The database of challenge finishers on Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s website has been set up after being empty for over a year. There are still two listed finishers for the 6 pound burger.

A segment about Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub containing footage from a 2002 event in which diners attempted 3 and 6 pound burgers has been uploaded to youtube. No one was able to finish a 6 pound burger, but Lori Weiss did manage to set the record for the three pound burger.

Pictures and videos of Furious Pete’s attempt at the Clinton Station Diner’s Zeus burger challenge have been posted to bodybuilding.com. It is estimated he finished about 60% of the burger. The current prize for finishing the burger is $500. Forks are apparently allowed at the Clinton Station Diner (they are prohibited in Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s challenges)

• Jill Stoler has a belated birthday tribute to Pat Bertoletti
• Poll about biggest eating baseball players: (1st Babe Ruth 2nd John Kruk 3rd Tommy LaSorda)
• Sonya has a commentary about the Nathan’s finals
• Furious Pete is seeking a dining partner for his attempt at the Zeus Burger at the Clinton Station Diner July 5.
• Kobyashi reports he is now in New York City
• Tomoko Miyake has an autograph signing session for her new book
  

(From Consumerist.com) The Telegraph reports that a burger costing £95 ($185) sold by a London Burger King was certified by Guinness as the world’s most expensive burger. The British burger appears to be normal size (its weight is not listed) ABCNews reports that the burger contains Wagyu beef, organic mayonnaise, white truffles and pink Himalayan rock salt and has an Iranian saffron bun. All proceeds from the sale of the burger will go to the charity Help a London Child.

At least three American restaurants have more costly offerings:

• $399, Absolutely Ridiculous Burger, Mallie’s Sports Grill & Bar
• $379, Beer Barrel Main Event Charity Burger, Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub
• $320.95, 8th Wonder Deluxe, Clinton Station Diner

The sandwiches from Mallie’s and Denny’s have received acknowledgement from Guinness as the world largest commercially available burgers, so the records organization must have been aware of them.

The video of Krista Lander competing against two minor league hockey players in a one pound burger eating contest is now available on the CBS 7 website.

(From The Big Lead) Yahoo’s hockey blog, Puck Daddy, has an interview with Krista Lander about her preparations for competing against two members of the Odessa Jackalopes minor league hockey team in Fuddrucker’s one pound burger challenge. Ms. Lander is the sports anchor for CBS 7 and the contest will be a part of “Krista’s Sports Challenge” segments in which she competes against local athletes in various activities. The contest is expected to be televised on Thursday.

Erica Pierson, a DJ at Love 96.1 FM, attempted Tumbleweed’s 2 pound burger challenge last October. The owner of Tumbleweed’s donated $500 to the Spinal Cord Injury Project after she successfully completed the burger.

• Short preview of New Orleans qualifier: Juris “Dr. Bigtime” Shibayama, Chris MacVicar and Steve Ulness are expected
• Final batch of bios for MLE game characters - also includes profile of bunnette and paramedic. Juliet Lee’s nickname is listed as “The Lovely”
• End of school year White Castle eating contest for Kentucky teachers. Joey Chestnut is listed as the White Castle record holder
• Pancake contest for Cincinnati area high school students - contest video
• Eating contest from Hey Arnold cartoon (Kobayashi has called Hey Arnold his favorite American TV show
• Tomoko Miyake videos on yahoo: at the department store buffet promo, wearing bikinis with friends, eating big burgers with friends

SuperSizedMeals.com has a gallery from the May 17 Bigger Mac Daddy Burger eating contest. The captions state that Ian Hickman was the winner.

(From consumerist) Brand Republic announces that Burger Kings in some European countries will start selling the “6 pack” burger, which can be separated into Krystal sized burgers. Each set of two burgers will have a different topping. The burger is expected to sell for £4.49, about $9.

(from MosesNews) A press release about last month’s Big “A” burger contest at Andy’s Burgers, Shakes & Fries is now available at Carolina Newswire. The top 3 finishers:

1. Joe Menchetti, 5 minutes 15 seconds, $1000 prize
2. Joshua Currier, 5:45, Lumberton, NC, $500
3. Shayne Katrigis, 7:58, Charleston, SC, $250

Reflector.com has a page dedicated to Kristin Day’s recent attempt at Andy’s Big “A” 50 ounce burger challenge. The page has 5 videos, a slideshow along with an article by Kristin, probably making Kristin’s meal the best documented burger challenge by a female since Kate Stelnick completed the 96er in January 2005.

Some captures from the segment about Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub on the Travel Channel’s “All You Can Eat Paradise” have been attached. The program will be televised tomorrow at 8pm and the following times:

TRAV Wed 4/30 8:00 PM
TRAV Thu 5/1 12:00 AM
TRAV Sun 5/4 9:00 PM
TRAV Mon 5/5 1:00 AM

SupersizedMeals.com announces that a 19 pound “Bigger Mac Daddy Burger” eating contest will take place at the Burger Joint in Bethesda, Maryland on May 17. Prizes and other details are not listed. The restaurant has a burger listed at 15.4 pounds on its regular menu which is free if completed.

