Brian Seiken has an update about Carlene LeFevre’s status and plans on his website. While she has no definite plans to return to competitive eating in the forseeable future, she does plan to travel to New York City at the start of February to cheer on husband Rich in the goldenpalance.com grilled cheese finals. She plans to attempt some massive meals in the Big Apple, so her eating capacity has apparently not been diminished. It is not stated if Carlene plans to attend the Wing Bowl two days later. If Carlene does travel to Philadelphia and Rich takes first place and wins a car, mandating a transcontinental road trip to bring the prize to Las Vegas, perhaps the LeFevres could stop at Denny’s Beer Barrel and attempt the two-person challenge for the 15 pound burger.

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Ian Hickman won the Farmer Boy’s Fried Zucchini contest held in Riverside, California on Saturday, his second consecutive victory. After taking Joe Menchetti’s current hiatus from AICE events into account, there does not appear to be any active eater on who can impede Hickman’s rise to the top of that organization.

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Ed “Cookie” Jarvis will follow in the footsteps of two-sport athletes Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders when he suits up for the Strong Island Sound of the American Basketball Association under that organization’s 13th man rule on Friday. Jarvis’ basketball playing appears to be part of a larger weight loss regimen as he has also auditioned for NBC’s weight loss reality show “The Biggest Loser.”

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It is interesting that the IFOCE website makes a comparison between the weight of David Hasselhoff’s head and the 9 pound Barrick burger which will be eaten in a contest on Saturday since Gerta Hasselhoff is believed to be the first woman to win Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest sometime in the 1950’s according to this article on Kid Cary DeGrosa’s website. Perhaps Gerta is David’s aunt or grandmother.

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“Beautiful” Brian Seiken has uploaded the second episode of his television show. At approximately 50 minutes, it is about twice as long as the previous episode. He begins the episode with an overview of competitive eating websites (thanks for the compliments BB.) The bulk of the episode consists of an interview with Ray “The Bison” Meduna who will judge the Barrick burger contest in Las Vegas this weekend. Ray discusses his competitive eating history and describes why he has retired (temporarily he hopes) from eating contests. The show ends with a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr, a recollection about Brian’s dream involving Sonya Thomas and Dale Boone and an attempt to break Joey Chestnut’s record of drinking a gallon of milk in 41 seconds. Pat Bertoletti is the expected guest for the third episode.

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“Crazy Legs” Conti has an open letter to the competitive eating community on his website focusing on the main events in competitive eating in 2005.

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burgerclub.org has a photo gallery of the AICE Schnack burger contest held at the Brooklyn Lyceum in October which was won by Joe Menchetti.

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from sonyatheblackwidow.com and Lucky Chestnut

Hot Springs International Corned Beef Eating Championship, Hot Springs, Arkansas

1. Pat Bertoletti, 11 sandwiches in 10 minutes, $3,000
2. Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, 10.75 sandwiches, $1,500 – beat Sonya Thomas in 2 minute overtime by .1 ounce
3. Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas 10.75 sandwiches, $500 – lost overtime
4. Chip Simpson 10? sandwiches

Congratulations to Patrick Bertoletti for winning his first non-qualifier contest and defeating two eaters ranked in the top three.

Updated 11:06 pm

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The IFOCE circuit resumes today after a six week hiatus in Hot Springs, Arkansas (hometown of former president Bill Clinton) with a corned beef sandwich eating contest. Sonya Thomas and Joey Chestnut are expected to resume their rivalry. Ms. Thomas has a two contest winning streak, but the expected 2005 rookie of the year, Joey Chestnut, had a two contest winning streak before that. The top contenders for 2005 rookie of the year runner up, Pat Bertoletti and Chip Simpson, are also expected to compete.

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nj.com has an article about what Bill “El Wingador” Simmons is doing now that he is unable to compete in Wing Bowl 14. He is opening a restaurant and hopes to compete in Wing Bowl 15. The article mentions Joey Chestnut as a favorite for the contest.

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It has now been 1 year since Kate Stelnick conquered Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s massive 96er burger and no other finishers have been announced in that time despite that restaurant receiving a tremendous amount of publicity. Even if Denny’s made Kate a slightly smaller burger because they thought she had no chance at completing it, as some commenters on this site have stated, finishing an 8-9+ pound burger in her first attempt is an extremely impressive accomplishment.

It would be extremely interesting to see where Kate could have gone in competitive eating if she had decided to pursue it. Even if she has no desire to compete in head to head eating contests, she probably could obtain endorsements and tv appearances solely by destroying restaurant’s eating challenges. Hardee’s thought enough of her feat that they alluded to it in their commercial about Denny’s 4 pound sourdough burger which has never been finished (because it is not on the menu) so Kate herself should probably be able to land appearances in advertisements. A spinoff of Food TV’s Eating with Rachel Ray on $40/day called Eating with Kate Stelnick on $400/day 🙂 could also be envisioned.

