Adam Muntean looked up from his empty bowl of pasta and was quite red-faced. It wasn’t a look of embarrassment, but a smear of tomato sauce across the 12-year-old's huge grin for just having won a spaghetti eating contest Saturday at the inaugural Festa Italiana at Villa Cesare, 900 Eagle Ridge Drive.

Muntean, of Munster, bested six other boys and girls in his pre-teen age group, finishing the hands- and fork-free eating contest in under five minutes. “It was a lot of fun, but I am pretty full,” he said. “This festival is really cool. It makes me proud to be Italian.”