Boston eating challenges
(All Boston eating challenges and contests in database)
IFOCE September New England contests
(from anonymous comment) The fifth Garlicky Greens eating contest will be sanctioned by IFOCE. The competition will take place at b.good in Cambridge, Massachusetts on September 27. Registration opens September 18 at noon eastern and the first prize is a year of meals and a belt. A posting on craigslist about the contest is available. Pete Davekos and 2007 winner Michael “Betsy’s Boy” Cobb are expected. Will 2006 winner Gretchen Salyer (pictured on right) make her sanctioned contest debut?
A contest preview has also been added for Saturday’s burrito eating contest in Maine. The expected entrants include Pat Bertoletti, Tim Janus, Sonya Thomas, Tim Brown, Badlands Booker and Pete Davekos.
Link Buffet: August 4, 2008
- Another review of the MLE video game
- Article mentioning Samantha Brown’s participation in the Italian sausage eating contest
- Ravioli contest in Providence Saturday
- A Taste of Hamburg (PA) eating contest August 30
- A possible European contest for “Furious” Pete: Pourcailhade La Fête du Cochon (PigFest) in Trie-sur-Baïse, France will have a boudin sausage eating contest on August 10
Link Buffet: July 19, 2008
- MosesNews.com reports that Kevin Lipsitz received the IFOCE Lifetime Achievement Award
- WLOCE fan blog is now accepting comments (from Crawfish comment)
- Boston.com preview of Italian sausage contest
- Joey Chestnut is Chris’ first competitive eater of the week
- Report on Asbury Park, NJ pizza eating contest with a lot of comments
- Preview of Bayonne, NJ hot dog eating contest
- Report on a Singapore qualifier
Link Buffet: July 17, 2008
- The Boston Herald has a preview of the Italian sausage contest
- Reporter competes in Singapore qualifier
- Seattle doughnut eating contest during concert July 26
- Will Millender’s CE mixtape list
- Picture from the Chinook Winds ribs contest
- Video of beef patty contest
Link Buffet: June 2, 2008
- Podcast of Crazy Legs Conti promoting the Hot Dog Safari (Crazy Legs Conti’s appearance begins around the 32 minute mark)
- Spectator report from the Carnegie Deli pickle contest
- Gallery from the Philadelphia Nathan’s qualifier
- Joey Chestnut’s hometown, Vallejo, is bankrupt
- Jill Stoler apologizes to Beautiful Brian Nation
- MLE game not coming out this week according to joystiq
- Tomoko Miyake promotes Tobu Department Store’s new buffet (blog entry)
Menchetti vs. Goose Gilbert pumpkin pie showdown
Wicked Local has an article about the pumpkin pie eating contest between Joe Menchetti and Tom “Goose” Gilbert on the Chris Tabb show. Gilbert’s victory resulted in his being named the top eater in the new independent rankings.
Coed Chickwich Challenge co-champions
The Harvard student newspaper has an article about the Chickwich Challenge, which entails eating 12 chickwich patties in 12 different dining halls on the Harvard campus (only one bun must be consumed). Two sophomore females, Katherine Tan and Michela DeSantis attempted the challenge and both finished in 2 hours and 43 minutes. As the challenge progressed, the rules were liberalized:
By the time the contestants reached Quincy, they were fading quickly, and a new rule was instituted: each is permitted to approach two strangers and ask them to take one bite out of her chickwich. Though both contestants hesitated to demand this favor of strangers, the thought of less chickwich ultimately won.
DeSantis walked to the end of the dining hall and patiently explained her predicament.
“Is this for some kind of experiment?†asked one doubtful diner.
“No,†DeSantis quickly assured, hoping that the kind soul would agree to her offer.
Couples sought for contest vs. Conti
The web site for the Hot Dog Safari announces that a hot dog eating contest between Crazy Legs Conti and two couples will take place at that event on June 1 at Suffolk Downs in suburban Boston. The entry form states that the couple must be married or engaged and that the accepted pairs will be notified by May 15. The winner will receive $1000 in gift certificates, the loser will receive $500 in gift certificates.
Link Buffet: March 10, 2008
- SyKoBOZO emails that he won the men’s contest at the Fulton Oysterfest by 181 oysters in 5 minutes
- Boston.com report on the March 1 bacon eating contest at the Atwood Tavern – apparent runner up was female
- The Houston Chronicle reports the matzoh ball eating contest will be made an annual event
- SignOnSanDiego.com has a profile of Jason Tagle, who received a trip to Hawaii after winning a corned beef musubi contest. Tagle competed in the Knott’s Berry Farm PB & J sandwich eating contest and ate 11 sandwiches.
