Man v. Food Nation Season 4 Episode 18: St. Paul Minnesota
Adam heads to St. Paul Minnesota to Tin Cup restaurant to mentor MVFN member and law school graduate Jon Wolf as he takes on the Lucy Challenge. Jon must eat 2 spicy Juicy Lucy’s weighing 1 pound each, along with 2 pounds of fries in 45 minutes to beat the challenge. Adam discovers that the Lucy Challenge is a daunting one with a 99% failure rate.
Adam’s first stop is Punch Neapolitan Pizza, famed for their authentic Italian pizzas. Adam learns Punch Neapolitan Pizza makes their pizza the very same way as the original pizzas were created in Naples years ago, garnering the restaurant an authentic Vera Pizza Napolitana (V.P.N.) certification. Adam heads to the kitchen to watch the chef make a Margherita pizza prepared the traditional way, using San Marzano tomato sauce, fresh basil, olive oil, and buffalo mozzarella cheese, then cooked in an 800-degree (F) wood-burning oven for 90 seconds. Adam takes a bite of the luscious pizza and sees why they are known for their Naples style pizzas.
Next Adam heads to The Rack Shack, where they do BBQ right. Adam meets the chef in the kitchen to see how the Hobo is made. This stuffed potato is baked then piled high with pulled pork, beef brisket, and side dishes of beans, corn bake, jalapeño macaroni and cheese, and blue cheese-bacon coleslaw. Adam digs into the massive baked potato and is enthralled with the delicious taste of BBQ and potato in one.
Adam meets up with Jon Wolf at Tin Cup to begin the Lucy Challenge. Jon has another reason to win the challenge, his long-time crush Melissa is in the audience. Jon hopes by winning the challenge he can convince Melissa to go out with him.
Adam visits the kitchen to watch as the Lucy Challenge is made. The chef cooks up two spicy Lucifer burgers, stuffed with jalapeno peppers and Pepper Jack cheese, then doused in Lucifer sauce, a mixture of BBQ sauce, jalapenos, and hot sauce. As if that isn’t enough the challenge includes 2 pounds of french fries, making the Lucy Challenge a whopping 4 pounds of food that must be consumed in a mere 45 minutes.
The montage is a Breakfast Club-themed fantasy, with Adam advising Jon to keep moving, eat fast, and use a strategy of combining the fries with the burgers while eating.
Adam and the crowd watches as Jon prepares to begin the Lucy Challenge. Jon’s first bite shocks him as he realizes how firey hot the burgers are. Jon’s strategy is to pull apart the burgers to eat them faster. Jon incorporates Adam’s suggestion of eating fries with the spicy burger. Jon downs the first burger in only 10 minutes, impressing Adam.
At 20 minutes into the challenge Jon is halfway through the mound of food but suddenly hits the food wall. Adam tells Jon to get up and move around to help the food go down. As Jon struggles with the thought of eating more burger, Melissa comes up to him and gives him a kiss on the cheek. Jon is inspired by Melissa and drenches his burger and fries with ketchup to help flavor the food and make it go down faster. As Jon comes up on the 45 minute mark he manages to complete the burger and fries with 2 minutes to spare!
Adam announces that today, in the battle between man and food, man definitely won, and presents Jon with an official Man v. Food Nation title belt. Adam grins as Jon basks in the glow of finally obtaining his wish to go out on a date with Melissa.
