Alum Upsets Champ in Spinach Eat-Off

Gretchen M. Salyer ’05 ate 2.73 pounds of Popeye’s favorite last night—and earned a World Wrestling Federation-style winner’s belt and one year of free meals at Harvard Square restaurant b.good.

In winning the 3rd Annual Garlicky Greens Eating Contest, the former varsity coxswain for the Radcliffe women’s crew team defeated reigning champion John Pepper, a man significantly larger than she.

Salyer got her start in competitive eating by winning a Krispy Kreme-eating contest during her junior year.

“Garlicky greens is not something people competitively eat with,” said Anthony S. Ackil ’99, one of b.good’s owners. “We really like seeing people eat a lot.”

Though a sign on the wall in the back of the restaurant touts that customers will leave with “no post-meal guilt,” 11 competitors gathered before a crowd of family, fans, and unknowing customers to eat as much of a huge plastic bowl full of greens as possible in five minutes.

“It’s basically the grossest thing that we serve,” Ackil said about the garlicky greens—consisting of spinach sautéed with olive oil, garlic, and salt—which normally adorn the b.good burger and the Venetian veggie burger. “It’s really slimy.”

In the 15 minutes before 7 p.m., the restaurant transformed itself from a mellow Cambridge burger joint into a competitive arena filled with cheering fans and music.

B.good distributed free burgers during the hourlong contest.

With the likes of “Heartbreak Heidi” (Heidi E. Kim ’09), “The Ching Chow Constrictor,” “B-Ravenous,” and “The Earth Smother,” the contest was ironically reminiscent of a hot dog or buffalo wing-eating contest.

Said contestant “Miss Mary Smack” of Allston: “I am an eating machine.”

Cheering her on was her roller derby team, garbed in matching red and white mesh tank tops. “Smack” refused to reveal her real name.

Harvard Business School (HBS) student Ryan W. Kauppila, a.k.a. “Antioxidant,” looked and acted like a football player before a championship game.

Kauppila won a Twinkie-eating contest at HBS last year.

“I prefer synthetic artificial foods, but that wasn’t an option today,” he said. “If I lose I’ve promised my friends that I’m not taking a crap for a month.”