With the Big Daddy burger contest tomorrow, it is an appropriate time to look back on the last megaburger contest, the AICE Zeus burger contest held at the Clinton Station Diner in New Jersey in May. Three person teams were allowed 75 minutes to finish the 12.5 pound sandwich. The only group to beat the deadline, the Tri-State Titans, finished with a time of 71 minutes, consisted of “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti, Arnie “Chowhound” Chapman, and Dominick “The Doginator” Cardo. The Titan’s efforts were almost invalidated by Chowhound’s vomiting soon after he completed the burger.

Kate Stelnick served as celebrity judge, her only involvement in an eating contest. The article does not state if it was her call if Chapman’s “reversal of fortune” occured after an allowable time. That experience might have been distasteful enough for her to withdraw completely from competitive eating. Another possible theory for her absence is suggested by her quote that she won a lot of bets from people who did not think she could finish the 96er burger. She could be winning a lot of money betting people in buffets and wants to keep a low profile so none of her potential victims recognize her (which could be the premise of a possible movie: “Svelte Co-eds Can’t Eat.” 😉 )

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It has been over two days since the meatball contest in Atlantic City and I have yet to find any media coverage of the event other than one AP photo, but that is irrelevant because Liz Kellermeyer and Krista Overby of the urbanhonking.com food blog attended that event and their contest write up is vastly better than any competition coverage I have ever seen in the mainstream media. They interviewed most of the competitors, including the non-favorites and gained access to the counting room where the amounts eaten were tallied. They also have a photo gallery with 99 pictures of the contest. Their post contest pictures of Sonya Thomas will make you wonder where she puts it all, as Bubba Yarbrough did in a comment in the previous post.

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From IFOCE.com & sonyatheblackwidow.com & Bubba Yarbrough

Meatballs, Carmine’s at the Tropicana, Atlantic City, NJ
1. Sonya Thomas 10.3 lb
2. Joey Chestnut 8.3
3. Bob Shoudt 7.6
4. Tim Janus 7.0
5. Rich Lefevre 6.8
6. Chip Simpson 6.0
7.Bubba Yarbrough 5.3
8. Larry McNeil 5.1
9. Allen Goldstein 5.0
10. Ken from MD (bouncer) 4.0
11. Brian Seiken 3.3
12.Kevin Lipsitz N3.1
13. Adam Leffler 1.9 – retired afterward
14. Crazy Legs Conti DQ

12/7 12:42 am results updated from writeup on beautifulbrian.com – Brian’s gallery

If there was any debate on whether Sonya Thomas should be ranked #2 going into 2006, she removed it with a dominating performance which gave her a 2 contest winning streak to offset her 2 contest losing streak from November. She almost doubled her amount from the 6 pounds which won her the title in 2004. “Humble” Bob Shoudt continues his strong drive for a top 5 ranking.

Links to articles will be added as they come online. Brian Seiken will probably have a more complete list of finishers.

Updated 8:43 pm iirraa has already uploaded a 6 picture photo gallery of the contest.

Updated 12/4 10:55 pm Yahoo news has an AP photo of the contest

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“Humble” Bob Shoudt and “Eater X” Tim Janus were the first to conquer the “Pauliesaurus” megapizza from Paulie’s Pizza in New Brunswick, NJ, winning them a prize of $350. Beautiful Brian has a writeup of their evening on his website.

With the vanquishing of the Pauliesaurus, notable unconquered eating challenges include:

• Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 15 pound Belly Buster burger
• Clinton Station Diner’s 50 pound (4 person team) Mount Olympus burger and 12 pound Zeus burger
• The Rockford (MI) Corner bar’s 42.5 chili dogs in 4 hours. The current record has been held by Sharon Scholten, a 110 pound woman, for almost a quarter century. If this mark is bested, it is debatable if the victor should have an asterisk if he/she does not eat a giant Mexican lunch before like Sharon did. (As far as I know, Ms. Scholten’s mark is the most hot dogs ever eaten by a woman in a single session, but Sonya Thomas might change that on July 4, 2006)

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Kate Stelnick’s student newspaper has an article in which she describes the aftermath of eating Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub 11 pound burger in January. This is the first article about Kate that I have been able to find since February. Like all the previous articles, no details are offered about what made Kate so certain she could finish the burger (are 5/7/9? pound meals commonplace for her?). She feels that society has made too big a deal about her accomplishment (the same could also be said for driving several hundred times around a racetrack, slapping a ball over a fence, or nearly everything else considered a big-time sport.) While her feat is certainly not on the level of curing cancer, it did offer a glimpse into what humans are capable of achieving (and also deflated some male chauvinists’ egos in the process).

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(From ahamburgertoday.com comments:) Pictures of the 50 pound “Mount Olympus” burger are available at the website of radion station NJ 101.5 FM.

It is surprising that no local news articles about the “Mount Olympus” are available. Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub 15 pound burger received a substantial degree of national media attention. I guess the media is “megaburgered” out.

Never eat more than you can lift — Miss Piggy

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The AICE website’s news page mentions that the Clinton Station Diner in western New Jersey has developed the world’s largest hamburger, the Mount Olympus, weighing 50 pounds total. No local news articles are avaiable and the sandwich is not currently mentioned on the restaurant’s website. The only details about the burger that I have been able to find come from a Mini Cooper forum page:

25 lbs. of beef
5 tomatoes
4 onions
5 cups of pickles
17 lbs. of bread

5 people are allowed 3 hours to eat it.

It appears that the diner will not have to give out many free 50 pound burgers. The challenge requires each team member to eat 10 pounds, so the average member of a succesful team needs to have the gastronomic capacity of Kate Stelnick. Kobayashi, Sonya Thomas, Joey Chestnut, Rich LeFevre and Kate Stelnick could probably finish it, but some members of that group require more significant remuneration than a free meal.

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Phillyburbs.com has an article about the NJ Pizza contest. As usual for many newspaper articles, it focuses on a local who finishes out of the top spots.

Thanks Bob Shoudt for the link.

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delawareonline.com has an article about the crabcake contest. Sonya had a cheering section travel from No. VA and had to come from behind to beat Joey Chestnut as in bratwurst.

The Courier-Post has an article about the NJ Tomato festival. The only mention of the pizza contest is that Cookie Jarvis won (there is also a picture of it) Beautiful Brian also has an eyewitness account and some pictures of the contest. (Cookie Jarvis’ wife appears as tall as he is)

No articles about Detroit grilled cheese and no information whatsoever about the Iowa smoked pork contest are available. (Speedeat.com will probably claim that IFOCE.com does not have the Iowa results because they are embarassed about the field besides the LeFevres)

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Delaware Crabcakes
Delaware State News has an article about the crabcake contest out. The 2003, 04 and probable 2005 rookies of the year took the top 3 places. This win will extend Sonya’s non-Kobayashi winning streak to about 7 months and gives her $8,000 in prizes for August.

Michigan Grilled Cheese
Patrick Bertoletti, 1st 21.5 grilled cheeses, Jammin’ Joe LaRue 2nd 18, and T. Brown 15. Patrick Bertoletti ties Sonya Thomas for the best mark so far in Grilled Cheese. