Don Gorske gobbled down his 30,000th Big Mac on Friday at the same McDonald’s where he got his first taste of the beefed-up burger in 1972.
“At the time it was the only McDonald’s in town and I had just gotten my driver’s license,” Gorske said, just prior to setting a new world record for “Most Big Macs consumed.”
The popular fast-food chain promoted the Big Mac enthusiast's monumental ingestion, held at 3 p.m. under the “golden arches” and attended by McDonald's Fox Valley's franchise owner D.W. Rause.
“Don has a passion for Big Macs like no other," Rause said.
These kudos as well came straight from national headquarters: “We are lovin’ Don Gorske’s enthusiasm for our iconic Big Mac sandwich and appreciate his ongoing loyalty. – McDonalds USA."
“This one is a biggie for me, something I have been looking forward to,” said Gorske, a 64-year-old retired prison guard. He made the news in October when representatives from the Guinness Book of World Records came to Fond du Lac to record him eating his 29,482nd Big Mac, an event that was broadcast on a Facebook Live feed.
On Friday, the Big Mac maniac gave a half-hour presentation to the crowd, which gathered to watch him take that first bite of the 30,000th sandwich containing two all-beef patties, with special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame-seed bun. He showed off his record books and how he keeps track of thousands of receipts, sandwich wrappers and containers.
“People like to see proof,” he said.
While he has managed through the years to preserve and categorize most everything related to his Big Mac obsession, he did lose about 7,000 or so Styrofoam cartons that were damaged in a tornado that blew the soffits off his house on June 2, 1990.
He's also been the brunt of jokes, targeted for his eccentricities. But Gorske says he's taking it all in stride and stayed true to his diet, poo-pooing health nuts.
“People make fun of me, but it never bothered me,” Gorske said. “At my last medical check-up I had low cholesterol and my blood pressure was perfect.”
Tall and lanky, with a graying ponytail and friendly demeanor, Gorske has obsessive compulsive disorder and a meticulous memory, which lends to his Big Mac habit and his penchant for details.
Among his calculations, Gorske figured it took him 356 days to eat his first 1,000 Big Macs. On the day McDonald's founder Ray Kroc died in 1984, Gorske ate his 5,978th Big Mac.
He even has the day when McDonald's switched to shredded lettuce marked down: Feb. 10, 1999.
The Big Mac fan's television appearances include the "Rachel Ray Show," "Jimmie Kimmel," "Lopez Tonight," "I've got a Secret," "Oprah" and "Inside Edition." He was featured in the movie "Supersize Me."
In 2003 Ellen DeGeneres requested Gorske's cholesterol be checked. It was 140. In 2006 he crossed the finish line of the San Diego marathon carrying his 21,387th Big Mac.
Through more than four decades, he's gone about eight days total, without eating a Big Mac. The first day missed was the hardest, Gorske said, and that was in 1982, when he drove in a snowstorm to get his sandwich, and the restaurant was closed.
"I also made a promise to my mom. She requested I not eat a Big Mac on the day she died, in remembrance of her," he said. That day was April 27, 1988.
Before he left the restaurant, Gorske purchased another Big Mac to eat once he got home.
“Maybe I’ll be eating it when I catch myself on the news, who knows,” he said.
