Don Lerman (born March 22, 1949) is an American retired
competitive eater
Competitive eating, or speed eating, is an activity in which participants compete against each other to eat large quantities of food, usually in a short time period. Contests are typically eight to ten minutes long, although some competitions c ...
who set multiple records for eating butter, beans, bologna, and burgers. He has several nicknames, Moses, Don Lerman"All American" including "The Fastest Hands in Competitive Eating", "Gustoff Zhychick" or and "90-Year-Old Don Lerman."
Life
Don Lerman was born in
Brooklyn New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...
, in 1949.
As a child, Lerman ate nearly everything available.
Before becoming a competitive eater, Lerman owned & operated his own day-old bread store.
[
In 2000, Lerman saw that a local Kosher Delicatessen holding a Matzah Ball Eating Contest and entered. He won that competition, and become "hooked" on eating contests. He scanned the internet for several eating contests, and attended several others regardless of the price.][
Lerman has set several records. He ate seven quarter-pound sticks of salted butter in five minutes, a feat that was included on Bleacher Report's "Top 10 Unbreakable and Disgusting Competitive Eating ppRecords". Lerman has also eaten of baked beans in one minute and 48 seconds, of pork and chicken bologna in six minutes, and 11 burgers in ten minutes.
Lerman often attended eating events dressed as Moses, which was his persona of choice.][ Other costumes Lerman was known to dress up in included those of cowboys and gangsters.][ He continued to compete infrequently,][ however, he eventually permanently retired feeling he was unable to keep up with modern professional eaters.]Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
.[ Lerman is credited with inventing the "water method", where one drinks water to expand their stomach. Lerman stated that this allows for the stomach to hold more food.][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lerman, Don
1949 births
Living people
American competitive eaters
People from Levittown, New York