Bodybuilder Isabelle Turell has a picture and brief account of her eating a 48 ounce steak on her blog. She was rewarded with a free meal, a T shirt and a picture on the unnamed restaurant’s wall for finishing the steak in under 20 minutes.

update Isabelle has additional comments on her finishing the steak in a bodybuilding forum thread. She has been banned by the restaurant (which is probably Sam’s Steakhouse in Terre Haute, Indiana) from attempting the challenge again.

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Miami Herald columnist endorses Ryan Nerz’s call for a jalapeno eating contest between Obama and Clinton to determine the Democratic nomination
Maori wins New Zealand pizza contest
Frederick Kaufman (A Short History of the American Stomach) podcast on Seattle Public Radio
Munch Madness 2008, Connecticut team “bar bite” contest w/ 4 qualifiers, first prize is 4 Opening Day NE Patriot tickets (from Jill Stoler’s blog)
Emmanuel wins Chicago Wing Fest (see picture above)
PaulieSaurus Pizza prize now over $350
Cereal Mega Bowl challenge equal to 1 box of cereal in now closed Asheville, NC cereal restaurant
Kyoto tofu contest, won by Hiroko Kurita
Podcast of “Furious” Pete’s appearance on Frank Pastore’s radio show in which they discuss their 72 ounce steak marks (from AICE news)
Denver meetup group Feb 29 Slyder contest to award $100 gift certificate

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Beautiful Brian has a commentary on Chestnut vs. MLE and a CD update
Hall Hunt does eating contest at Rays Fan Festival and eats 13 hot dogs in undisclosed time (Kobayashi attended last year’s Rays Fan Festival)
Picture of Kobayashi before 2007 Nathan’s finals, used on wikipedia page
Frank Pastore mentions the breaking of the 72 oz steak record on his blog (from supersizedmeals comment)
Picture of 37 inch pizza from Big Lou’s Pizza in San Antonio
Dude a Palooza has male oriented events including eating contests
Liz K buys a house (gallery)

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In researching eating challenges, I discovered the database of diners who finished the 48 ounce steak at Don Shula’s Steakhouse. The website claims that over 32000 people have finished the 48 ounce steak. If all those diners are in the database, it would be much larger than eatfeats. (Eatfeats has about 3000 eaters and 6000 contest results)

The website reports that Taft Parker has consumed the 48 ounce steak over 175 times.

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The Kestrel Inn offers a 200+ ounce steak on it’s menu, which is reportedly the world’s largest commercially available steak. The BBC has an article about a 2005 contest in which diners attempted to complete that steak. Sara Manifold of Wigan was declared the winner in that contest after eating 100 ounces of steak over five hours. The article also says that the landlady of the restaurant claims her son in law ate 120 ounces of the steak.

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In a forum thread on bodybuilding.com, DedicatedForLif/FuriousPete123 announces he ate a 72 ounce steak in under 7 minutes, breaking Frank Pastore’s record of 9.5 minutes. He submitted a video of his meal to youtube.

I am unaware of any other claims on the 72 ounce record. Cookie Jarvis ate a 76 ounce steak in with a side of creamed spinach in 7.5 minutes

In another bodybuilding.com thread, a banana eating contest is taking place. DedicatedForLif/FuriousPete is the currently tied for the lead in that contest with 16 bananas. Eatfeats commenter Alex from Panama is the other co-leader. There is a female entry in the contest, Simpy, who ate 5 bananas The contest ends at midnight Sunday if anyone wants to submit his or her video.

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A new show on the Travel Channel called “Food Paradise” has started production by recording trips to the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas and the 17th Street Bar & Grill in O’Fallon, Illinois. I am not sure if this is the same show that is currently seeking a host.

In other television news, AICE news reports that a film crew from the History Channel will be present at the burger contest at the Clinton Station Diner on Saturday.

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(From mosesnews.com)AOL has a slideshow of the world’s largest steaks which range in weight from 64 to 205 ounces.

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Curtis Sliwa is not the only competitive eater who works as a talk radio host. Adam “Hungry Hungry Hebrew” Taxin, who will attempt a Wing Bowl stunt competing against a dog on Tuesday, has a one hour radio show on Tuesday afternoon on WNWR. Frank Pastore, who set the Big Texan 72 ounce steak record of 9.5 minutes in 1987, has a Christian talk show in Los Angeles.

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Peter Czerwinski (DedicatedForLif/FuriousPete123), winner of the most recent video based eating contest on bodybuilding.com, has uploaded some videos of his eating challenges to his youtube page (page 2). He has eaten a 72 ounce steak in 12 minutes and a 106 ounce steak in a half an hour. Most recently, he attempted to consume 25 cups of rice (he managed to finish 18).

In another international steak eating challenge video, a blonde woman consumes a large steak of unlisted size in Argentina.

And in another bodybuilding / competitive eating video, Juris “Dr. Big Time” Shibayama has uploaded a video of him bench pressing 500 pounds.

update In more Dr. Big Time news, he says that his Wing Bowl stunt suggestion has been accepted and he will attempt it on January 8. The person he talked to at WIP did not mention any geographic restrictions for Wing Bowl 16 stunt attempters, so non-Philly residents who want to compete might consider submitting a stunt request. I have not been able to find any online Wing Bowl 16 rules.

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The scene from “The Great Outdoors” in which John Candy attempts a 96 ounce steak is available on youtube at http://youtube.com/watch?v=qGhBsFZWUks.

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An 7 minute excerpt from “The Simpsons” where Homer competes in a steak eating contest with a truck driver at the Slaughterhouse restaurant can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0MX9re7YXY

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New on SonyaTheBlackWidow.com

Sonya, before you became a competitive eater, did you ever do an eating challenge?

