In the last four months, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day themed eating contests have been held. The new poll question asks what the next holiday themed eating contest should be. (For non-US residents, April 15 is the day income taxes from the previous year are due)

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AICE has dropped numeric rankings and has implemented a new system similar to movie and restaurant rankings (4 stars = top class.) There are listed criteria that an eater needs to achieve to obtain a particular ranking level. According to the AICE news page for March 23, one of the goals of the new ranking system is to take into account an “eater’s value as an entertainer” and not just his/her contest results. There are four levels in the rankings, 4 stars, 3 stars, 2 stars and honorable mention. Kobayashi is the only non-AICE eater in the 4 star classification.

(Comments are turned off for this post and comments about the AICE ranking system will not be allowed on other posts.)

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In this forum thread, powerlifters describe their personal eating records and offer their thoughts on competitive eating. One powerlifter was impressed with the physiques of the eaters on the MTV True Life documentary about competitive eating.

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At the request of Kevin Carr, I will not list any results from the Rockford Corner Bar unless I receive an email from an eater asking me to report his result (or he could just state his result in a comment.) I was originally going to list those results tonight unless someone emailed me today to not post his total. Thanks to Kevin Carr again for an excellent submission.

The Rockford Corner Bar has an online Hall of Fame, but no there are no links to it from the restaurant’s home page. All results are from 2003 and 2004 so it is apparently not being updated. No ranked IFOCE or AICE members are present in the online Hall of Fame. The highest amount is 20 chili dogs, reached by Kurt, Brian Johns, Nate McManus and Erin VanDeffelen

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Thanks very much Kevin Carr. Kevin made a trip north to Michigan yesterday to attempt the Chili Dog Challenge at the Rockford Corner Bar and try to learn the identies of the eaters who have recently attempted the record.

Kevin learned of four other IFOCE members other than Tim Janus who have recently attempted the challenge. All four eaters reached the 20 chili dog mark (at which point the meal is free) with two breaking the 30 dog level, but at least one eater vomited. I have omitted the identies of those eaters from Kevin’s report. I will list their identities tomorrow at 10 pm eastern unless they email ojrifkin@yahoo.com and request that his (they are all male) result not be posted.

In his report, Kevin mentioned that he is on standby for a Nathan’s qualifier spot. Spaces must be extremely tight if a ranked eater who competed in last year’s US Open is not guaranteed a spot.

Kevin emailed me this report:

REPORT FROM THE ROCKFORD CORNER BAR

After hearing the news of Tim “Eater X” Janus’s recent victory at the Rockford Corner Bar, I was naturally curious about the challenge. It was only a 5 hour drive from my home, so I thought I’d run up there and take the challenge myself. I’m on stand-by for a Nathan’s qualifier, and I’ve never eaten hot dogs in a contest, so I wanted to test my mettle so to speak.

Also, there have been conflicting reports in the press and the eating community about what’s been going on up there. Call it the writer in me, but I wanted to go to the source to get the full story.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Don “Moses” Lerman has apparently worked out the glitches with mosesnews.com and in a recent post he says he intends to enter as many as six Nathan’s qualifiers. The registration page on Nathan’s website clearly states that the maximum number of qualifiers a competitor can enter is three. Is there an exemption to that limit for long time Nathan’s competitors? The three qualifier limit was enforced for Carlene LeFevre last year.

In other mosesnews news, Don Lerman says he intends to sell some of his competitive eating embroidered jackets on ebay.

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(Thanks Brian Subich & beautifulbrian.com – Happy 46th birthday Brian) CBS News has an article about Mama Lena’s Pizza’s quest for a Guinness world record for the largest commercially available pizza. The McKees Rocks (outside Pittsburgh) pizzeria has created a pizza called the “Big One” that sells for $99.99. 20 pounds of dough and 15 pounds of cheese are required to construct the 150 slice pie. Pittsburgh Live also has an article about the pizzeria and its gargantuan creation. No eating challenge is apparently available for the pizza.

The pizzeria’s desire for recognition in Guinness was inspired by the publicity that Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub received for having the world’s largest cheeseburger. Click “Read the rest of this entry” to see Kate Stelnick with Denny’s plaque from Guinness (The plaque lists the weight of the 96er as 9 pounds and not the advertised value of 11 pounds)

Read the rest of this entry »

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The March issue (print only not available online) of Spin Magazine has a near full page article (on page 40) about Eric “Badlands” Booker’s rap CDs. The article is not in the reviews section, so there is not an in depth analysis of the tracks, but the author does claim that Booker is a worthy student of the school of East Coast Rap. Booker says that the topic of competitive eating is not a gimmick; he is rapping about his everyday life when he busts rhymes about eating contests. Charles Hardy’s anti-AICE guest appearance is mentioned as one of the tracks. The April issue of Spin will be out soon so your time to check that article out is limited.

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If you would like to see the start of the original version of the Boston Herald article that inaccurately reported that Sonya Thomas competed in the March 16 corned beef and cabbage contest, it can be found on the GoldenPalace website. No attribution is provided for that page and its second paragraph matches the second paragraph of the current version of the Herald’s article. Two videos of the contest are also available.

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From IFOCE.com Pat Bertoletti won his second contest in five days at the GoldenPalace.net World Key Lime Pie-Eating Championship. Bertoletti consumed 10.8 pounds of pie in 8 minutes. Tim Janus was the runner-up. Eric Broe, winner of yesterday’s contest for college students only, took third place ahead of Hall Hunt and Crazy Legs Conti.

The IFOCE press release mentions the contest as part of the GoldenPalace.net World Series of Competitive Eating, so the World Series is a term used to describe goldenpalace sponsored contests and not a new event.

