In a preview of tomorrow's spaghetti eating contest at the Italian Festival of Mississippi, the festival co-chair claims that it costs $5,000 to have an eating contest sanctioned.
A bobble-head doll autographed by Joey Chestnut is available on ebay. Several Joey Chestnut baseball cards can be purchased on that website also.
The new poll asks you think has the closest resemblance to the bobble head doll that will be given away at the San Jose Stealth game on Saturday?
Link Buffet: January 21, 2009
- Asparagus contest at the Stockton, CA Asparagus festival returns April 25
- Video of Pat Bertoletti completing a 29 inch pizza in 34 minutes without assistance. The pizza is probably from Barlo’s Pizza in Indianapolis
- Man vs. Food Merchandise page with 3 t-shirts and a food journal (The graphic on the right is one of the t-shirt designs)
- The LA Times reports that the Los Angeles challenge on Man vs. Food will be the spicy ramen called Special #2 at Orochon Ramen and the other foods will be the French Dip sandwich at Phillipe the Original and the Manuel Special burrito at El Tepeyac
- The Cherry Cricket will be another Denver Man vs. Food location
- ESPN.com clip of Kobayashi’s fruitcake record clip
- Chicago chili contest January 31
- Pie eating contest on UK Big Brother in honor of Obama’s inauguration
Brooklyn Papers on Nathan’s rezoning
The Brooklyn Papers has an article about about the possible effects of the Coney Island rezoning plans on the original Nathan’s location:
The beloved frankfurter franchise — which has stood on the corner Surf and Stillwell avenues since 1916 — is a possible casualty of the controversial plan because it sits on land whose value could soar after a rezoning opens it up to development.
“[Nathan’s is] assumed to be replaced under the proposed actions with a new building, containing hotel, amusement, retail and enhancing uses,†according to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which was posted online by the city on Friday afternoon, but not announced until the Department of City Planning distributed a press release that is embargoed until Tuesday morning.
ConeyIsland.com has a forum thread about the article.
Building a tower on top of the original Nathan’s building was mentioned as another post-rezoning possibility last February.
update The NY Post has an article and curbed.com has a blog entry containing a statement from Nathan’s CEO Eric Gatoff:
Nathan’s Famous supports all efforts to revitalize Coney Island. We remain committed to Coney Island in the long-term and we fully intend to maintain our historic flagship restaurant at 1310 Surf Avenue, which has been the heart of the company since it was established in 1916.
As to the latest report issued by the City, we believe the information relating to Nathan’s Famous is being misinterpreted and that there is no intention to replace or demolish our flagship location. In fact, the Coney Island Development Corporation’s own drawings of its intended redevelopment continue to show Nathan’s Famous in the same location on which it has stood for 93 years, on the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues, at the front door to the ‘People’s Playground.
update #2 The Brooklyn Paper has another article which points out that Nathan’s did not rule out replacing the existing Nathan’s restaurant on Surf & Stillwell with a completely new building.
2nd half IFOCE prize money 2007 vs. 2008
Summing the cash purses in the IFOCE contests list (and adding the missing 2008 Krystal finals) reveals that the combined amount of the purses increased from $128,650 to $156,050 ($10,000 was not awarded due to the Kolache Factory’s contest cancellation by Hurricane Ike) The increase was mainly due due the adding of the Oklahoma BBQ ($10,000 purse) and Famous Famigia pizza ($14,000 purse) and the increase of the Krystals finals purse from $35,000 to $50,000.
Combining the first half purses of $51,750 (2007) and $28,250 (2008) from a previous blog entry produces a total purse of $180,400 for 2007 and and $184,300 for 2008 (of which $174,300 was awarded)
The 2007 purse does not include any amounts for the Las Vegas Spike TV contests since those values have never been publicized.
A list of all the contest purses is available after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »
Top moneywinners of 2008
The following list contains the combined cash winnings of competitive eaters in 2008 based on information in the eatfeats database. Please inform me of any inaccuracies.
All prize winners with earnings of $100 or more follows after the jump.
| $49,950.00 | Joey “Jaws” Chestnut | San Jose, CA |
| $34,900.00 | Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti | Chicago, IL |
| $18,750.00 | Tim “Eater X” Janus | New York City, NY |
| $17,950.00 | “Humble” Bob Shoudt | Royersford, PA |
| $12,050.00 | “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti | Wallingford, CT |
| $10,000.00 | Takeru Kobayashi | Nagano, Japan |
| $9,500.00 | Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas | Alexandria, VA |
| $7,500.00 | Colin Gardiner | |
| $7,250.00 | “Furious” Pete Czerwinski | Mississauga, ON, Canada |
| $4,650.00 | Juliet Lee | Germantown, MD |
Wing Kong: no “pros” in Wing Bowl 17
According to a comment made this morning, Micah “Wing Kong” Collins was told that “professionals” would not be allowed to compete in Wing Bowl 17 when he called 610 WIP to inquire about qualifying for that contest. In February, Angelo Cataldi said that he would like to limit entry to the 2009 Wing Bowl to amateurs. WIP appears to have followed through with that restriction.
Cataldi apparently defines “professional eater” as someone who has been associated with a professional eating organization regardless of the level of success obtained in eating contests. If that definition is used to limit entry into Wing Bowl 17, “Gentleman” Jerry Coughlan will probably be the favorite if there is any legitimacy to his top five finishes the previous two Wing Bowls.
In other Wing Bowl news, a press release announces that mail-order chicken wings endorsed by Bill “El Wingador” Simmons will be available at RastelliAtHome.com
Megamunch’s towel up for auction
A comment on Megamunch reports that the towel Megamunch misplaced and subsequently acquired by a consortium called “The Light Elves” is now up for auction on craigslist. The bidding will start at $1 and will close on December 1.
The value Megamunch places on his towel brings to mind the following quote from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc, etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
Link Buffet: October 21, 2008
- BeautifulBrian.com has a commentary on the personalities of the top 50 IFOCE members
- Furious Pete is seeking input about a 3 minute eating stunt
- Tonight’s E:60 episode to have footage from the Nashville Krystal qualifier
- Gallery of the recent Washington, DC cupcake eating contest
- Picture of Joey Chestnut at the Edmonton minor league hockey game
- Joey Chestnut to receive a commendation from the San Jose City Council
- Ukrainian salo (pork fat) eating contest
- Brad Sciullo’s Belly Bruiser completion makes the Japanese news
- Gal Sone’s television appearance where she sampled and ranked all the items on Saizeriya’s menu has boosted that restaurant’s business despite the recession
RI pumpkin farm received $10K for US vs. Japan contest
Bloomberg.com has an article about competitive pumpkin growing which says that the Wallace pumpkin farm in Rhode Island received $10,000 from a Japanese game show for hosting a pumpkin eating contest.
Link Buffet: September 19, 2008
- Badlands Booker, Paul Barlow and Andrew Lane are the other listed entrants for the Birmingham qualifier, but Booker’s twitter says he will probably pass on the contest and hope 51 suffices for a wild card
- NYC Famous Famigila pizza contest prize format restructured according to comment – first prize reduced to $5,000 and number of cash prizes increased to 7
- Article with the official results and video about the Chicago jalapeno contest
- Article about Stu Mesnier’s attempt to repeat as St. Louis sushi champion
- MissBusyLady unveils her apparel for female competitive eating fans.
Link Buffet: August 20, 2008
- Juliet Lee has an Ash Creek rib contest report
- Clam eating contest in Seattle Saturday, first prize is $100
- Ryan Nerz podcast interview in Conversations on the Road
- Furious Pete is doing marketing research on a Furious Pete hat
- A Washington Post article on the rise of college Food Studies programs reports that “Horsemen of the Esophagus” is required reading one course.
- The Wall Street Journal reports that Japanese convenience store chain Lawson announced an annual increase in same store sales of 13%. Gal Sone endorsed a line of meals for Lawson in May.
Hungry & Focused apparel debuts tomorrow
According to Badlands Booker’s myspace blog, his new line of Hungry & Focused apparel will be released on August 1. A myspace page is dedicated to the line and has pictures of the T-shirt styles which include three new designs in addition to the traditional 6XL logo.
In other competitive eating clothing news, Paul Barlow has posted a ranking of the best dressed Nathan’s finalists. He also has a myspace gallery (requires login).
Current 2008 money stadings
Here is the current top 10 in 2008 cash winnings based on information currently in the database. The database does not have the prize breakdown for the recent Boston Italian sausage or the Michigan Reuben contest after first place:
$15000 Joey “Jaws” Chestnut
$12250 Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti
$8550 “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti
$6000 Tim “Eater X” Janus
$5750 “Furious” Pete Czerwinski
$5000 Takeru Kobayashi
$4500 Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas
$1600 Ian “The Invader” Hickman
$1500 Russ “The Black Hole” Keeler
$1500 Erik “The Red” Denmark
The list does not include money from eating challenges. If it did, Dale Boone would be in 8th place with $1747.
Booker, Janus & Conti on Careers TV
Badlands Booker has uploaded to his youtube page a clip from a segment the Canadian show Careers TV
Link Buffet: July 11, 2008
- Joey Chestnut on the Today Show after defending his Nathan’s title
- Short article about Hall Hunt on jacksonville.com
- Mini burger eating contest in Long Beach Monday. Purse is $600 in restaurant gift certificates.
