Masubuchi delivers on promise to win fried chicken eating contest at ‘Taste’

The top three winners of Taste of the Marianas’ fried chicken eating competition pose for a photo. From left, second place winner Kelvin Fitial, first place winner Sachiyo Masubuchi, and third place winner Zach Johnson. (Contributed Photo)

Petite Japanese celebrity Sachiyo Masubuchi dominated the Taste of the Marianas’ first fried chicken eating competition, as publicized. The 10 competitors that challenged Masubuchi did not stand a chance against her mighty stomach.

Consuming about 18 pieces of deep-fried J’s Restaurant fried chicken in 30 minutes, Masubuchi was awarded the J’s Restaurant’s Fried Chicken Eating Competition championship. Along with her title came a $300 consolation prize. Had she eaten all 30 pieces, she would have gotten the $1,000 first prize.

Masubuchi did not even break a sweat as she ate her way through three boxes of fried chicken thighs and legs. According to her, her strategy was just to enjoy her food, and take bigger bites, and chew thoroughly.

According to Masubushi’s translator, Masubuchi really enjoyed the event and she was really happy that the entire audience enjoyed it as well.

This competition was Masubuchi’s first overseas eating competition, but she has participated in numerous eating events within Japan.

Her trip to Saipan was her first; she hopes to return and promised to tell more people about Saipan.

Coming in at second place and eating over two whole boxes of fried chicken was Kelvin Fitial, who was awarded a consolation prize of $200.

Completing the top three was Taste’s burrito eating competition champ Zach Johnson, who was awarded a consolation prize of $100.

According to Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Chris Concepcion, he was pleased with the amount of people who came out to watch the competition and enjoyed all that Taste of the Marianas had to offer. Last Saturday’s crowd could have possibly been the biggest crowd seen in Taste of the Marianas’ history.

“I was amazed and very pleased with the huge crowd…tonight’s crowd was probably the biggest ever seen at the taste of the Marianas,” he said.

Concepcion said the idea of the fried chicken eating competition was inspired by some of the competitions he has witnessed overseas.

“…The idea came about through some of the things I’ve seen overseas…and we wanted to bring a real world-class food challenge to the CNMI so this is the first big one that we had,” he said.

Concepcion said the competition was made possible through the hard work of his MVA team and the support of J’s Restaurant, which provided over 300 pieces of chicken.

“I really thank my hardworking team for putting this competition together. It was a lot of work…we’re very happy with the turnout, we’re pleased with our celebrity that we flew in from Japan to take part in it,” he said.