Video from the Travel Channel’s “Battle of the Buffets”, in which Badlands Booker, Cookie Jarvis and the LeFevres competed can be viewed on the Travel Channel’s website

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The following request was made by a documentary filmmaker:

Dear Eaters,

A New York based production company is seeking someone from the NY City region who wants to be the star of their own show. We are currently exploring the idea of creating an independent film tracking the journey of an unheralded eater whose goal is to reach the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest on July 4th. The all-access filming would stretch from pre-qualifiers, to the qualifying round, which could be at Shea Stadium, and through to the final in Coney Island. The key is that the subject must be funny, fat and interesting to watch. Interested? Sell us on why it should be you that we follow. Please send your e-mail and a photo and contact details to kannerr@aol.com

Spread the word, and good luck!

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• Another video of Kenny & Ziggy’s Matzoh Ball Eating contest
• Video from the 2003 matzoh ball eating contest held at Ben’s Deli
• Acme Oyster contest returning in 2008?
• Commenter reports that winner of Des Moines bacon eating contest, Manni, is a gym owner
• Benefit Saturday to preserve Coney Island as an amusement district
• Hall Hunt has a report on his appearance at the Rays Fan Festival
• Collegiate Nationals eating contest mentioned in USA Today

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The “Science of Speed Eating” will be rerun on the National Geographic Channel tomorrow (March 7) at 3pm eastern.

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Hall Hunt has computed the rankings for his latest IFOCE top 25 poll. The top 10:

1. Joey “Jaws” Chestnut (197)
2. Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti (187)
3. Tim “Eater-X” Janus (175)
4. Rich “The Locust” LeFevre (155)
5. “Humble” Bob Shoudt (150)
6. Sonya “The Blackwidow” Thomas (149)
7. Hall “Hoover” Hunt (142)
8.(tie) Takeru Kobayashi (128)
8.(tie) Erik “The Red” Denmark (128)
10. Juliet Lee (122)

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Beautiful Brian has a new home for his music with a full version of “Black & White”
Domenico Alesi has his predictions for the upcoming IFOCE contests.
“Humble” Bob notes that it has been 8 months since IFOCE rankings were released
pro wrestler Ric Flair judges a wing eating contest the same night he has a match (go to Brian Yandel)
Video from the Des Moines bacon contest by Mr. BaconPants
Video of the “burgerettes” (see picture) at the Canadian 18 pound burger contest,

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An advertisement Crazy Legs Conti did for Daisy May’s Barbecue in New York City can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQn-S1yNDuc The commercial has run on local cable according to the video description.

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The table above gives the total number of IFOCE contests in the eatfeats database for the years 2003-2007. (Click on the number to see the list) Every matchup in the US Open of Competitive Eating or the title rallies counts as a contest, which contributes to 2005 having the most contests. I am going to try to get the database to count the total number of IFOCE events each year, defining event as a date and site that had one or more contests.

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Erik Denmark has posted a blog entry and gallery from the February 23 jalapeno eating contest in Laredo, Texas.

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Kotaku illustrates post about MLE game with picture of Gal Sone, who will probably not be in the game
Joystiq thread about MLE game
AICE sets up page about Collegiate Nationals
PittsburghLive.com article about pierogi contest to be MCed by Crazy Legs Conti
Somebody purchased SurfAndStillwell.com and might put a website there.
MegaMunch has a post about his office pizza contest
Come for the baseball stay for the food – Pittsburgh Pirates start all you can eat ticket (via the Big Lead)

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A myspace page for Beautiful Brian’s CD project has been set up at http://www.myspace.com/theonlybandintown The band name is “The Pickles”. “Black and White”, a song apparently about the explusion of Dale Boone (who is not mentioned by name) from the IFOCE and AICE can be heard in its entirety. The entire album will be available on the myspace page for 24 hours after all tracks are completed.

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A video of last summer’s pumpkin eating contest between teams from the United States and Japan is available at hoosoo.tv

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BeautifulBrian.com reports that Ray “The Bison” Meduna claims that the Laredo jalapeno prediction appearing on IFOCE.com was not the prediction he sent to IFOCE:

After reading the final column which appeared on CEN on Feb 25th , Ray Meduna was obviously quite upset. “I didnt say anything about doughting me at their own peril or that crap. I was set up by Livingston and Rich and i am disturbed by this. Meduna knew Bertoletti was the favorite and basically write about why he thinks Erik is good with hot foods.
Meduna would like the competitive eating world to know that the column the IFOCE wrote on his prediction was doctored by Rich Shea because Meduna claims he wrote an entirely different article.

I will post the original prediction on this website if it is emailed to me.

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Wicked Local has an article and video from today’s bacon eating contest at Atwood’s Tavern in Cambridge, MA. Kevin “Kissyface Babyfoot” Davis won the contest while wearing a Nathan’s hot dog contest T shirt.

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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

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AICE news has a press release about the television schedule for the Collegiate Nationals. The coverage will start with a one hour special on the entire Collegiate Nationals May 25 on CBS. If footage from the eating contest appears in this program, it will probably be the first time competitive eating has appeared on national broadcast television since the Glutton Bowl on Fox in 2002 (with the exception of some short contests on morning shows). The Collegiate Nationals will receive 15 days of coverage on CSTV starting May 26, which will hopefully allow the eating contests to be seen in their entirety.

