Dave Shoffner of the megamunch blog has posted rather conclusive evidence that the famous picture of Eric “Badlands” Booker eating Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 11 pound burger in a helmet decorated with a cartoon dog was modified.

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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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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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katestelnick.com has a video clip (2.4 MB 4:27 low quality) from Food TV’s Unwrapped about the Ye Olde 96er burger from Denny’s Beer Pub in Clearfield, PA. That sandwich is generally listed at 11 pounds, but it actually weighs in at 10 pounds when it is placed on a scale. The clip shows how the 96er is constructed and it also has footage of an AICE contest held at Denny’s in the summer of 2004 that in which “Chowhound” Chapman and Coondog O’Karma participated. Seeing the clip last January reportedly inspired Kate Stelnick to be the first person to complete it in under three hours several days later.

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I emailed the address found at dennysbeerbarrelpub.com about the result of the attempt by Lori Weiss at the 11 pound Ye Olde 96er burger witnessed by baxojayz and received the following response:

Hello from the Pub I’m happy to report that Lori Weis completed the
Ye Ole 96er in 2 hours 54 minutes to tie Kate Stelnick for the
record…Thanks for asking Denny

It is hard to believe that the two people to finish the 96er in under three hours have a combined weight of about 200 pounds. Since Lori Weiss weighs only about 90 pounds she is probably the champion in percentage of bodyweight consumed except for possibly Kobayashi. Maybe Lori tying Kate will inspire Kate to return to Denny’s to regain sole possession of the record.

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Before Kate Stelnick finished Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 11 pound Ye Olde 96er burger in January, Lori Weiss came closest to completing the behemoth burger in the three hour time limit when she finished all except the bottom half of its bun despite a body weight of less than 100 pounds. Lori Weiss also finished Denny’s burger with 3 pounds of meat (about 5 pounds total) in a record 36 minutes. Blogger Baxojayz was present at Denny’s July 4th weekend when Ms. Weiss made another attempt at the leviathan. He said that she almost finished all the burger in two hours but does not provide her finishing time (or explicity state he saw her complete it).

If Lori Weiss did finish the burger, it is surprising that no media attention was paid to it at all since Kate Stelnick received a substantial amount of national publicity after her accomplishment. It is possible that she requested Denny’s to not inform the media about her feat, but she cannot be that extremely publicity shy since her record breaking attempt at the 3 pound burger was filmed for the Food Network in 2002.

It is interesting that the petite Pennsylvanian has apparently not competed in any contests or challenges outside of Denny’s since she seems to have world class eating ability in longer duration events and has the potential to give Sonya Thomas, if not Kobayashi a challenge. If AICE could get Ms. Weiss enrolled as a member, then that organization’s case that it is equivalent to IFOCE in restaurant’s eating challenges would be bolstered tremendously.

I wonder if Ms. Weiss will attempt Denny’s 15 pound Belly Buster burger. The article about her eating the 3 pound burger mentions that she ran four miles before attempting it (she might be able to singlehandedly finish the 50 pound “Mount Olympus” burger after completing a marathon.)

Updated 9/28 1:57 am Baxojayz says he was not there to see Lori complete the burger but she was almost finished at the two hour mark. He also said that she would not have set a record if she finished soon after because the record is below two hours. I was not aware that anyone had completed the 96er since Kate Stelnick finished it in 2:54 in January

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Kate Stelnick’s student newspaper has an article in which she describes the aftermath of eating Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub 11 pound burger in January. This is the first article about Kate that I have been able to find since February. Like all the previous articles, no details are offered about what made Kate so certain she could finish the burger (are 5/7/9? pound meals commonplace for her?). She feels that society has made too big a deal about her accomplishment (the same could also be said for driving several hundred times around a racetrack, slapping a ball over a fence, or nearly everything else considered a big-time sport.) While her feat is certainly not on the level of curing cancer, it did offer a glimpse into what humans are capable of achieving (and also deflated some male chauvinists’ egos in the process).

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