Tim Brown answers 10 questions on IFOCE com
Indian traveler will spend a week in Chennai to see if Dale Boone can help him get started in “Kollywood” film industry, Dale Boone advises him to watch out for poisonous frogs
Don Lerman hires 25 people to handle his fan mail
Article about March 7 Lake Tahoe sushi / extreme food contest
Video footage from 2006 NYC grilled cheese eating contest
More on Canada’s tallest man 18 pound burger attempt
Request for videos of diners eating 4 HDB in less than 2 minutes
Kana Kanisawa & friend purchase a lot of food from Seibu Department store then eat it (Part 1, Part 2)
Pictures of Tomoko Miyake’s convenience store meals from yama3 (See above)
Japanese pancake eating contest for women only - first prize is a million yen and a trip to Hawaii

The eating contest videos on goldenpalaceevents.com have been uploaded to youtube and can be viewed at http://youtube.com/results?search_query=tgp1969+eating&search=Search

The following video captures were taken from the video of the goldenpalace.net grilled cheese contest on the contest page at goldenpalaceevents.com after the contest timer expired (around 2:20 - 2:26 in the video)

It is obvious from the video captures that Sonya has a significant amount (probably 1/4 to 1/2 a sandwich) outside her mouth after the contest is finished. I assume that the man with sunglasses and a notepad is a contest official and he apparently took no action after he saw the amount of food outside Sonya’s mouth.

If the chipmunking rule is going to be interpreted liberally, then Sonya has every right to take advantage of that interpretation, but IFOCE should clarify the details of that rule so other eaters can take advantage of it as well.

The San Jose Mercury has an article about Joey Chestnut’s record breaking performance at the goldenpalace.net grilled cheese contest Saturday which ends with a message to Takeru Kobayashi:

“I hope he knows I’m working hard, and if I do beat him, he’ll know I was coming to get him.”

(Does anyone know what the prize money for the grilled cheese contest was? Joey won $2,500, but I have been unable to find what the other prize amounts were.)

Erik Denmark has a video of Eater X’s grilled cheese exhibition & Andrew Lane has a gallery by El Toro on their blogs.

from dogsarefunyes.blogspot.com

ArenaBowl XX FanFest, Las Vegas, NV

1) Joey Chestnut 47 grilled cheese sandwiches - world record
2) Sonya Thomas & Pat Bertoletti 37 - tie
4) Rich LeFevre 35
5) Chip Simpson 33
6) Ron Koch 20
7) Erik “the Red” Denmark 17.5

Other results - not necessarily complete
Jason “Erbavore” Erb 15
El Toro 12.5
Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane 10
Doug “Cerberus” Ecks 8

Tim Janus 18 in five minute exhibition against Arena Football player

Mike Justice 9 in amateur contest

updated 10:00 pm

updated June 11, 9:47 am - Marketwire has a press release and video about the contest.

updated 7:34 - Andrew Lane has a trip report (which is a must-see for females who have ever wondered what men’s bathrooms in Las Vegas look like)

Updated 8:43 PM - KESQ has an AP article about the contest

Tomorrow a potential $100,000 will be awarded if an amateur eater from Las Vegas eats more than 36.5 grilled cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes. The new poll asks if you believe if a feat is possible for the best amateur eater in North America.

The 11th Hour, a sketch comedy group, has uploaded a 6 minute “mockumentary” about a female competitive eater to youtube at http://youtube.com/watch?v=CZ2oZgtbpAg The video includes footage of last year’s goldenpalace.com grilled cheese finals at Venice Beach and Sonya Thomas and other IFOCE members make cameos.

In this article about the events planned for the 2006 Illinois State Fair, it is stated that a horseshoe (something containing french fries and cheese sauce) eating contest will be held, apparently replacing last year’s goldenpalace grilled cheese qualifier. The article does not explicitly state that the grilled cheese contest is not scheduled, so it is possible that the fair could host two eating contests. If the contest does not take place at the Illinois State Fair, the 2006 goldenpalace grilled cheese circuit could either be held at other venues or be dropped completely.

Liz and Krista have posted their article and photo gallery of Wednesday’s Grilled Cheese Bowl. A few interesting facts from their article:

• Sonya was interviewed by 20/20 at the contest. I do not think she will appear on tonight’s episode
• Cookie Jarvis will not appear on the “The Biggest Loser”
• Eaters were required to use Planet Hollywood’s cups, clearing up the mystery about Humble Bob’s banned cups
• Tim “Eater X” Janus will appear on MTV’s True Life which will air February 22
• Sonya considers Ron Koch one of her top four rivals

Thanks Bubba Yarbrough, Liz & Eater X

updated 2:43 pm, full results added

Liz has posted some pictures on her blog

Update 7:41 pm CBS has a short article on the contest.

Updated 2/2 8:05 am
J$ of velvet-sea.blogspot.com has a contest writeup with several pictures and a video of the pickle undercard between Brian Seiken and Kevin Lipsitz.

12:05 pm Al-Jazeera.net also has an article on the contest.

4:32 pm goldenpalace.com has an article, gallery and video of the contest

Humble Bob also has a gallery.

