. If gnawing away at what probably seems like an entire cow wasn't daunting enough, Richman also had to consume a shrimp cocktail, baked potato, salad, and dinner roll (via Big Texan). On the plus side, the meal was free if he finished it all and didn't die. Woo-hoo!

Somehow, the food gods smiled upon Richman that day and he was able to finish not just the steak, but the full challenge without having a heart attack (via YouTube). How his jaw didn't dislocate from chewing all that beef is impressive, but the real miracle — he did it all in under 30 minutes. Holy cow!

Pancakes have been one of the most popular breakfast foods for ages, but they seem to feel like sandbags in your stomach. Adam Richman and the "Man v. Food" team traveled to Hawaii just to take on a stack of pancakes nearly as big as the Pacific Ocean. While jetting off to paradise just to eat breakfast isn't a bad gig, we're here to talk about pancakes, not tropical beaches.

Sure, 3 pounds of pancakes and a pound of toppings looks delicious, but let's be realistic, eating that many carbs doesn't seem humanly possible. It's certainly not going to do you any favors should you be foolish enough to go for a swim in the ocean. According to MAC 247's chef, the challenge has less than a 1% success rate (via YouTube). Unfortunately for Richman, he wasn't able to boost that success rate and halfway through hit a syrupy wall.

Should you find yourself at MAC 247, don't try and be the big kahuna by ordering this challenge, just get a short stack like a reasonable person. 

People seem to either love oysters or equate them to swallowing pure sea slime. Even the most passionate of oyster fans though would likely turn green at the idea of eating 180 of the slippery sea creatures (via YouTube). With so much good food in the city of New Orleans, sitting down to a plate of 15 dozen oysters seems like an exercise in stomach sickness. Nevertheless, that was the challenge that awaited Adam Richman and it took its toll on him.

Over 150 had tried and 28 people had succeeded when this episode premiered in 2009 and Richman was able to pound through the oysters and in the end, did indeed become a member of the 15 Dozen Club.

Proceed with caution though if you fancy yourself stepping up to the plate at Acme Oyster House. It pretty much ruined oysters for Richman. "After the oyster challenge, ... I think I may have had less than a dozen since," he later told the Daily Mirror. "It just turned me off." Any challenge that results in never again wanting to eat a food you once enjoyed is a most definitely a hard pass. 

Adam Richman has certainly faced down his share of spicy challengers over the years and been brought to his knees by as little as a single chicken wing, so how would he fare against a tuna roll?

The Hellfire is anything but your ordinary sushi challenge and participants must pass qualifier rounds of heat before they can even enter Kobe Sushi's seventh ring of fire (via Facebook). "The last qualifying round explodes in my mouth like a nuclear bomb," he said. It may be just a six-piece tuna roll, but with layers of Thai chilies lined throughout, it's definitely not a guppy of a challenge. "It looks like war paint," commented Richman. Fortunately, the challenge has no time limit and Richman was permitted to drink and eat whatever he wanted to offset the heat. 

Considering that Richman looked like he was about to spontaneously combust, it's pretty remarkable that he advanced to and finished the seventh ring of Hellfire. This challenge may not be one that the average sushi-lover would be up for trying, but it's certainly thrilling to watch Richman embrace a "no pain, no gain" mindset and forge on to victory. 

Adam Richman was no stranger to burgers while filming "Man v. Food," but none of them could hold a french fry to the behemoth he would go up against in Michigan. Known as the Absolutely Ridiculous Burger, it lived up to its name and clocked in at 190 pounds (via YouTube). With the title of "the biggest burger ever made" there was simply no way Richman would be able to defeat the goliath on his own. The solution: recruit a 40-person army of eaters to chew away at the beefy monster.

Despite having hockey players, firefighters, a KISS tribute act, and more fearless volunteers back him up, you can't help but watch this challenge and doubt they'll finish it before even a single bite is taken The fun of "Man v. Food" is that there's a real possibility that the host will beat his food challenger, but even with 40 people chowing down, they'd each have to eat nearly 5 pounds of burger. Those are some pretty poor odds. The entire room (and everyone watching) seemed to be glad when the challenge and their meat sweats came to an end with more than 30 pounds of food left, and frankly, we can't blame them.