Kate’s desire to withdraw from competitive eating is understandable considering her consumption of the 96er resulted in only winnings of $75 (which she donated for tsunami relief) along with a lot of unwanted publicity and numerous rude posts made about her on internet forums (which I hope were not repeated to her face.) If Kate has competed in her last eating contest or challenge, I would like to thank her for showing the world her amazing ability on one instance and wish her the best in her future plans.

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Philly.com has more information about the Wing Bowl movie under development and also announces that a line of Wing Bowl clothing will hit the marketplace before the February 3 contest.

More about the Wing Bowl movie

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PhillyEdge.com has a list of twelve things you need to know about Wing Bowl 14. Bill “El Wingador” Simmons believes that the ban on previous competitors will result in a win for a Philadelphia area eater. Simmons is also writing his autobiography.

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The second “Wing 5” qualifier was held Tuesday night at the Landmark American Tap and Grille in Glassboro, NJ. The contest was only open to Philadelphia area college students. Mike Foster won a place in the Wing Bowl by eating 31 wings in 10 minutes. A video of Foster is available.

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I would like apologize to Joey Chestnut for approving the post containing the false rumor that his stomach had ruptured. It should have been obvious that the poster did not know what he was talking about because his claim that the grilled cheese finals have been moved to Saturday was not supported by IFOCE.com. I will be more careful in what I approve in the future. I hope none of Joey’s friends and family became concerned due to the false claim.

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I have decided to start next week’s poll given that Kate Stelnick’s reply makes the current week’s question about the legitimacy of her feat a moot point. The new question asks what is the preferred length of an eating contest. The Barrick Burger contest on January 21 is the only event on the IFOCE circuit longer than 15 minutes (the Wing Bowl is also longer than 15 minutes but that is not technically an IFOCE event). The only long duration event for AICE is the Zeus burger 3 person team contest I believe. I am curious to see if the competitive eating community would like to see more events of longer duration.

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Brian Seiken has the initial episode of his online TV show available. An phone interview with Cookie Jarvis comprises the bulk of the show. Cookie talks about his experience in competitive eating and says he will have a limited presence on the IFOCE circuit in the first half of 2006 due to work. The next episode will hopefully have Ray “The Bison” Meduna talk about judging the upcoming Barrick burger contest.

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The final for the 2005 series of grilled cheese qualifiers, sponsored by the online casino goldenpalace.com has been scheduled. The event will take place on February 1 in New York City, two days before the Wing Bowl. $20,000 will be distributed to the entrants, with the winner receiving $8,000. Competitors will attempt to break Joey Chestnut’s record of 32.5 sandwiches in 10 minutes.

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On Thursday it will be one year since it was announced that Kate Stelnick, a TCNJ student weighing less than 120 pounds, was the first person to finish a 10-11 pound 96er burger from Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, PA in under 3 hours. Ms. Stelnick claimed to have no previous competitive eating experience or training and has not attempted another eating contest or challenge since that time. The new poll question is designed to determine how legitimate the competitive eating community considers Kate’s feat.

Updated 1/10 2:56 pm I have started a new poll given that Kate Stelnick’s comment on this entry makes this question moot.

Previous poll results: Who will be the top ranked US eater at the end of 2006

Joey Chestnut -> 55%
Other -> 29%
Sonya Thomas -> 17%

Total Votes: 42

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In this discussion panel about high definition television, competitive eating is mentioned as programming for HDTV.

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Hank the Tank attempted to circumvent Wing Bowl 14’s ban of previous competitors by unsuccessfully disguising himself as the “Kensington Klown.” (Brian Seiken would probably claim that all Wing Bowl 14 entrants from the Delaware Valley are clowns regardless of whether they wear makeup.)

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Rich LeFevre will not be the only member of a competitive eating couple appearing in Wing Bowl 14. Melissa beat her husband to obtain a berth in the February 3 contest. Beating her stunt’s time limit (which is not clear on the video) required a very serious amount of “chipmunking.”

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In a comment on this site, Rich LeFevre provides the following response to Andrew Lane’s query about the health of his wife Carlene LeFevre, who is ranked #9 in the most recent IFOCE rankings but has not competed since being hospitalized in late summer:

Carlene wants to let all her fans know that she is doing fine and thank them for all their good wishes. Her future in competitive eating is still uncertain at this time but she’ll be at the Big Daddy burger contest in Las Vegas on 1/21 to cheer me on.

It’s is great to know that Carlene is doing all right. I hope she feels absolutely no pressure to return to competition and will not enter an eating contest unless she is 100% certain it will have no negative impact on her health. I also hope she watches Rich compete in the Wing Bowl from the press box of the Wachovia Center if she travels to Philadelphia because being in the midst of that crowd is not the optimal environment for anyone’s health.

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Every year before the Rose Bowl, the teams playing in that game have a Prime Rib eating contest at Lawry’s Steakhouse called the Beef Bowl. The teams dine during separate sessions and then their total amount eaten is tallied up and compared. Texas ate 740 pounds of steak at their dinner (the size of their party is not given). The totals for USC have not officially been released yet, but it is claimed that they tied with the Longhorns.

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The Sheboygan Press lists Sonya Thomas’ victory as one of the most interesting local events of 2005. They have a picture of Sonya at that contest.

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