- BeautifulBrian.com has reruns of the Crazy Legs Conti and Kevin Lipsitz shows
- Domenico Alesi calls for more local competitive eating groups
- Kobayashi has a tribute to Kaz Arai, the 2000 Nathan’s champion
- Sonya Thomas praises Juliet Lee and mentions “Stick to Blogging”
March 1 bacon contests
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.
Boston jelly donut eating contest today
A jelly donut eating contest will be held today in conjunction with a birthday celebration for Elvis Presley at Dick’s Last Resort in Quincy Market in Boston.
Michael Barone on 1965 Boston IHOP contest
International Week concludes with an entry about a 1965 contest held at a Boston International House of Pancakes for collegiate mixed gender pairs. The Harvard student paper reports that the Harvard team was victorious over the Brandeis team in that contest. The article was written by Michael Barone, who would go on to become one of the most famous analysts of American politics.
Mystery women of competitive eating
The claim that a 90 pound woman was the only person to ever finish the Niner Diner’s challenge of a three pound burger with five pounds of fries adds another entry in the list of unnamed women who have reportedly done well in restaurants’ eating challenges which also includes:
The first person to finish the 9 pound Barrick Burger at the Plaza Casino in Las Vegas.
A yelp expedition to Spike’s Junkyard Dogs in Boston took a picture of the wall of fame in that establishment. A closeup of the “top dogs”, both females, on that wall follows after the jump. The hot dogs at Spike’s are reportedly larger than a typical hot dog.
Eagle’s Deli (Boston) burger Wall of Fame removed
Steve Reeves wrote a negative review of Eagle’s Deli in Boston which mentions the removal of the Polaroid pictures of diners who finished a large burger. The owner of the restaurant responded to the negative review on Digg and says he will set up an online wall of fame at an unspecified time in the future:
The pictures were of people who ate the Godzilla burger (1lb of beef, 4 slices of cheese and 1lb of fries) or higher, most of the pictures were people who ate the Godzilla as very few have finished more then that.
a. The pictures were taken down because their simply was no more room, we have pictures hanging just about everywhere you could pin one and there was no room left and we had stacks of photos to put up with no where to put them.
b. We had 2 ideas
i. Make the new photo level the “Cowabunga†(2lbs of beef, 8 slices of cheese, 2lbs of fries)
ii. Put the pictures up and every year take them down and move them to the web-site making room for new pictures
c. After taking down the photos, patching the walls and painting, we were complemented by many customers, most of them regulars who had been coming for 5, 10 15 some even 20 years on how much cleaner and brighter the places looked and asking us not to put the photos back up. After long considerations we decided to stop the Polaroid photos.
i. At some point all old photos will make it to the web-site and we will look into doing a direct to web-site pictures.
The Phantom Gourmet reports that the first person to finish the deli’s 5 pound burger and 5 pounds of fries will have the sandwich named after him or her. The website also has a list of the best restaurants in Boston serving huge portions.
Boston hot dog contest tomorrow
A hot dog eating contest will be held at the Ashburton Café in Boston at 12:30 PM. The entry fee is $5 and the proceeds will go to a charity of the winner’s choice.
Bicycle race / pie eating contest in Concord, MA
(From Deuce of Davenport via Deadspin)
A 6.5 mile bicycle race during which competitors will eat three slices of pie will be held in Concord, MA on August 25:
A short race against the clock with a unique twist: three “pie stops” (two along the way and one at the finish) where you will dismount your bike and eat a slice of pie! A test of not just your legs but your stomach, with excellent prizes to reward you for your daring. Please note the Pie Race is limited to the first 60 registrants, so sign up now! Click here for a press release from our first-ever Pie Race in 2005.
July 21 AICE contest results
(from AICE news) Pastrami Joes’ Reuben sandwich contest, 8 minutes
1 Gentleman Joe Menchetti 5 sandwiches
2. Jake “The Butcher” Casey (last year’s amateur winner) 4.6 sandwiches
3. Chris “The American” Schlesinger with 4.5
4 Mark Lyle “the Human Vacuum”
5 Chuck “The Chomper” Davidson
update The Battle Creek Enquirer has an article about the contest
East Boston Italian Festival sausage results from Derek “Wing Tut” Payne
1st – Tom “Goose†Gillbert – 4.84 New World Record!
