Competitive Eater offers Food for Thought

Some people have called Juliet Lee "The Gurgitator."

That's because the Germantown resident is a professional competitive eater. But lately, Lee's svelte figure and pretty face have been getting about as much attention as her swift eating at the competition table — which bothers her. 

"Somehow, I give people this first impression," said Lee, who is 42."People talk to me like I’m 7 years old. The ones who know me,  know I’m a very mature person. I’m deep thinking."

Lee and I met at Pelican Pete's in Germantown.  To be honest, I expected this interviewee to order a plate of something big and garish. I expected her to live up to all that I had read — "The Lovely Juliet Lee," destroyer of food, The Gurgitator, the so-called "Sexy Competitive Eater," the formidable 105-pound opponent who can devour seven chicken wings, a pound of nachos, three hotdogs, two personal pizzas and three Italian ices in 7 minutes and 13 seconds, which she had done at a tournament in 2008.

What I got was ordinary — ordinary in a good way, though.

Lee is a protective mother of two high school-age daughters, the wife of a doting husband, a small business owner and a Buddhist. She used to teach chemistry at Nanjing University in China, and if she's watching TV, it's on one of three channels. CNN, CNBC or Bloomberg,  Lee said. 

"Competitive eating is a habit, a vacation," said Lee, who spoke from behind a sweating glass of ice water. 

Lee had arrived late to the interview, but her lateness was fashionable. She is a salon owner who takes clients at senior citizen communities on Saturdays. Lee had stopped by Pelican's once she finished.  She and the waitstaff at Pelican Pete's were on a first-name basis not because she was a celebrity, but because she was a "regular" and a fan of Pelican's seafood. 

She didn't take many sips of her water during the half-hour interview with Patch, nor did she order any food. 

"Honestly, I don’t like people to know me much," Lee said with poise. Long jet black hair framed her youthful face, which was made even more youthful when she smiled.

"I want everything private," she said. "But with the things I’m doing, I have no choice."

Lee became a professional competitive eater in 2006 after winning a local amateur food eating contest. She hasn't stopped since. 

She belongs to the International Federation of Competitive Eating and most recently placed second at Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island, where she ate 29.5 hotdogs and buns. The contest winner was the so-called  "Black Widow" of competitive eating, Sonya Thomas, of Alexandria, Va. Thomas ate 40 hotdogs, according to the official results. 

Lee said that there is no magic formula when it comes to eating for sport. Her strategy is simple. 

"Either you can eat it or you cannot," she said.

This talent is innate. You can't strategize your way through 29.5 hot dogs. In fact, Lee was always known as the big eater as a child growing up on the cold northern shores of China.

"If you’re a girl, you’re not supposed to eat that much," she said. "It's sort of like that movie 'Gone With the Wind.' Scarlett O'Hara goes to parties, but a young lady always has to eat before she goes, so she eats like a lady at the party."

So what does a competitive eater eat outside of competition? Lots of seafood and lots of vegetables, Lee said. She shops at LOTTE Plaza, the Asian market in Germantown where she says they've got good seafood. Meat is the only thing that is beginning to repulse her.

"Maybe I eat too much meat for competition," she said. 

The drawbacks of being a competitive eater go beyond indigestion, though.

Lee said she's grown weary of the silly nicknames, people asking her how she manages to stay so thin despite being a competitive eater. And when she goes out to eat at area restaurants, the fact that people who don't know her ask her the same sets of questions and have the expectation that she'll eat something crazy have begun to get old. 

But there are the perks, she said, like traveling the world and the high one gets from competing at something and winning — welcome escapes from the stress of running of a business, and being a good mother and wife in the suburbs of D.C.

"It’s a little hard. Sometimes it can be stressful — meditation comes in handy," said Lee. "Everything I do, I work fast, I eat fast, I cook fast. I do things very fast. Sometimes, it is hard to try to get everything done, but I still try to find the time."