Text from the press release is available after the jump. I do not know what format the press release on the AICE website is in, but it is not in HTML, PDF or Word format.
Read the rest of this entry »

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1up.com has a screen capture from the upcoming MLE video game showing Tim “Eater X” Janus and El Toro competing against each other. The score shows El Toro leading Eater X 10 hot dogs to 8. The game will debut as an exclusive to WiiWare, Nintendo’s upcoming downloadable game service for the Wii. WiiWare is expected to debut on May 12, but the MLE game does not have a price or projected release date. The game will use the Wii remote to simulate the action of eating competitively.

See also awn.com, ign.com Exophase.com has the full press release.

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1up.com has an interview with Bill Swartz, the head of Mastiff, the company developing the Major League Eating video game. Swartz says that the idea for the game was originally Mastiff’s:

We were looking for a product. We wanted to do a game with a under-appreciated IP that was still known by a large number of people. And the last thing we wanted to do was to try and be a mini-Activision or a mini-EA. I didn’t want to do robot soccer or baseball with penguins. And it’s [Mastiff Production Woof] Tom [Gaubatz], to his credit, he said, “Why don’t we do Major League Eating?” I called them up, frankly not knowing that much about it. I talked to them. And as we started this project, I fell head over heels in love. Major League Eating could be the best thing that has ever happened to me — as a human being, as a sports fan, as a game developer.

Bill Swartz also states that Joey Chestnut will appear in the game. He does not confirm any other names, but says there will be two beautiful female characters.

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Here is a list of all the deaths in eating/drinking contests I am aware of:

1999 Chicago, a 12 year old school girl dies playing “Chubby Bunny” in an unsupervised classroom. The goal of “Chubby Bunny” is to say “Chubby Bunny” after stuffing one’s mouth with as many marshmallows as possible.
2002 Japan, school boy dies in cafeteria after attempting a stunt seen on a televised eating contest.
2004 Canada man dies after choking in chicken wing eating contest held at Regina bar.
2004 Japan, housewife dies in bread eating contest in Fukusaki, Hyogo Prefecture
2006 Canada, woman dies in “Chubby Bunny” contest held at Ontario fair
2007 Sacramento, woman dies of water intoxication after competing in a bladder endurance contest sponsored by a radio station.
2007 India, man (believed to be epileptic) dies from breathing complications in an idli eating contest
2008 Wales, man dies in unplanned post party cupcake contest to use up left over buffet food. Articles about the contest do not make it clear if the contest was a mouth-stuffing contest or a speed eating contest

Of the above 7 deaths, 3 (India, Japan, Regina) occurred in scheduled conventional eating contests. It is not mentioned what medical personnel was on site at those events.

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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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Lyrics for 2 of the sample songs on beautifulbrian.com are available after the jump:
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In his myspace blog entry from February 20, Pat Bertoletti announced his plans for the upcoming Sunday night:

This week saw me getting a tuxedo for the escoffier(my idol and the greatest chef of yesterday) society dinner on sunday. I am going as steve dahls date( the greatest talk radio personality this city has seen). I thought about giving him a garder and emailing asking what time my mom should drop me off for pre prom pictures. I hope I can eat and drink because I will hopefully be coming back with another jalapeno title under my belt( laredo tx on saturday) . The tux is going to look great with the mohawk spiked up. I’m pretty sure having that hair will insult more chefs than I can imagine but that’s why it’s going to be such a good time.

Pat Bertoletti talked about his experience at the dinner on Monday’s Steve Dahl show. A podcast and log of the show are available. Pat’s segment begins at the 13 minute mark. Dahl calls Bertoletti a “knucklehead” after he hangs up.

Pat Bertoletti also sponsored a high school science project titled, “Music and Speed Eating” which analyzed how eating speed was affected by the tempo of music.

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Freep.com reports that Mallie’s Sports Grill & Bar in Southgate, Michigan unveiled a 134 pound hamburger on Saturday. The restaurant will apply for Guinness world record status for the sandwich as the largest commercially available hamburger. The current holder of that title is Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 123 pound burger. A picture of the Guinness certificate is available at Denny’s home page.

The burger will sell for $350 and must be ordered a day ahead of time.

Freep.com video clip

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AICE News announces that the finals of the Collegiate Eating Championship will take place at the Wave House in San Diego on April 19. Three collegiate eaters with impressive eating resumes will receive byes, others can enter the finals by competing in a qualifier on April 18. “Furious” Pete of bodybuilding.com will probably be one of the three eaters to receive a bye. Entrants must be currently enrolled in at least three college credits. Foods have yet to be determined, but will be items popular with college students. Jack in the Box is the primary sponsor, so the contest might feature food from that chain.

The contest will be held as part of the Collegiate Nationals sponsored by CSTV. The Collegiate Nationals will consist of four multi-sport events for college students to be held this spring. The other San Diego events will be beach volleyball, flowboarding and a battle of the bands.

CSTV has been acquired by CBS and will be rebranded as the CBS College Sports Network in March during the NCAA basketball tournament. It was not announced if the eating contest will be televised on CSTV. I believe this is AICE’s first deal with a television network.
CSTV has its headquarters in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, like IFOCE / Shea Communications.

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The Daily Mail reports that Adam Deely died after getting five fairy cakes lodged in his throat in a cake eating contest at the at the Monkey Cafe in Swansea, South Wales. The competition was not medically supervised or even planned; it was held after a party concluded and guests decided to clean out uneaten food left over from a buffet spread.

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