Jumbo sandwiches and fiery hot wings were common fare on Adam Richman's "Man v. Food" travels. Reindeer sausage and Alaskan crab legs, however, not so much. The unique cuisine of this food challenge places it firmly in our "best of" category and in a Reddit AMA session, Richman even confessed that it was his favorite challenge in the entire series.

So what makes this challenge worth hitching a dog sled all the way up to Alaska? Well, that would be the 6-pound Alaskan feast that includes wild salmon cakes, grilled veggies, mashed potatoes, and the aforementioned crab legs and reindeer sausage (via YouTube). Oh, and dessert, because after eating three pounds of crab meat you need some ice cream to top it off.

Richman had 90-minutes to devour the meal fit for a camp of lumberjacks and none before him had been able to meet the challenge. After spending 15 minutes cracking open the crab legs before getting a single bite, Richman could have easily been doomed for defeat. Rather than go back to the lower 48 with his head hanging in shame, Richman pushed through to give the Kodiak Arrest its first win. 

Lactose has a way of taking down even the mightiest of men. Don't get us wrong, milkshakes are a wonderful thing, but five milkshakes in one-sitting?! Ugh. That definitely has the potential for a seriously messy disaster. For starters, according to HowStuffWorks, chugging a gallon of milk without vomiting is almost impossible. Our bodies can only break down so much calcium and lactose at once. Plus, most people can only hold about a half-gallon anything before their stomach turns against them. The five milkshakes that Adam Richman attempted to conquer definitely pushed past that mark.

The challenge that matched Adam against 120 ounces of milkshake in under 30 minutes didn't exactly have the greatest chances of success (via YouTube). Only 22 people at the time were able to rise above the inevitable brain freeze feat, and unfortunately, our "Man v. Food" host didn't become 23. After downing the last of his coffee milkshake, Richman headed to the bathroom and well, you can guess what followed. Any challenge that results in a man becoming a milk geyser certainly falls under the "worst" category. 

Alright, so we just ripped the Candy Crown Kitchen challenge that had Adam Richman trying to slurp down five milkshakes, so why put an ice cream challenge in the "best" category? Because everybody loves a good comeback story, that's why!

The Kitchen Sink ice cream challenge was a ridiculous 2-pound dessert that was loaded up with eight scoops of ice cream, plus toppings, and whipped cream (via YouTube). Only four people had succeeded at the time of filming, so the odds were definitely not in Richman's favor. Being able to pick the ice cream flavors had to be a plus, but a starchy strategy proved to be the real key to defeating this frozen giant.

After hitting a sugar overload, Richman seemed like he may have been down for the count, but then ordered fries to push back the sweetness. "I'm gonna wrestle it to the ground like a demon cobra," he said as he pushed forward and drank the last drops of melted ice cream. Some "MVF" challenges become a thing of legend and the Kitchen Sink is one of those challenges. 

Coming in at 855,000 to 1,041,427 Scoville heat units or 10 times hotter than a habanero pepper, the ghost chili is reportedly hot enough to possibly kill a person. Suddenly this challenge seems a bit scarier than habanero pepper wings, doesn't it?

Adam Richman didn't have the best track record when it came to spicy wing challenges. The Suicide Six Wing challenge in Brooklyn forced him to throw in the towel after a single bite (via YouTube). (Though he did later declare a rematch and emerge victorious.)

As for the wings at Munchies though, they proved to be straight from the fires of Hell. "It's the hottest thing I've ever eaten," he said during the challenge (via YouTube). After two wings, Richman said he was on the verge of passing out and opted to end the challenge with a glass of milk. The chef later admitted to putting an entire bottle of ghost chili extract on the wings, which explains why Richman later told Foodbeast that he felt like he "couldn't breath."  

If there was ever a "MVF" challenge that we wouldn't wish on our worst enemy, this would definitely be the one. 

