The first time I heard of Michelle Lesco was an account of an eating challenge near Phoenix. It said she stopped just shy of finishing to make little houses out of her remaining fries to mock the men who had fallen far behind. She, of course, won the competition, despite the fact that she weighs about 115 pounds.
Then she finished the OMFG challenge at Lindy’s — which, eyewitnesses tell me clobbered Adam Richmann of Man V. Food, despite how the video made it look — and then she finished it again, but this time the buns had been replaced with grilled-cheese sandwiches. I'm pretty sure she finished it on several other occassions as well.
She surfaced again when she finished the Sugar O.D. Challenge at Something Sweet Dessert Lounge, and she had a salad beforehand. This put the girl, who goes by the cryptic moniker “Cardboard Shell,” in the league of gods or superhumans in my book.
Then she went and dominated a Nathan's Hot Dog's qualifier, but failed to win the main competition in Coney Island, which you can read about on her blog. It's under the heading "Gobbling Wieners." The Shell, it could be said, is not without a sense of humor.
The only other thing that has taken her down was a ridiculous eating challenge at Boca that included eating like 17 tacos and a one-pound loaded baked potato.
And now, it appears she has also demolished the Hog Trough Challenge at the Hog Pit Smokehouse out on Tanque Verde. This challenge has decimated many, many diners. From the account on the Hog Pit’s Facebook page:
It finally happened. Yesterday a petite female came in to try the HOG TROUGH CHALLENGE and astonished everyone in the place. Not only is she the ONLY one to complete the task, she completed the task in a record time of 12:40, thats right just over the half way mark of the alloted time of 25 minutes required. Congrats MICHELLE CLESCO!!! Your fame will be remembered at the HOG PIT!!
They spelled her name wrong, but we all know who they’re talking about. Cardboard Shell is unstoppable.
