update Nov 1 NotoriousBob.net has a quote that did not appear in the article

update Oct 31 Some observations and links about the article follow:

• Ronson asserts that the 1916 origin story for Nathan’s hot dog eating contest is “(almost certainly) untrue”, which Mortimer Matz, Nathan’s promoter of the 1970s and 80s confirmed in a 2010 NY Times interview. The claim that the first contest took place on July 4, 1972 is incorrect; a contest was held on Memorial Day weekend of that year and a competition took place in 1967 to honor the centennial of the hot dog.
• 2009 is listed as the year of Takeru Kobayashi’s final IFOCE sanctioned contest. He competed against Joey Chestnut in a contest in Singapore in May 2010.
• Emcee Dave Keating says that the cupcakes used in the shortened cupcake contest were lighter than those used in 2011, which explains why 7th place finishers Maria “Edible” and Michelle “Cardboard Shell” Lesco ate more in 6 minutes (48) than the previous year’s winner Tim Janus ate in 8 minutes (42). (Video of the contest).

If you need something to read due to Hurricane Sandy related disruptions, Jon Ronson’s article about competitive eating for the November 2012 issue of GQ is now available online. The article includes mini profiles of Joey Chestnut, Pat Bertoletti, Matt Stonie, Bob Shoudt and Maria “Edible” and contains reports from the Nathan’s finals, TooJay’s corned beef sandwich eating contest, and a behind the scenes look at the shortened cupcake contest held at the Isle of Capri casino in Waterloo, Iowa where Bob Shoudt offered these thoughts on cheating:

“I’ve seen everything,” he says. “People throwing hot dogs under the table. People making the biggest messes you can imagine.”

My eyes widen. “So there’s such a mess under the table it’s impossible to determine what counts as an eaten thing?” I ask.

“Oh, there’s techniques,” says Bob. “People suddenly get happy feet.” He mimes an eater dropping an item of food and then covertly stamping it into the ground. I’m appalled. Cheating makes everything pointless. And then Bob confesses that—if need be—he will be one of those cheaters. When his wife is in the crowd, they use pre-arranged signals. “If the eaters are dropping stuff like crazy, she’ll give a meaningless cheer. I’ll understand. Suddenly the food gets very slippery for me.”

He gives me a look that says: Don’t judge me until you’ve walked in my shoes. Leave the Gandhi-like behavior to the fools who don’t mind losing to the cheaters.

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A list of head to head results for Pat Bertoletti and Matt Stonie follows after the jump. Matt Stonie has finished ahead of Pat Bertoletti in the last two contests they have competed in after Pat finished ahead in 8 of the previous 9 contests. The new poll asks who you think should be #2 in the next IFOCE top 50. Read the rest of this entry »

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Pat Bertoletti’s victory at the Dorney Park cheesesteak contest yesterday is the first time he has finished ahead of Joey Chestnut since the Wingstop contest held in Dallas in April 2011. Pat’s previous finishes ahead of Joey Chestnut before then came at the Mars bar eating contest in San Diego in July 2010 and the September 2009 Reno rib contest. A listing of head to head results since 2009 follows after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

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update May 23 I Love Dorney 23 has some videos

update May 22 MCall.com has a gallery

update May 21 The rest of the results are available. Brian Seiken has uploaded some contest videos and “Badlands” Booker has a video of his performance.

Results (Part 1 | Part 2):
1) Pat Bertoletti, 20 sandwiches
2) Joey Chestnut, 17
3) Bob Shoudt 14.5
4T) Sean Gordon 12
4T) Kevin “LA Beast” Strahle 12
6T) Brian Dudzinski 10.5
6T) Brian Subich 10.5

update The Dorney Park twitter announces Pat Bertoletti won with 20 cheesesteaks

MCall has a blog entry about Stacey “Eatorama” McCarthy competing in the cheesesteak eating contest at Dorney Park in Allentown, PA. The contest will start at 1 pm.