A segment about Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub was televised on the Travel Channel’s “All You Can Eat Paradise” this evening. Denny says that $500 will be awarded to a diner who can finish the 15 pound “Belly Buster” burger in under 4 hours and that 357 customers have finished the 2 pound burger and 111 people have completed the 3 pound burger challenge. There are still only two finishers (who are not mentioned by name) of the 6 pound 96er burger. The program will be rerun 2 times this week.

CommercialAppeal.com reports that Jeremy Payne finished a Sasquatch burger from the Big Foot Lodge in Memphis in 53 minutes earlier this month, becoming the second person to complete the burger in under an hour. Pat Bertoletti completed the sandwich in 11 minutes in January 2007. The listed total weight of the burger is 7.5 pounds.

update Joey Chestnut became the third person to complete the challenge on March 23 and is the current record holder with a time of 7 minutes and 36 seconds.

Kristin Day has a column in reflector.com about her plans to attempt Andy’s Big “A” Challenge. She received advice from former moon pie champion Mort Hurst and will be posting videos of her training which will culminate in her challenge attempt.

DennysBeerBarrelPub.com announces that the restaurant presented a trophy to Lori Weiss on her recent birthday to honor her eating achievements at that establishment. Ms. Weiss is one of two people to have completed the monster 96er burger and also holds the female speed records for the two and three pound burgers. (The website lists Lori’s last name as “Weis”, but her 96er finisher plaque and other articles list it as “Weiss”. )

Denny’s website also mentions that it will be featured on a Travel Channel program, “All You Can Eat Food Paradise”, later this month. The program will debut on April 26 at 6pm eastern and be rerun on April 30 at 8pm.

• Juliet Lee updates her WriteNow page - includes commentary on “Romeo”
• “Humble” Bob answers the IFOCE questionnaire
• “Furious” Pete is considering doing a team pizza challenge singlehandedly
• More on Gene Simmons’ New Zealand pizza eating contest
• Honolulu corned beef musubi results and picture
• Battle of the Bone qualifier #2 gallery and results
• Woman asks man out to watch a “Munch Madness” qualifier, man declines
• Lucy “Are you Gonna Eat That” Bauer wing contest video
• Profile of Gersh Kuntzman
• Gluttonous Queen rookie Atsumi Furukawa starts a web page
• R Suzuki and Tomoko Miyake comment on the Clinton Station Diner giant burger contest, which is now available on the NNN website.

A video of the giant burger eating contest for three person teams recorded at the Clinton (NJ) Station Diner on February 2 televised on NTV March 20 can be seen at http://www.veoh.com/videos/v6482620yWdSfN4E The video focuses on the Japanese team consisting of Takuya Yamamoto, Tomoko Miyake and Taku Izumi and the team of Ian Hickman, Elizabeth Canady and Pete Maurizio, but Jill Stoler’s team also makes an appearance. The video also contains footage from a contest for Japanese team members at a Windmill Hot dogs.

Tomoko Miyake reports that the team burger eating contest held at the Clinton Station Diner on Super Bowl weekend will be televised on March 20. The contest will be televised by NNN news, which usually posts its competitive eating videos online.

In other Japanese contest news, R Suzuki reports that Hatsuyo Sugawara won a televised sushi eating contest. The top 5 in that contest:

1. Hatsuyo Sugawara, 107 plates
2. Takuya Yamamoto, 104 plates
3. Nobuyuki Shirota, 102 plates
4. Tomoko Miyake, 81 plates
5. Taku “Artist” Izumi, 74 plates

• “Badlands” Booker is Sonya Thomas’ featured eater for the second quarter of 2008
• Page on the eating contest at CollegiateNationals.com - only the winner of the qualifier will appear in the finals
• A press release for Phoenix Battle of the Bone says it is restricted to amateurs. The rules appear to make no such restriction
• Lufkin, TX tamale festival runs out of tamales, but still manages to put on a tamale contest.
• Joey Chestnut’s matzoh ball contest victory mentioned in the Vallejo Times Herald
• Nashua, NH hot dog contest report
  
• “Stretch” eating contest at Missouri University
• Group burger challenge attempt at Mount Airy, NC

Qualifying for the Big “A” burger eating contest sponsored by Andy’s Cheesesteaks is taking place throughout the month of March. The eaters recording the best 10 times in March for that 48 oz. burger will receive entry into the finals that will take place on April 12 in Greenville, NC. The winner of that contest will receive $1,000. Andy’s Cheesesteaks are located throughout eastern North Carolina.

Contest rules - PDF

• Kobayashi praises Juris Shibayama’s bench pressing
• Cartoons added to the Heart Attack Grill’s online wall of fame (see above) (from Dr. Jon)
• Ryan Urban, Don Lerman’s nephew, attends NY Pizza show and says his uncle can eat three pizzas in less than 5 minutes.
• Eating contest from “Meatballs” on youtube
• Iron Chef video cooking game coming for Wii