NEWS

Don Gorske gobbles 29,000th Big Mac

Sharon Roznik

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

FOND DU LAC - "Big Mac Daddy" Don Gorske reached yet another meaty milestone Thursday as he sat in his customary booth at McDonald’s. You know, the one with his framed photo showcased on the wall above.

At about 5 p.m., the 63-year-old Fond du Lac resident of “Super Size Me” fame ate his 29,000th Big Mac sandwich, topped with “two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.”

“I eat two every day," said Gorske, who has held the Guinness world record for Big Mac consumption since 2001. "There must be something wrong with me, but it’s still my favorite food,”

Obsessive-compulsive? Definitely, Gorske said. He once ate a Big Mac from Hawaii that a friend mailed to him.

"I froze it and then I baked it in the oven for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. I figured if that didn't kill the germs, nothing would,” he told Action Reporter Media back in 2011.

Gorske claims after getting his first car on May 17, 1972, he headed straight to the McDonald’s on Military Road in his hometown. He bit into the juicy burger, and something powerful took hold.

Since then, the former prison guard has made guest appearances on “Jimmy Kimmel,” “Rachael Ray,” “Lopez Tonight” and “Good Morning America” to name a few, and was even the focus of a joke on Saturday Night Live and a question in the game "Trivial Pursuit." He is featured in the 2005 documentary “Don Gorske: Mac Daddy” and authored “22,477 Big Macs” in 2008.

Just recently, Gorske paid tribute to Big Mac inventor Michael “Jim” Delligatti, who passed away at age 98. Normally, on that day of the week, Gorske would have taken a sandwich from his freezer stash and heated it up in the microwave.

Instead, he ate at his special spot at McDonald’s and marked the occasion by holding up a photo of Delligatti while his wife took a snapshot for posterity.

“This was strange for me, really weird, because it was also my birthday, and I got an email that day from Guinness saying my record still stands,” Gorske said.

His wife, Mary Gorske, didn’t partake with him. In fact, she doesn’t much like meat but does insist he purchase a parfait of yogurt topped with fruit.

“She told me I should eat something healthy, and she’s a nurse," Gorske said. "I think it’s paid off because I get a clean bill of health every year."

On Mondays, he usually purchases six Big Macs and four parfaits to last him through Wednesday. On Thursdays, he purchases eight Big Macs and another four parfaits. He loves the taste of the burger microwaved, when all the flavors meld together just right.

A Big Mac contains 540 calories, with 28 percent fat, according to McDonald's. At one or two Big Macs per day and little else beside Coke and the low-fat parfait, he probably eats fewer calories than many people do.

In fact, his cholesterol has never been over 160 mg/dL, he said, and he weighs in at around 200 pounds on a 6-foot, 2-inch tall frame.

Now retired, Gorske says he keeps busy doing yard work, bowling in several leagues, playing with his grandchildren and traveling to sports venues with his buddy, Don “Bones” Krause.

“My wife took two trips with me in 1999 and told me she didn’t want to go with me anymore, because she needed a vacation after the vacation,” Gorske said.

He has visited every NFL and Major League Baseball stadium and he's a huge NASCAR fan. “Bones” said it can be a real pain traveling with Gorske because he always steals the limelight. People, especially kids, recognize him from the “Super Size Me” movie, which is played in every high school health class across the nation to warn kids about the dangers of eating fast food.

“Here we were at an Applebee's somewhere where Don meets me for a Coke after he has his Big Mac, and I see these girls looking our way and I think I might still have it, you know," Krause said. "But nope, they spot the guy from the movie, the one with the long hair."

The same thing happened on a trip the two friends took to Washington D.C., but that time it involved busloads of teens.

“There were kids running, kids racing to him in wheelchairs," Krause said. "I sat there for an hour taking photos with 25 different cameras for everyone."

Still, he calls Gorske a “one-of-a-kind" pal and looks forward to their next trip in June 2017 when they travel to Atlanta to watch the Braves play the Milwaukee Brewers at a new stadium.

If he lives as long as his dad, Gorske will have consumed 40,000 Big Macs when he turns 86. Wrappers and proofs-of-purchase cluttering his home will be evidence of his gastronomic legacy.

“It’s not something I obsess about, but I tell my kids that when I do go, they better know the count of the last Big Mac I’ve eaten.”

Reach Sharon Roznik at sroznik@fdlreporter.com or 920-907-7936; on Twitter: @sharonroznik.