The website for the Stockton, CA Asparagus Festival announces that the winner of the 2004 deep fried asparagus eating contest, Sonya Thomas, and the winner of the 2005 event, Joey Chestnut, will face off in the 2006 contest to be held on April 22. Sonya will stop off on the west coast en route from returning from her homeland of South Korea.

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explorernews.com has a writeup of Saturday’s jalapeno popper contest in Tucson by a would be contestant (there was not a slot for him) There are some quotes from winner Joey Chestnut. The article explains why Friday’s amateur contest winner, Loppi Joe Kerschner, should have added an “s” to the start of his nickname for Saturday’s contest.

5th place finisher Erik “The Red” Denmark also has a contest writeup on his blog.

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While the official opening of futureofeating.com remains in the future, Joey Chestnut fans can make do with his myspace site.

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On March 3, the Masticators, (Joey Chestnut & Hall Hunt) and the Space Dockers (Pat Bertoletti & Tim Janus) both finished Schiappa’s 29 inch pizza challenge for two person teams in O’Fallon, Illinois (greater East Saint Louis). This article mentions their feat and says both duos took under six minutes (the limit is 30) to finish the pizzas. In addition to being placed on the Wall of Fame, the teams won a gift certificate for another 29 inch pizza and are entered in a drawing for a trip to Cancun that will be held after two other teams have finished the challenge. (Is the Whaler’s boat equipped for tropical latitudes?) 😉

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Dan Reed of the San Jose Mercury News has an article about San Jose State student Joey Chestnut. Reed takes Joey to the Wendy’s on Monterey Highway in San Jose (where an extortionist claimed she found a fingertip in her chili) and he tries to consume eight containers of chili in 2 minutes. Chestnut will be competing in the Stockton Asparagus Festival, the site of his first victory last year.

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The Vallejo Times Herald has a rare pro competitive eating (or at least pro competitive eater) editorial praising local boy Joey Chestnut.

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Philly.com describes how Joey Chestnut met his girlfriend.

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sfgate.com has a profile of Joey Chestnut and an interview with his mother.

The Vallejo Times Herald has an article about local boy Joey Chestnut.

The Philadelphia Daily News has a contest writeup.

The Delaware County Times has a contest writeup focusing on the contestants from Delaware County.

The Daily Local has a profile of Timothy “Dr. Slob” Cusick

The Courier Post has an article focusing on the entrants from South Jersey. 10 competitors were from South New Jersey, 5 more than Philadelphia

The Courier Post also has an anti Wing Bowl commentary.

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Joey Chestnut (not Chestnutt) has set a Wing Bowl record with 173 wings beating Sonya’s record from Wing Bowl 12 by two wings. Rich LeFevre was second. LeFevre was apparently a crowd favorite. The arena was apparently only half full despite the sellout.

Updated 12:02 pm
nbc10 has a video and slideshow
kyw has a slideshow
philly.com has a video of the first half of the contest (real player required)
humblebob.com has some pictures on his main page

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I would like apologize to Joey Chestnut for approving the post containing the false rumor that his stomach had ruptured. It should have been obvious that the poster did not know what he was talking about because his claim that the grilled cheese finals have been moved to Saturday was not supported by IFOCE.com. I will be more careful in what I approve in the future. I hope none of Joey’s friends and family became concerned due to the false claim.

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Lisa, a South Jersey resident who goes to graduate school in Canada, was extremely impressed by Joey Chestnut’s Wing Bowl qualifying stunt of drinking a gallon of milk in under a minute. Lisa’s father has tickets to the Wing Bowl.

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While the San Francisco Bay area will not produce a Super Bowl winner in 2006 (or apparently many years into the future), the odds that of that region producing a champion in Wing Bowl 14 greatly increased when San Jose State student Joey “Jaws” Chestnut qualified by drinking a gallon of milk in 41 seconds Monday morning (philly.com video) . (The other favorite for the Wing Bowl, Rich LeFevre, lived in suburban San Francisco before retiring to Las Vegas several years ago). Chestnut has made five trips to the eastern time zone since the start of November to pursue his competitive eating career. It will be interesting to see if Wing Bowl 15 has geographic restrictions in addition to prohibiting previous competitors to ensure that a local wins the contest.

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Yahoo news has an AP article about Joey Chestnut’s near defeat of Kobayashi at the Krystal Square Off finals. After being tied at 60 Krystals with 37 seconds remaining, Kobayashi consumed 7 burgers while Joey Chestnut only managed one, which he blames on failing to immerse one of the burgers in water. Kobayashi claims he had difficulty moving his arms fast enough despite his muscularity.

A video of that contest is available on the article page.

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from “Beautiful” Brian Seiken:

1. Joey Chestnut 4.2 lbs
2. Cookie Jarvis 3.7lbs
3. Bob Shoudt 3.4.
4. Sonya Thomas 3.2
T4 . Chip Simpson 3.2

Sonya Thomas finishes out of the top three for the first time since Nathan’s 2003 I believe and is beaten by Cookie Jarvis for the first time in over a year. With her loss to Badlands Booker in the Buffalo Wing Festival Labor Day weekend, I wonder if the trauma of the 2005 Wing Bowl has resulted in psychological difficulties in chicken wing contests for her.

The Boston Herald has an article about the contest but does not give many results.