– Response: I guess I sort of did. Way back in the summer of 1997, when I first came to the US from my home country of South Korea, my brand new American friends and I went to the Trail Dust Streak House in Dallas, Texas. Being only a little bigger than I am now (then about 108 lbs), my friends could not believe it when I took them up on their dare and ate the Trail Dust’s (then) featured 52-oz T-Bone Steak with a Baked Potato and a large Milk Shake. I was not close to being full when I finished, and I honestly didn’t understand the reason for my friends’ state of shock. I just thought that they had poor appetites.

A 50 ounce steak (called the “Bull Shipper”) is still on the Trail Dust’s menu, but there does not appear to be any online “Wall of Fame” on the restaurant website.

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The website for the Big Texan steakhouse now has a webcam pointed at the table reserved for diners who attempt the restaurant’s 72 ounce steak.

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The following names appear three or more times in the database of finisher of the 72 ounce steak from the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. The database is incomplete before 1991 and after early 2005.

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from supersizedmeals.com An AP article from August 2000 reports that Denny McNurlen ate 150 ounces of a 205 ounce steak at AJ’s steakhouse in Grinnell Iowa over a period of over almost 5 hours. The 205 ounce weight of the steak broke the previous Guinness record by 5 ounces. For more meager appetites, an 80 ounce steak is available which is free to eaters who complete it in under an hour. Another interesting feature of the restaurant are charcoal pits enabling diners to grill their own steaks.

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Slashfood has a list of the world’s most expensive steaks. Mosts of the items are normal sized, but the most expensive steak is 20 pounds and costs $2,800. It is not stated if the steak is free for a diner who can finish it in a specified period of time.

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Natsuko Sone is not the only petite Asian “Gal” attempting huge meals. Youtube has a clip of 5’0″ 95 lb. Chinese-Australian Lynette Chiang battling the 72 ounce steak challenge at the Big Texan Steak Ranch while on a Route 66 bicycling tour. She wrote a blog entry about her meal which says that diners ordering the steak must sign a contract saying they will not split the steak inside the restaurant.

There is additional information about her trip, including a DVD documetary for sale, at http://www.galfromdownunder.com/route66 The video clip can be downloaded directly from that website and there is a gallery (Page 1, Page 2, Page 3) of her meal. One of the picture’s captions says a waitress claimed a 110 pound woman ate the steak last week.

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The Big Texan steakhouse in Amarillo, TX, famous for its 72 ounce steak challenge, has updated its website hosted at bigtexan.com. Unfortunately, the online database of steak finishers is no longer available at that URL (It had not been updated since early 2005). The database can still be viewed at http://www.houseofapps.com/bigtexan/view.php

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Thanks to supersizedmeals.com for making video captures of the video clip of the LeFevres at the Big Texan steakhouse.

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The clip from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not of the steak contest at the Big Texan steakhouse in which Rich LeFevre almost finished two 72 ounce steaks and Carlene sets a women’s record is available at:

http://eatfeats.com/LeFevresSteak.WMV

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The Lefevres’ attempts to eat the famous 72 ounce steak at the Big Texan steakhouse recorded by Ripley’s Believe it or Not in 2000 will be rerun on the SciFi Channel at 4 pm (eastern) Friday This might be the first appearance of competitive eating on national cable TV. The steak contest segment will probably occur at the end of the show near 5pm.

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Just as the Beatles’ performance on the Ed Sullivan Show created Beatlemania, Rich and Carlene Lefevre’s appearance on Ripley’s Believe It or Not in 2000 launched their career as the world’s greatest competitive eating couple. The episode (#109) was recorded at the Big Texan steakhouse in Amarillo, Texas and both LeFevres finished the restaurants famous 72 ounce steak (two women, Tammy Hooker and Annette Havard, also finished the steak) The SciFi channel will rerun this episode on May 12 at 4pm. The Amarillo Globe News has an article about the taping.

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From the steak finishers database at bigtexan.com

The database claims there have been 1686 successful attempts at the 72 ounce steak since 1991 with 23 having been performed by women. This gives females just 23/1686 = 1.36% of the finishes. It is really surprising that this fraction is that low given that Sonya Thomas and Kate Stelnick have accomplished feats that no male American competitive eaters have matched.

Carlene LeFevre has accounted for 9 of the 23 completions by women, almost 40% . Richard LeFevre is listed as having finished the steak 10 times, giving the LeFevres more than 1% (19/1686 = 1.12%) of the total completions. The LeFevres first bested the Big Texan’s challenge in 1985, so some of their finishes will not be in the database.

All but 4 of the female finishers have their weight listed. The heaviest listed weight is 160 pounds.

The LeFevres’ January 2000 attempt was filmed for Ripley’s Believe It or Not television show. From amarillo.com (Google cache)

On Jan. 22, six people attempted to consume the Big Texan’s signature stunt of a 72-ounce steak plus a baked potato, salad, roll and a shrimp cocktail. The contest was recorded for the television show Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.

Richard LeFevre, a 135-pound resident of Henderson, Nev., nearly toppled a record held by a man four times his weight. LeFevre consumed the first steak and trimmings in 19 minutes, then asked for a second steak. He was unable to finish the second, but ate about 134 ounces of meat. …

LeFevre’s wife, Carlene, was next person to finish the feast, needing 32 minutes.

Two women from Houston, Tammy Hooker and Annette Havard, both won a radio contest to compete in Amarillo. Both women finished their meal in the allotted time. Havard, whose announced weight was 95 pounds, joked after finishing the meal that she was ready for dessert.

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