Ben Montgomery / St. Petersburg Times

The old man looks uncomfortable.

Tell the one about the dead baby, everyone is saying. Tell the one about stealing three cabs in one night.

It’s late afternoon at MJ’s Martini Jazz Lounge in St. Petersburg, and Chef Tom Pritchard is holding court on the patio. The 50 or so guests here to plan his upcoming charity roast have adjourned their meeting and some are now mingling around the guest of honor, wine glasses in hand, prodding him.

Pritchard sits quietly, but he wants to please.

Tell the one about snorting Tabasco.

Pritchard looks up.

“Anyone can drink Tabasco,” he mumbles.

Thus the man who has arguably had the largest impact of any chef on the local culinary scene in the past 20 years begins his story:

“I was in a hard-boiled egg eating contest against the 400-pound hard-boiled egg eating champion of Aspen, Colo., so I knew I had to cheat if I wanted to win.

“I gargled Tabasco sauce to strip the lining of my mouth and I snorted it — I drove a straw through a cheese ball and put it in my nose and snorted it — to strip the lining of my nasal cavity. You can eat faster that way.”

The crowd is laughing now, and leaning closer.

“I got so far ahead of him. But by the end, he almost caught me because I ran out of hot sauce.”

The crowd erupts.

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