The 5-pound Ultimate Cheesesteak Challenge gets a spot on the Best list because Adam Richman was the first person to go head-to-head with this beefy behemoth. For a chance to be the inaugural winner and be immortalized on the Wall of Fame, he had one hour to eat a 20-inch hoagie stuffed with five and a half pounds of meat, cheese, and onion. Luckily, it's one of his all-time favorite foods. "I don't see how anything can stop me from finishing this awesome sandwich," Richman said (via YouTube).

After 11 minutes in and 3 pounds gone, the cheesesteak decided to fight back. "The cheese turns to glue at a certain point ... the cheese stands alone, and it stands straight in my way of victory," Richman proclaimed. Within 19 minutes, Richman had finished a total of 4 pounds, and he was struggling. But Richman had one last trick up his sleeve: hot sauce. Eat Right confirms that adding an acidic element lifts flavor and can reawaken tired taste buds. Even though the cheese turned from gooey to glue-y, the change in flavor helped Richman shovel down the last few bites. He defeated the sandwich in 28 minutes, making Tony Luke's history and cementing himself as the first ever competitor and winner of the challenge.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so it's a good thing that there's no time limit for this challenge. According to the menu at Beth's Cafe, the egg-stravagant Southwestern Exposure omelette is made with 12 eggs, four slices of cheddar cheese, three ice cream-sized scoops of sour cream, beef brisket chili, salsa, and a brick-sized portion of hash browns ... plus a side of toast. "This is the breakfast of titans," Adam Richman said. "I'm convinced that Godzilla comes and occasionally snacks here." (via YouTube).

Richman was on cruise control and seemed to be enjoying the challenge a little too much, and at the 15-minute mark, he had less than a quarter of an omelette left on his serving tray. His competitor had barely made a dent. But with only 10 bites left, Richman suddenly hit a food wall. "I've never felt being stuffed in the back of my head," he told onlookers. "I think the food has crept up my back. It's like I have an airline pillow made of food right now."  After deciding that fresh air might be a possible remedy, Richman took a walk outside to clear his mind, admitting, "I'm trying to realistically figure out if I can do it ... it's pretty gnarly."

The night wore on, and, ultimately, he decided he just couldn't do it. Because Richman seriously underestimated the sheer size of this mEGGa-omelette, it gets a spot on the "worst" list.

Phaal curry, which was created as the result of a dare, combines 10 different chili peppers and totals 2.2 million Scoville (via Secret NYC). The fiery ghost pepper reaches around 1,000,000 on the Scoville scale, meaning Phaal curry is twice as spicy. When Adam Richman asked what the worst outcome of the Phaal Challenge was, Brick Lane Curry House co-owner Satinder "Sati" Sharma replied, "a person started bleeding from the nose." Even gas masks are required when cooking this dish because of the smoke. "When you breathe the air," Richman said, "it's like swallowing a porcupine." (via YouTube).

Richman was joined by two glasses of milk and a glass of mango lassi. According to Greatist, water and soda actually spread the heat because capsaicinoids are fat soluble. That's why dairy is ideal. With no time limit, and the knowledge that this challenge beats 90% of its rivals, Richman dug in. "There's so much of it, it's unrelenting, and it's beating me," he said as he unwittingly spread the burn all over his face by using his sauce-covered napkin. Even though he felt the heat inside and outside, Richman pushed on and finished the challenge. This makes the Best list because, even though he made the rookie mistake of wiping his face with a spicy napkin, he still came out victorious. Plus, he won a free beer.

This seemed to be one of the least daunting challenges of Adam Richman's competitive noshing career, though it's still more than the average Joe can consume. With over 300 challengers and only 30 victories at the time this episode aired, the victor received immortality on the winner's wall, and the $20 burger was free if finished within 20 minutes (via YouTube). 

As for what was between the buns of Lindy's OM*G Burger: Twelve quarter-pound Angus patties, each topped with Swiss or cheddar cheese, then smothered with diced onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and Lindy's special sauce. The one-foot meat stack is held together with a 14-inch skewer. Richman's ultimate strategy was not only speed, but to divide the burger into manageable sections. While he praised the burger's flavor, what really gave him a hard time was the repetitive chewing. After chewing for 14 straight minutes, his jaw was getting the ultimate workout. Then he hit the burger wall. "It's like I eat, and then it regenerates," Richman said with only two burgers left. Unfortunately, he didn't finish before the 20-minute mark, but at 44 minutes he declared victory.