Updated 11/15 11:56 pm. Boston Globe article

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From IFOCE com todays results from the Arizona State Fair
1. Joey “Jaws” Chestnut (32.5 sandwiches) breaks Tim Janus’ mark by 1.5
2. Andy Dickman
3. John Riddle

The following qualifier winners will appear in next month’s finals which will be held at a location to be announced:

All members of the top 10 qualified except for recuperating Carlene Lefevre (and Kobayashi)

Click below to see a list of all known non-winning double digit results:
Read the rest of this entry »

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The screen capture of the Sports Illustrated on Campus article about collegiate eaters uploaded previously is difficult to read, so I did another screen capture with larger text (and no picture) and uploaded it here.

The article mentions that Joey Chestnut found it difficult to do the Chattanooga Krystal qualifier after having competed the previous day, but does not state that the eater he lost to in that contest had done contests the preceding two days.

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(From beautifulbrian.com)

1. Joey Chestnut, 4.5 lb.
2. Eric “Badlands” Booker, 3.6 lb.
3. “Humble” Bob Shoudt 3.5 lb.
4. Patrick Bertoletti 2.93 lb.
5. Jason “The Erbivore” Erb 2.9 lb.

(Updated 10/7 9:51 am – Thanks Jason Erb – added #4 and #5 totals and correctly
listed Jason Erb’s name and nickname)

(Updated 10/5 12:33 am #6 finisher Ken Wong has provided me with a listing of the remaining finishers)

#6 – Ken “The Demolisher” Wong, about 2.29 lb. surrey.bc.ca unranked
#7 to 11 – Scott”Pork Slayer” Sayer, ?.?? lb., Albany,OR IFOCE Rank #44
#7 to 11 – Brian McDonald, about 1.05 lb. Everett, WA, unranked
NOTE: Brian McDonald was the top local eater from Washington unranked
#7 to 11 – Keith Gerhart Less than about 1.05 lb. Everett, WA unranked
#7 to 11 – Robert Cochran Less than about 1.05 lb. Everett, WA unranked
#7 to 11 – ?? Less than about 1.05 lb. ??-Everett, WA unranked

No Sport Illustrated (on Campus) jinx for Joey Chestnut as he continues the momentum he established in August and Labor Day weekend, easily beating “Badlands” Booker, who is unable to upset a top 3 eater in chicken wings for the second time in a month. All three (and the next two places) qualify for the finals in Boston next month.

Updated 10/02 12:38 am Yahoo news has a picture of Chestnut and Booker along with a results summary

Updated 10/02 9:53 am Heraldnet.com has an article about the contest

10:50 am Seattle Times article

Updated 10/03 11:30 pm places #4 and #5 added (from humblebob.com)

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(Thanks Hall Hunt) The new issue of Sports Illustrated on Campus has a (generally positive) article about collegiate competitive eaters with short profiles of Joey Chestnut, Patrick Bertoletti and Hall Hunt. The print version is only available on college campuses, but an online (flash plug-in required) edition can be viewed at:

http://mag1.olivesoftware.com/activemagazine/welcome/SI/OnCampus.htm

The article can be found on page 28. (It takes a while to scroll through the magazine.)

Some interesting facts:

• Patrick Bertoletti is a culinary arts major
• Hall Hunt has ran a 3:34 marathon

2005 could be described as the the year of the rookie undergraduate eater due to the emergence of Chestnut and Bertoletti along with Kate Stelnick’s feat.

Update Oct 1 12:19 am A screen capture of the article has been uploaded.

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The Seattle Times has a preview of Saturday’s Verizon VoiceWing chicken wing qualifier focusing on expected entrants Joey Chestnut and Eric “Badlands” Booker. The training methods of both competitiors are described. The article incorrectly states that Booker holds the Buffalo Wing Festival contest record (which was set by Sonya Thomas in 2004). It is surprising that Joey Chestnut would make the trip north when he has a qualifying contest in his hometown in two weeks. “Humble” Bob Shoudt states on his website that he and Patrick Bertoletti are also planning to compete. The top five competitors in the three qualifiers (also in SF and DC) will make the finals in Boston.

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Sonya Thomas broke her 2 event losing streak Monday at the Chattanooga Krystal burger qualifer, defeating Joey Chestnut in her fourth epic battle with the rookie in the past month. Her total of 57 hamburgers beat Joey Chestnut by one burger and bested her mark last year by 11 burgers. Surprisingly, Sonya does not mention the contest results on her website.

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The Atlanta Journal Constitution home page has a link to a video from the Waffle House contest with an interview with Joey Chestnut. (No direct link, if the video is no longer available on the main page try the video page.) Surprisingly, no text article containing contest results is available on the site (or if it is present I have not been able to find it.)

Thanks Larry McNeil for the link

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Joey Chestnut wins the Waffle House contest in suburban Atlanta with 18.5 waffles beating Sonya Thomas by half a waffle. This is the first victory for Joey Chestnut over Sonya Thomas after several close defeats. Joey Chestnut gave half his $5,000 first place prize to hurricane Katrina relief. Patrick Bertoletti finished 3rd with 11 waffles. Sonya Thomas will have the chance to obtain one victory this extended holiday weekend when she competes in the Krystal burger qualifier in Chattanooga on Labor Day.

In other contests this weekend, Cookie Jarvis won the Buffalo Wing Festival “Buffet Bowl” contest and Rich LeFevre won the Colorado Grilled Cheese qualifier with 21 sandwiches. Ron Koch finished second with 19 sandwiches.

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