CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Mayor David Cassetti and winner Manny Cambra.
ANSONIA — Bodybuilder Manny “The Manimal” Cambra went into full feast-mode Tuesday as he reclaimed his gold crown during the city’s annual Fat Tuesday paczki-eating contest.
Cambra, of Middletown, emerged the victor after scoffing down 11 and a half over-stuffed doughnuts — known as paczkis — during an eating contest held at the Ansonia Armory. Cambra was previously crowned paczki king in 2015 and 2016.
With safety in mind during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, nine brave souls sporting face masks and empty stomachs entered the Armory shortly before 9 a.m. and took their seats at socially-distanced tables in the gymnasium.
Atop colorful tablecloths strewn with confetti sat boxes of the plump paczkis filled with the likes of jelly, apples, Bavarian cream and lemon. A stash of water bottles stood at the ready to help the contestant wash down the confections.
Once Mayor David Cassetti proclaimed, “ready, set, eat,” the contestants went to work, choking back one paczki after another.
All of the contestants had their own eating styles.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The contestants!
The city’s new Chief Financial Officer, former Seymour First Selectman Kurt Miller, took a slow and steady approach, managing to eat two and half Bavarian cream and jelly filled paczkis.
Miller later admitted the sugar-infused treats felt like “lead blobs in my stomach.”
Anthony Marini, 11, the son of city Corporation Counsel John Marini and the youngest contestant, got a fast start, but quickly realized his “stomach couldn’t keep up.” Regardless,
Anthony, who scarfed down two, said he was happy to take his uneaten packzis back to school for a snack later.
It was Cambra, however, with his methodical style of small bites to large gulps of water in between that nobody could beat. Cambra said there’s no secrets to his success.
“I’m feeling fat on Fat Tuesday,” quipped the man with the bulging biceps. “I’ve come to realize that being able to eat copious amounts of food in a limited time seems to be a God-given talent. For me, it’s just my ability to push my body past its limits.”
Cambra is no stranger to entering eating contests, having most recently nabbed a championship title at a New Hampshire seafood fest, downing 21 lobster rolls in 10 minutes.
“I enjoy these contests because of the competition,” he said. “It’s the high I get from competing that keeps me coming back. The butterflies before the contest, the adrenaline rush during the competition, and then hopefully the rewarding feeling of accomplishment at the end when I win.”
Capturing second place finish was Aldermanic President Josh Shuart, who stuffed back six paczkis.
Alderman Joe Cassetti and Ellis Ings tied for third place, finishing four paczkis each. The winners walked away with $100, $50 and $25 gift cards to downtown restaurants.
Shuart was pleased with his performance, despite taking in “10 billion times your daily recommended sugar” intake.
“My only preparation was to skip breakfast,” Shuart said. “I was no match for “The Manimal.”
The contest took a brief hiatus in 2019 when the former venue, Eddy’s Bake Shop, where the gluttonous fest annually occurred, closed.
Cassetti and his team decided to resurrect the event this year to usher in the day before Lent, and have some Fat Tuesday fun- Mardi Gras style- where the plump and overstuffed jelly-doughnut like confections are consumed in mass quantities before fasting. The contest was started 25 years ago by the former owners of Eddy’s, the Ciocca brothers.
A limited number of people were allowed to watch inside the Ansonia Armory. The event was live-streamed on the city’s Facebook page.