The constant chewing is why this is considered one of the worst. According to UHealth, overuse of the jaw muscle by constant chewing can cause Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMD), which includes severe facial pain and popping of the jaw — it's likened to having a Charley horse in your face. No burger is worth that pain.

The Special No. 2 Red Hot Ramen Challenge wins a spot on the "best" list not just because Adam Richman (spoiler alert) won the challenge, but because unlike some of the other food challenges, it's actually an everyday dish on the Orochon Ramen menu. You pick your broth, toppings, and spice level. And for an extra $1.95, you can attempt the Special No. 2, which is made up of a secret blend of 10 different chilies. With no bathroom breaks, no ice cubes allowed in your lava bowl (according to the blog Hungry Tally), and only 30 minutes, the winner gets their photo on the Wall of Bravery.

With over 20,000 contenders and only a few hundred victors, Richman opted for a sensible strategy in tackling this 35-ounce bowl of soup: eat the noodles and veggies first, then the broth. "I'm just really trying to wait until the very end to tilt this bad boy back and knock all the lava into my face," he said. 

Richman was visibly hurting — and drooling — at the 15 minute mark, and not from the deliciousness of the soup. He hunkered down and drained the massive bowl then mumbled "my face is on fire and my stomach feels like a nuclear reactor on meltdown" (via YouTube). But he pulled through to beat the Red Hot Ramen Challenge, and, luckily, he didn't have to lick the bowl clean. 

Anything with burritos deserves to be on the Worst list. Having attempted three burrito challenges and surrendering to two of them, burritos are to Adam Richman like kryptonite is to Superman. But that didn't stop him from traveling to the NASCAR Cafe in Las Vegas, Nevada (previously located inside the Sahara Hotel-Casino) to take on the Big Badass Burrito Challenge, also known as the B3. According to Super Sized Meals, this 6-pound, 2-foot burrito — that's around the size of a newborn baby — had over 4,000 challengers and only three winners by 2009 when this episode aired. 

At 15 minutes in, he still had one-third of the burrito left. "Let's just see how far we can go," he said "You know, you climb Mount Everest because it's there. Here's the B3"  (via YouTube). Even with positive affirmations provided by a local psychotherapist/spectator, Richman was doubtful, since positive affirmations are not a recipe for instant success (via Healthline). Reluctantly, he raised the white flag after consuming a remarkable 5 pounds of burrito and declared, "I'm full of beef and beans, and I've run out of gas."  

Though the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the restaurant was demolished in 2013 as part of the Sahara's massive renovation, the B3 lives on as one of the most daunting burrito challenges Richman ever attempted. If he had owned this 90-minute challenge, Richman would have won the ubiquitous t-shirt, and earned unlimited roller coaster rides on the also now defunct, "Speed: The Ride."

The Four Horsemen are the symbolic messengers of the apocalypse (via Britannica). At Chunky's Burgers, the Horsemen represent the four painfully spicy peppers — jalapeño, serrano, habanero and the fiery ghost pepper — that ride on a burger. What makes it even more extreme is that competitors have 25 minutes to devour the burger, and then must wait five minutes without any dairy. (It's no wonder there is an age restriction and competitors need to sign a waiver.) Winners get their photo on Chunky's Wall of Flame.  

Adam Richman's strategy was to divide, conquer, and consume as quickly as possible. "I know that to pick up and destroy a whole hot burger at once would feel too daunting psychologically, and would get more of the sauce around my face," he said. In this battle between good and evil, Richman readied to take on the cheeseburger topped with jalapeños, a serrano, three ghost chilies, all smothered in fiery habanero sauce. "I ain't afraid of no ghost chili," he declared before taking one big bite and visibly regretting it. This was another challenge that he apparently underestimated. "I've just begun, and the four horsemen are dragging me to hell," Richman croaked. After six minutes, he only swallowed one bite, but knowing that if he defeated the horsemen, he would be one of the first four competitors to do so, he pushed on and finished the burger of doom. 

