The road to devouring 40 rotisserie chickens in 40 days wasn’t a glamorous one, but at least there was a red carpet.
Known online as the “Philadelphia Chicken Man,” Alexander Tominsky, 31, made a self-imposed pledge to eat 40 entire chickens across 40 consecutive days.
On Sunday, to the tune of Bruce Springsteen’s Streets of Philadelphia and surrounded by dozens of cheering Philadelphians, Tominsky completed his food challenge.
Tominsky, who received a fair share of viral fame and attention for his daily chicken consumption, tweeted an open invitation to watch him gorge on his final rotisserie chicken.
He called for interested spectators to watch him eat the chicken “on that abandoned pier near Walmart.” He was sure to specify that the occasion was “not a party.”
The Philadelphia Chicken Man also reportedly advertised the old-fashioned way, by stapling paper notices onto phone poles in the local area.
Tominsky rolled out a literal red carpet that led to a cloth-clad makeshift table. There, the bearded man in a white tank top ate his 40th rotisserie chicken.
On the opposite end of the pier, behind a band of caution tape on the ground, eager supporters watched on. According to the New York Times, the crowd chanted “Eat that bird!” as Tominsky chowed down.
Once he was victorious, Tominsky joined the crowd and held the now-empty, greasy rotisserie chicken container over his head. As if it were the winning goal in a nail-biting sports match, the crowd went wild.
Since Day 11, Tominsky has been documenting the challenge online. Though he is seen smiling or being playful in the initial few photos, by the end, there is less light in his eyes.
The challenge was originally 30 days long, but the Philadelphia Chicken Man told the New York Times he added an extra 10 days “because it felt right.”
Tominsky told the New York Times he began the challenge as a way to make other people smile, even if it was through his own pain.
“This is just a little bit of an inconvenience and a sacrifice for the joy that it seems to be bringing people,” he told the outlet.
The inconvenience and sacrifice, he said, came in the form of bloating from too much sodium and an intense, developed disgust for rotisserie chicken.
By Day 11, he said he was struggling to stomach the bird. The once-20-minute-long feast turned into a two-hour ordeal where he would chew the meat to a pulp and swallow it with water.
He claimed to have lost about 16 pounds throughout the challenge, as often the chicken was his only meal in the day.
He told the New York Times that if he had died attempting to complete the challenge, he “would have been OK with the sacrifice.”
Tominsky told Newsweek he would “never eat another rotisserie chicken” ever again. He did, however, make sure to celebrate his triumphant victory with a beer or two.
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