Miki Sudo once ate 69 1/2 tacos in eight minutes.
That feat, performed six years ago, earned Suko second place at the Pacific Park World Taco Eating Championship behind Joey Chestnut, who consumed 82.
On Saturday, Sudo will dive into a platter of bean and cheese tacos at the Taco Cabana World Taco Eating Championship, hoping to win a $10,000 cash prize. The 10-minute competition begins at noon at Taco Cabana, 1253 Austin Highway, and is open to the pubic for viewing.
Sudo, 40, is the top-ranked woman in Major League Eating (MLE), a professional circuit that holds approximately 70 competitions a year, including the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on the Fourth of July.
Her competition on Saturday includes Geoffrey Esper and James Webb, MLE’s No. 3 and No. 4 ranked eaters, respectively, and seven other registered eaters. MLE’s No. 1-ranked eater, Chestnut, will not be competing.
Sudo almost always competes against men and often against Chestnut. She is MLE’s No. 5 ranked eater, one spot ahead of her husband, Nick Wehry, and holds multiple world records, including kimchi (8 ½ pounds in six minutes), wild rice hotdish (14 pounds in eight minutes) and ice cream (16 ½ pints in six minutes).
“This is my job,” said Sudo, who lives in Tampa. “I’ve been doing this professionally since April 2013. It’s been my only income for the past decade. I get to travel, meet a lot of cool people, entertain them and pay my bills.”
Saturday’s event will bring a Guinness World Records adjudicator to certify a potential record for most soft-shell tacos consumed in 10 minutes.
Taco Cabana President and COO Ulyses Camacho said the Tex-Mex chain wanted to do something bold to celebrate its 47th anniversary.
“With the excitement of an official Guinness World Records attempt, it’s more than a competition,” Camacho said. “It’s a celebration of our history, our guests and the vibrant Texas spirit that has fueled us for nearly five decades.”
An adventurous spirit led Sudo into competitive eating. Fifteen years ago, a Chinatown Las Vegas restaurant offered $1,500 to anyone who could finish a 12-pound bowl of Vietnamese noodles. Sudo accepted the challenge and won. She won more challenges and cash and her image began appearing on billboards.
“I thought this was the greatest thing ever,” Sudo said. “People said, ‘You should do Nathan’s.’ I thought I could get at least second but I ended up winning my first year out. It’s been a crazy, fun journey.”
An 11-time women’s champion at Nathan’s, Sudo set the MLE women’s record in 2024, eating 51 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs and Buns in 10 minutes.
“I can basically swallow hot dogs whole,” she said. “Anything that requires chewing or tearing, that’s when I fall short to my competitors.”
Six years ago, Sudo met her husband at a hotel gym, where they were staying for an eating competition. Three years later, Wehry, a former competitive bodybuilder, consumed a world-record 50 hard boiled eggs in three minutes and four seconds at the DraftKings Red Carpet Film Feast in Las Vegas. To celebrate, he dropped to one knee and proposed.
Sudo elicits looks of wonder. She stands 5-foot-7, weighs 135 pounds and is often asked: How do you eat record amounts of food and stay so lean?
“My normal diet is healthy and boring,” she said by phone on Wednesday. “I’m literally standing in ‘Sprouts’ right now, picking up spinach, broccoli, boneless chicken breast and peaches. We eat healthy stuff on a regular basis. The contest is when people see you for 10 minutes. I only compete in 15 shows a year.”
This weekend’s competition marks one of them. Sudo has never competed in a bean and cheese taco event but imagines it will be similar to a tamale-eating competition. In 2015, she won the Western Days Festival World Tamale Eating Championship, consuming 61 in 12 minutes.
Can she beat the competition on Saturday and set a world record?
“I would love to,” she said.
