The Team
MATT REYNOLDS, Journalist
Role: hunt leader
Reynolds grew up eating wings in Lyons, a small town in New York State, and after moving to ex-communist Europe in 1998 made it his mission to introduce Buffalo wings to the Slavs of central Europe. He dreamed up the hunt at a bar in Bratislava, Slovakia. As a journalist, expat and native upstate New Yorker, he believes he is uniquely qualified to lead the search for the world's best wing.
ALEX ROY, road rally champ
Role: associate producer
One of Manhattan's biggest wing buffs, Roy holds the record for non-stop driving from New York to L.A. His upcoming documentary, 32 Hours 7 Minutes, chronicles his record-breaking run. He met Reynolds during the 2005 Gumball Rally in Prague, Czech Republic.
BEN "MIGHTY THOR" BEAVERS, competitive eater
Role: official judge
A 340-pound woodwright from Rochester, New York, Thor holds local titles in pizza, wing, and ice cream eating. Beavers placed fifth in competition at the National Buffalo Wing Festival, wolfing down 87 wings in 12 minutes.
LUCIE MAYEROVA, social worker
Role: judge/statkeeper
A Czech, Lucie joined the hunt to support Reynolds, her boyfriend, and see New York State. She came into her own right as a judge and was an influential voice during deliberations. She kept track of the hunters' scorecards and relayed data to the hunt's Michigan-based research team.
RIC KEALOHA, Chef, Med student
Role: judge/culinary authority
Hawaiian Kealoha is a former chef who now studies medicine in Prague. Ric's wife gave birth to his first son just days before the hunt. Ric stuck by his commitment to make the trip and took first prize at the National Buffalo Wing sauce competition.
Role: official judge
Al lives in South Butler, a hamlet near Syracuse, New York. A self-taught musician, Al plays folk, blues, and jazz. He is writing the film’s theme, a Dylan-esque ballad recounting each stop on the trip.
DREW "Wing King" CERZA, National Buffalo Wing Festival director
Role: associate producer
America's most famous wing buff, Cerza joined the hunt in Manhattan and welcomed the hunters at the National Buffalo Wing Festival, which he founded in 2002. Inventor of Buffalo wing chowder, Cerza took on (and beat) Food Network’s Bobby Flay in a wing throwdown in 2007.
MARTIN DINGA, Slovak actor
Role: official judge
Dinga discovered wings at a party in Bratislava, Slovakia thrown by Reynolds. He's been a wing buff ever since. Patient and even-keeled, He helped the hunters stick together when nerves wore thin.
RON WIESZCZYK, hot-sauce maker, closet musician
Role: judge/second-in-command
Ron witnessed the rise of the wing in his hometown, Niagara Falls, and grew up to be an amateur pepper-grower and hot-sauce maker. In the 80s, he made an album of pop music on a Commodore 64. The single 'Beaver Island' was a hit in Japan and the hunt's unofficial anthem.
ZUZA PIUSSI, Slovak documentarist
On hand in Bratislava when Reynolds dreamed up the hunt, Piussi wanted "to understand his strange passion. Why he quit his job to find the best wing." The hunt is a departure from her previous work, including the avant-garde Crying of Angels (2005), about Slovakia's gay community, and Koliba (2007), about the history of Slovak film.
DOUG "FISHEYE" BRANTNER, Cameraman
Fisheye majors in film, with a focus on cinematography (his pun) at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology). A hard-ass among slackers and gluttons, Fisheye kept the hunt's gear working and the crew on task. After graduation in 2008, he wants to shoot more documentaries and moonlight as a roadie.
CASEY PALEOS, psychiatrist, film buff
Role: Assistant director
In their college days, Casey gave Reynolds a starring role in a one-minute film, "Matt Reynolds' Moves". Bootleg copies of the film are now fetching upwards of $5,000 on eBay. Casey helped develop the film's themes and meaning. He also encouraged Reynolds to quit his job, return home and devote himself to the trip. Today, Casey roams the passageways of New York's famous Bellevue Hospital, on the right side of the padded walls, for the time being.