This challenge could have been an easy victory for Adam Richman, had he not made (another) poor judgment call. Like the Southwestern Exposure Challenge, this one had no time limit. Maybe besides burritos, having no time limit is also Richman's kryptonite. 

The Don Juan El Taco Grande challenge pitted man against eight three-quarter pound breakfast tacos filled with potato, egg, bacon and cheese (via Juan in a Million). There was no time limit, but you had to keep your keister in your seat — and that meant no bathroom breaks. "Within the last 12 years, thousands have tried, and they don't even come close," says founder and co-owner Juan P. Meza (via YouTube). 

Knowing he had no time limit, Richman started off with four tacos and seemed to be in good spirits, at least relative to other challenges where he had to scarf down as much as possible as quickly as possible. He ordered a fifth and then committed a grave "tactical error." Mid-competition, he decided to take a little siesta and even called his mom. After an hour had passed, Richman realized that he was really, really full. He forced down the fifth taco, and ordered one more, but begrudgingly threw in the towel, acknowledging "I literally bit off more than I can chew." Perhaps if he didn't take that little break, the challenge would have gone his way.  

We love all things cheesy, which is why this challenge easily earned a spot in our "best" category. At the time of filming in 2010, this four-pound sandwich of epic proportions had 14 different cheeses — smoked Gouda, sharp cheddar, cheddar jack, bleu cheese, creamy goat cheese, crumbly feta, Swiss, pepper jack, provolone, Muenster, American cheese, and Havarti (via YouTube). This greasy challenge also included a pile of fries and a coleslaw side. While there is no time limit, bathroom breaks are prohibited. Melt's website states that winners get a $10 gift card, t-shirt or pint glass, and eternal recognition on their wall of awesomeness.  

The restaurant's owner, Matt Fish, asked Adam Richman if he had any doubts about completing the challenge (via Melt Bar & Grilled).  "You can't really allow any doubt into your mind before you do a challenge like this," Richman said. "If you go in with any doubt, that challenge is going to find it ... you just have to take it one bite at a time and be positive every step of the way." Despite Richman's worry, they both seemed to know that he would be able to pull it off — which he did. By eating fries with every bite of sandwich, Richman finished in record time. 

This challenge deserved to be on the naughty list because it's Adam Richman's second least favorite challenge ever. (His most despised challenge is the "Fire in your Hole" chicken wing challenge at Munchies 420 Café in Sarasota, Florida.) When the episode aired in 2009, thousands of challengers had attempted to devour this pulled pork sandwich smothered with a habanero-based BBQ sauce, but only a mere 64 had unlocked victory status (via YouTube). To slay this one-pound porky beast, contestants had no time limit — which is a toss-up for Richman — and had to keep it down for a full five minutes without the aid of any other food that might kill the burn.  

Richman dove bite-first into the sandwich and was sweating like a pig only a few minutes in. The habanero BBQ sauce was so blisteringly hot that he was down half a roll of paper towels after only eating a quarter of the sandwich. This aggressive piggy lived up to its name. "Nothing helps," Richman said, "Each bite washes over me like a wave of white-hot heat." With speed as his only ally, Richman squeezed pieces of sandwich into his fist like little porky sandwich-capsules and finished the meal. After the final excruciating five minutes, he looked like he had run a marathon.

Considering the popularity of burritos, Man v. Food kept finding new places with overstuffed tortillas for Adam Richman to try and defeat. For this challenge, the four-pounder on its own would have been a worthy opponent for Richman, but he also had to take down the Gigante's tag-team partners: a half pound of banana pudding and a half pound of mac n' cheese.

Nobody had ever entered the ring with the Gigante and come out a winner. Simply conquering Gigante and winning his first burrito challenge would be enough to land Richman major "MVF" accolades. He took things a step further, however, and devoured half the burrito just five minutes into the hour-long challenge. Perhaps it was losing those other burrito challenges, but Richman made sure "not to let painful history repeat itself." Watching this challenge you can't help but root along with the Tennessee crowd as he becomes Gigante's only victor, just 29 minutes in.