- FCC affirms $4000 fine of WIP for not following listed rules in Wing Bowl 13.
- Parody about alleged performance enhancing drug use in the Nathan’s finals
- Southington, CT hot dog contest also goes into overtime
- Kobayashi has a blog entry about Hungry & Focused 4 showing Super Paul Barlow’s cover art
- Kobayashi also has a link to Erin Wigger’s gallery of competitive eaters
Kobayashi T shirts on sale
Kobayashi’s blog announces that his online store has been set up at http://www.merchdirect.net/Kobayashi/. Six T shirt designs are available, including the “Kobayashi eats Chestnuts for breakfast” shirt he wore to the weigh in.
2008 first half IFOCE cash purses down 45% vs. 2007
According to the IFOCE.com contest list page (along with the St. Pat’s Chowdown page), $28250 has been awarded in contests so far this year, while $51750 was the sum of the cash prizes for the first half of last year, resulting in a 45% decrease.
There were 3 contests with a 5 digit purse in the first half of 2007 ($10,000 Long Beach chili cheese fries, $15,000 St. Pat’s Chowdown, $10,000 shoo fly pie), while $5,000 is the largest purse so far this year.
The comparison does not attempt take into account the value of non-cash prizes. There were two contests with non-cash awards (not counting Wing Bowls) in the first six months of 2007 (TripRewards wings and the amateur shoo fly pie contest) while all contests so far this year have cash prizes.
The decline in the second quarter (2007:$21750 vs. 2008:$16750) was considerably less than the difference for the first three months of the year (2007:$30,000 vs 2008:11,500)
A listing of the contests and their prizes follows after the jump.
Kobayashi lottery commerical video
The commercial Kobayashi filmed in Vancouver last month is now available on youtube. Western Canada Lotteries’ scratch and win cards are the advertised products.
Bertoletti: $500 + royalties for MLE game likeness
Pat Bertoletti appeared on the Steve Dahl show today. One of the subjects was the upcoming Major League Eating video game and the compensation received:
6:23 Sometime during this week there’s going to be a Nintendo Wii competitive eating game. There’s new software for he Wii where you can download games, including the competitive eating game. It’ll feature Patrick, Joey Chestnut, The Black Widow, Kobayashi and 6 or 7 other eaters.
6:24 Patrick’s character looks freaky because they went with his mohawk and mustache look. All of the eaters got some money and were told there’d be royalties depending on games sold.
6:25 It sounds like it’s about time for Patrick to get representation. He doesn’t like the way he looks in the game and now he’s probably not getting as much money as he should be getting. He should have gotten money up front against the royalties.
6:26 Every eater got $500 up front but there were no specifics about the royalties. It sounds like he got ripped off.
6:27 Patrick signed a contract with the IFOCE and they own his image. That contract is up next year. We might have to go in and Urlacher it.
The press release for the Houston gyro contest lists Joey Chestnut, Pat Bertoletti, Bob Shoudt and Erik Denmark as expected entrants.
Sidebar updated with 2008 winnings
The sidebar has been updated with finalists for the upcoming Nathan’s finals and the total cash winnings for this year. Joe Menchetti is currently the leader in cash prizes (Joey Chestnut’s Wing Bowl prizes would make him the overall winner in total value won)
I do not have the prize breakdown for the pig skin eating contest after first place. Please inform me of any incorrect or missing prizes. Here are the current top 10 cash winners for 2008:
$6200 “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti $5250 Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti $3000 Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas $2500 Tim “Eater X” Janus $2500 Joey “Jaws” Chestnut $1000 Juliet Lee $1000 J. D. Castile $1000 Chris “The Big Cat” $1000 “Furious” Pete Czerwinski $1000 Erik “The Red” Denmark
Gal Sone’s meals released and reviewed
The meals Gal Sone endorsed for the Lawson convenience store chain debuted yesterday. Gal Sone has a blog entry about the release containing pictures of a store containing her advertisement. Gigazine has reviews of the meals. Lawson stores will sell the meals until May 19.
Gal Sone to endorse meals
A press release announces that Natsuko “Gal” Sone will endorse 9 meals from Lawson stores which are are 1.5 to 2 times larger than normal meals. The meals will debut on May 6. In July, Lawson will sponsor an eating contest between Gal Sone and a team of 10 people chosen by drawing.
See also trendynet
Shirota to open noodle restaurant
(Via Serious Eats) Trends in Japan reports that Nobyuki “the Giant” Shirota will open a temporary udon noodle restaurant in Osaka called Shirotaya on April 25. The restaurant will serve bowls of udon that are 16 and 32 times the size of a standard portion. The restaurant is expected to close on August 31.
Shirota has a blog entry and Yahoo of Japan has an article about the restaurant
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