Raina Huang
Raina Huang is an American competitive eater and Internet celebrity, known for eating large quantities of food despite her diminutive size.
Personal life
Huang is of Chinese descent; in 2019, she was living with her parents in the small town of Walnut, California.Before turning to competitive eating, she attended UC Riverside, where she studied business. Her father works in information technology and she has a younger sister.
She was also the first female chef for Benihana.
Competitive eating
Huang attributes her ability to eat large quantities of food to her small stature, explaining that too much abdominal fat prevents the stomach from expanding.She has been competing since around 2017 after being challenged to eat a four-pound burrito. To prepare, she fasts and exercises before a challenge, often not eating on the day of. In 2022, it was reported that she was doing around 100 eating challenges a year.
She posts videos of her eating challenges to various social media platforms, having approximately 2.9 million followers.
In addition to humans, she has also competed against animals; one challenge seeing who could eat more salad, Huang or a giant rabbit. Huang won the competition, admitting that she rarely eats salad outside of competitions.
She has faced some backlash over her efforts from businesses; she was kicked out of a Colorado pizzeria in 2019, the owner suspecting she was trying to "scam" the restaurant. The video of her being asked to leave was posted to her social media channels; despite the negative comments from the owner, she wished them well.