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update April 23 Video of Alex Loiselle and Pat Bertoletti

update The only other announced results are Ben Taylor and Craig Reed w/14 HDB.

Winners via eating contest twitter

Men Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti 37
Women Meredith “Deep Fried Diva” 17

The qualifier is expected to start at noon and is being held in conjunction with a celebration of Kmart’s 50th anniversary (the Garden City location was the first Kmart and is now 50 years old). Will Pat Bertoletti break 50 HDB in honor of the event?

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update Apr 20 Cardboard Shell has uploaded a video of the entire contest. Tim Brown competes throughout the contest and does not appear to have been disqualified, it is not clear why no result was announced for him.

update Apr 16 WCFCourier has an article saying #2-#5 all received $1K making the payouts ($1500/$1000/$1000/$1000/$1000). The original payouts were $1500/$1250/$1000/$750/$500. If runner-ups Tim Janus & Aaron Osthoff split the original 2nd and 3rd place amounts after tying, they would have received $1125 each.

update Apr 15 WCFCourier has a contest video. Tim “Gravy” Brown competed, but did not have a result announced. Did he DQ?

7:14 KGAN has a short article about the celebrity contest.

5:39 Kevin “LA Beast” has posted a picture of the cupcakes used in the contest.

4:56 8 people beat Tim Janus’ winning total of 42 last year including (Kevin “LA Beast” Maria “Edible” (48) and “Cardboard Shell” (48)) despite the contest terminating after about 6 minutes due to a lack of cupcakes. This might be the first time an IFOCE record has almost been doubled since 2001 Nathan’s. Aaron Osthoff almost doubled his 2011 amount of 35.5 cupcakes. If the contest was the planned 8 minutes, Bertoletti probably would have doubled the 2011 winning total Tim Brown was reportedly present, but his result was not announced.

4:37 Full Results Part 1 | Part 2 (without LA Beast who says he ate 54)

3:51 Lindsey Newcomb is tweeting the top 5 as they are announced
1) Pat Bertoletti 76 72 contest truncated to about 6 minutes due to lack of cupcakes
2T) Tim Janus 66
2T) Aaron Osthoff 66
4) Eric “Badlands” Booker 60
5) “Notorious” Bob Shoudt 56

3:50 The contest is over and terminated early due to running out of cupcakes.

3:44 The contest has started

KWWL has an article and video about Tim “Eater X” Janus

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update March 27 Adrian Morgan has a gallery

The Rhythm City Casino twitter has posted the top 5 in todays catfish eating contest in response to a request from JimTheCandleman.

The rest of the results

1) Pat Bertoletti 9.5 pounds, new record
2) Tim “Eater X” Janus 9 pounds
3) Tim “Gravy” Brown 7.13 pounds
4T) Adrian Morgan 7 pounds
4T) Aaron Osthoff 7 pounds
6) Kevin “La Beast” 5 pounds
7) Justin Mih 4.2 pounds, first contest in 4 years
8) Mark Williams 3.5 pounds
9) Matt Raible 3.2 pounds
10) Andrew Kogutkiewicz 2.5 pounds
11) Clint .5 pounds

I think Justin Mih is the first former member of the IFOCE top 50 to be allowed back into the IFOCE/MLE after competing in an AICE/All Pro Eating contest. (Larry McNeil competed in last year’s Atlanta Nathan’s qualifier after joining the WLOCE.)

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11:58 Lew Steiner and Atlantic City Weekly also have videos

9:38 The rest of the top 5:
1) Pat Bertoletti 10.5
2) Sonya Thomas 8.6
3) Adrian Morgan 8.3
4) Bob Shoudt 7.5
5) Pete Davekos 6.75

NBC40 | NJ.com | and the Showboat facebook have videos

5:09 Bertoletti ate 10.5 king cakes in 8 minutes

5:05 The Showboat twitter announces Pat Bertoletti won the contest.

3:56 The contest has started according to a picture by Daisuke Nakai.

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