Congratulations to all competitors. Sonya has now won 4 of the last 5 contests, facing Joey Chestnut in all of them. Pat Bertoletti shows that his victory over Sonya and Joey was no fluke with a close third place. Good Luck to Joey, Rich and all the other Wing Bowl entrants Friday.

I am curious to hear how the sandwiches compared to the sandwiches in the qualifiers and how Charles Hardy’s rule limiting sandwich immersion to 5 seconds affected times.

Things did not work out very well for the last person to equate a monkey with a diminutive professional athlete from Washington, DC. After that analogy was made, the 1983-84 Redskins were destroyed in the Super Bowl. Is this an omen for Sonya in the Grilled Cheese Bowl tomorrow?

Liz Kellermeyer, author of an excellent article on December’s meatball contest, will report on Wednesday’s goldenpalace.com grilled cheese finals. She has posted a preview of the event and is requesting readers submit questions they would like her to ask the eaters.

The site and time for the goldenpalace.com grilled cheese finals Wednesday has been announced as the Times Square Planet Hollywood Spectators might want to arrive early, as Brian Seiken could appear on an undercard contest.

The Whaler’s most recent blog entry contains an open letter from Tim “Eater X” Janus in which he describes his hopes and fears for the goldenpalace.com grilled cheese finals a week from today.

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.

(from IFOCE.com) Jed Donahue, who won the grilled cheese contest at the Southern California Fair, notched his second victory in a little over two weeks at the 84 Lumber Baked Bean contest at Chandler Arizona, eating 84 ounces of baked beans in 1 minute and 45 seconds. Rich LeFevre finished in second place with a time of 1:59.

Justin Mih, a student at UC-Irvine and runner up to Donahue in grilled cheese, came in 3rd with a time of 3:30 placing him on the roster of impressive collegiate rookies populated by Joey Chestnut, Patrick Bertoletti and Hall Hunt.

The East Valley Tribune has an article about competitive eating in general which mentions the contest.

From IFOCE com todays results from the Arizona State Fair
1. Joey “Jaws” Chestnut (32.5 sandwiches) breaks Tim Janus’ mark by 1.5
2. Andy Dickman
3. John Riddle

The following qualifier winners will appear in next month’s finals which will be held at a location to be announced:

All members of the top 10 qualified except for recuperating Carlene Lefevre (and Kobayashi)

Click below to see a list of all known non-winning double digit results:
Read the rest of this entry »

pe.com has a column (registration required) by someone who participated in last Monday’s grilled cheese contest at the Southern California Fair. He finished with 8 sandwiches, which he found rather unappetizing. There is also a video.

The Arizona Republic as a preview of Friday’s grilled cheese contest focusing on two local eaters.

Thanks Bubba Yarbrough:

Hall Hunt 20
Bubba Yarbrough 19
Frank Wach 17 1/2
Brian Subich 15
Larry McNeil 14 1/2

Congratulations to Hall “Pretty Boy” Hunt, whose win combined with a 2nd place finish in the SC contest nets him $1,500 for the extended weekend. The final grilled cheese qualifier in Phoenix on Friday is apparently Joey Chestnut’s to lose.

Updated 10/18 8:47 am The Greensboro News-Record has an article about the contest.

9:29 am the blog for WRAL TV has an entry (and a photo gallery) about the contest.

The text on the goldenpalace.com page about the grilled cheese series has apparently not been updated since before Labor Day, but there are galleries and videos for more recent contests. Not all contests have videos and pictures. There is an unknown female competitor in the video from the Arkansas qualifier.

Rich LeFevre made a triumphant return to his previous hometown at the Verizon VoiceWing Buffalo wing contest in San Francisco, defeating Cookie Jarvis in double overtime on Saturday. This is the second double OT contest “The Locust” has been involved in this year (He lost to Sonya Thomas in the MTV popcorn contest in June.) Rich and Cookie’s regulation total of 4.92 pounds is considerably better than Joey Chestnut’s winning total of 4.51 from the Seattle contest. Three other competitors qualified for the finals in Boston, but are not listed. (From IFOCE.com, no article currently available).

At the Mississippi State Fair Sunday, Buffalo Jim Reeves won the Krystal qualifier with 27 burgers. David Ray of Yazoo City almost won with 26 and John Anderson finished took third with 20. “Krazy” Kevin Lipsitz appeared, but finished out of the money. This article from the Clarion Ledger mentions the contest. (Updated 10/17 10:33 am)

Thanks to Bubba Yarbrough

Eric “Badlands” Booker: 24.5 grilled Cheese, Copaigue, NY
Hall “Pretty Boy” Hunt: 17, Orange Park, FL
Don “Sugar Bear” Schaeffer 13, Myrtle Beach, SC
Loren “Bubba” Yarbrough 12.5, Newnan, GA
Larry “The Legend” McNeil 12.5, Atlanta, GA

Congratulation to Badlands Booker whose 24.5 sandwiches is the second best so far on the qualifying circuit. Booker’s victory makes the NC contest appear to be rather wide open, with Joe LaRue the highest ranked eater currently expected to attend.

Update 10/15 8:31 pm WLTX has an article and a video clip about the contest

Anyone driving from the northeast to the NC State Fair ought to take I-95 to new US 64 (which is not yet on any online maps) and not I-85 to US 1.