2nd – Ian “The Invader†Hickman – 4.38
3rd – Nate “The Nibbler†Gayman – 2.78
4th – Jared Kaiser “Roll†– 2.39
5th – Tim “Chomps-A-Lot†Brien – 2.00
6th – Bruce “Captian RU†Sinclair – 1.83lbs
7th – Tim “Im Not Tom†Crews – 1.47lbs
8th – “princess†Diana Boro – 1.39lbs
9th – Mikey Canoli Saffie – 1.26lbs
10th – “big†David gore – 1.17lbs
11th – Jim “the Heater†Fallon – .87lbs
12th – Pat capagreco (pres I.U.) – .86lbs
13th – Jeff “big show†freeman – .83lbs
Bostonist previews AICE Italian sausage
Bostonist has a blog entry about the Italian Festival in East Boston today:
The site for Italia Unita is taking great pride in the sausage-eating contest, and the site showcases several of the competitors who will be tackling the sausage on Saturday. Massachusetts local Tom “Goose” Gilbert is looking to defeat Menchetti today. We hope Gilbert brings a box of Tums with him.
The contest will be followed by a concert by Frank Stallone (“Far From Over”)
BostonNow – pro-am AICE sausage contest Friday
BostonNow.com reports that there will be another sausage contest at the Boston Italian Festival in addition to the main sausage contest on Saturday:
On Friday there will be a World Sausage Eating Contest that pairs professional eaters with local celebrities fighting it out for the title of champion. More than 150 pounds of sausage will be devoured, with each contestant responsible for one to four pounds or up to 16 12-inch links.
“We receive a lot of exposure from it, and it has become a highlight of the festival,” says Capogreco. “We’re drawing a lot of competitive eaters, too, such as Tom “The Goose” Gilbert, Ian “The Invader” Hickman and Joshua “The Lumberjack” Hearne.”
Some profiles of the expected competitors are listed on the festival website.
Competitive Eating compared to hockey fighting
nerdsonsports.com compared competitive eating to another sport after eating the Godzilla Burger (two half-pound beef patties, four slices of cheese, bacon and onions) at the Eagle Deli in Boston in 4 minutes
Power Gluttony and NHL brawls have more similarities than one might initially think. Both are violent and messy affairs. Both generally end with one person throwing their hands up in surrender (or passing out). And both outwardly appear like nothing but barbaric, unplanned chaos. I want to set the record straight on that last point, though, as a lot of though goes into both pursuits.
1969 Harvard pancake champ received chemical assistance
The Harvard Crimson reports that Richard Tarnas was using performance enhancing drugs when he won an eating contest by consuming 17.5 pancakes in December 1969:
Trainer David R. Bishop 72 attributed Tarnas’s victory to his rigid two-week training program.
“We had Rick on a tough schedule-smoking grass every day and never going to bed before 4 a.m.,” said Bishop. “Then the stoned Munchies-brought on by two pre-contest joints-floated my man to victory,” he added.
Richard Tarnas is currently professor of philosophy and psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. His most recent book is Cosmos and Psyche. The astroknavery blog describes the content of that work:
Subtitled, Intimations of a New World View and based, Tarnas claims, upon 30 years* of research, it strives to address what he calls “the profound metaphysical disorientation and groundlessness that pervades contemporary human experience†by suggesting a “new metanarrative that transcends separate cultures and subcultures, an encompassing pattern of meaning that could give to collective human existence a nourishing coherence and intelligibility.â€
That meta-narrative, as he calls it, is astrology.
Boston Bacon contest
The Boston Phoenix has an article about a bacon eating contest held at Atwood’s Tavern. The winner is reported as having eaten 6.5 ounces of bacon in 5 minutes.
Rice & Bean Pot preliminaries
The prelimiaries for the Rice & Bean Pot Burrito Eating contest are taking place at the four Boston area “Beanpot” colleges this week:
Boston area colleges team burrito eating contest
Qdoba is sponsoring the Rice & Bean Pot Burrito Eating Contest. The contest is open to teams of 4 from the “Bean Pot” colleges: Boston U, Boston College, Northeastern & Harvard. Proceeds will go to the Cam Neely foundation. Finals will be on February 8, with preliminary rounds in late January and early February. A video promoting the contest can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab7QPQq9mNY
Haiku contest for momo eating contest slots
Tremont 647 in Boston is holding a haiku contest. The writers of the seven best haikus will gain slots in a momo (dumpling) eating contest to be held on December 17. Haikus must include the words “Momo†and “Tremont 647â€. The person who can eat the most dumplings in 10 minutes will win a $1,000 gift certificate to the restaurant.