Spring Fling Contests for jalapeno popper eating will be held in Tuscon, Arizona on April 7 and 8. Like the Spring Break contests, the earlier event will be open only to college students.

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The Sheboygan Press has an article previewing the Sheboygan Jaycees Brat Day Festival to be held in early August and the bratwurst eating contest is on the schedule contrary to Clarence Mertz’s efforts. For competitive eaters/fans who are fans of alternative music, the Violent Femmes will appear at the festival. The full schedule of the contest will be announced on April 8.

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From wackbag.com – registration required to view post.

A hard boiled egg eating contest held at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City was supposed to have been broadcast live on the Opie & Anthony show on Saint Patrick’s Day. Like the egg nog drinking contest held on air in December, the contest would have featured Pat “from Moonachie” Philbin and Badlands Booker, but would have also been open to the general public. That event could not be held because due to problems with state and/or local government. A lack of a permit was one reason given why the contest could not take place.

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The new poll question asks if you think Kobayashi’s streak is likely to survive 2006 intact and who is most likely to break it.

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Here are the top three finishers of yesterday’s huevos rancheros contest in South Padre Island, Texas courtesy of Erik “the Red” Denmark:

1st – Rich LeFevre 7.75 lbs. $1500
2nd – Crazy Legs Conti 4.5 lbs. $750
3rd – Erik the Red Denmark 3.5 lbs. $250

Joey Chestnut was scheduled to be at the event but the news just before the contest was that he missed his flight. This opened the door for LeFevre to run away with this competition, which he did. He left Crazy Legs and I behind at about the 4 minute mark where he got in a serious zone and plowed through the rather disguisting huevos rancheros at a frantic pace. Nice work Rich, that was impressive.

IFOCE.com lists Bobby Bodea as the winner of Friday’s amateur contest. No additional finishers are given.

I believe this victory gives Rich his fourth Texas win in four contests in that state. Rich’s previous wins:

2005 Oct 2 1st 35 burgers 8 min Krystal Square Off qualifier Dallas, TX
2004 Sep 26 1st 15.5 corny dogs 10 min World Corny Dog Eating Championship Dallas, TX
2004 Apr 3 1st 6.25 spamburgers 12 min Spam Burger Eating contest Austin, TX

And this does not include all the free steaks Rich and Carlene have won at the Big Texan steakhouse in Amarillo.

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Boston.com has an excellent and long article and photo gallery about Thursday’s corned beef contest (Thanks Rona Conti)

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Liz & Krista have uploaded their article about Thursday’s corned beef contest to http://www.urbanhonking.com/digest/archives/2006/03/post.html

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On Wednesday the House Financial Services Committee approved a bill that would ban credit card companies from processing payments for online gambling. If the bill passes the full House and Senate, it could have a detrimental impact on the funds available for competitive eating contests. The online casino goldenpalace sponsored 7 of the 10 contests sanctioned by IFOCE held in the first quarter of 2006.

Updated 10:30 – goldenpalace.com changed to goldenpalace to reflect that the listed sponsor of some events is goldenpalace.net – Thanks Bob Shoudt

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Please list any results from yesterday’s and today’s goldenpalace.net huevos rancheros contests in South Padre Island, Texas in the comments of this post. I have not been able to find any articles or other information about those events.

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Brian Seiken has a video and photos of the contest on his website.

Updated 6:25 The Boston Herald has an article about the contest – Thanks Rona Conti (This article originally implied that Sonya Thomas competed in this event and has been corrected.)

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(Thanks Bob Shoudt) The Rockford Squire has an article about recent attempts to break the Rockford Corner Bar’s chili dog record. The majority of the article is devoted to the endeavors of three AICE members on March 9 ; Tim Janus’ earlier record breaking attempt is mentioned only in passing. The Rockford Corner Bar website has yet to be updated with Janus’ new record.

Updated March 18, 12:30 am – an article about Tim Janus can be found further down the page. Eater X also did a malt challenge and another pizza challenge earlier this month.

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Don “Moses” Lerman has started his blog at MosesNews.com, about 10 days before his announced opening date. The blog has a mailbag section where readers can post comments. The current mailbag question is “Should Don Lerman retire?”

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Pat Bertoletti’s recent dominance in corned beef events was not foreshadowed by his initial contest eating that food. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Bertoletti came in third in a corned beef contest in August 2004 behind Cookie Jarvis and Molly Cary, who has apparently not participated in other eating contests. (I think that Ms. Cary is the most recent woman to win a prize in an IFOCE contest other than Sonya and Carlene).

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Results from http://www.urbanhonking.com/digest/archives/2006/03/corned_beef_and.html

Thanks Liz Kellermeyer

Pat Bertoletti wins his second corned beef contest of 2006 against a strong field.

Updated 2:31 Offical results are available on IFOCE.com

1. Pat Bertoletti, 5.75 pounds, $2500
2. Badlands Booker, 5 pounds, $1250
3. Tim “Eater X” Janus, 4.75, $750
4. Crazy Legs Conti, 4.5, $325
5. Pat from Moonachie Philbin, 3.75, $175
6. Krazy Kevin Lipsitz, 3.5
6. Erik the Red Denmark, 3.5
8. Ryan Hodson, 3
8. Ken “Mongo” Federighi, 3
8. David “Brickhouse” Braunstein, 3

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Levi “the Prophet” Oliver has a blog at http://levioliver.statesmanblogs.com/ The blog descibes both his training for a triathlon and his thoughts on competitive eating. Oliver does not say if he will be competiting in the Huevos Rancheros contest to be held on South Padre Island later this week.

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The Richmond Times Dispatch has an article about competitive eating. The main point of the article is that no medical research has been performed on competitive eaters to find out what enables them to do what normal people cannot.

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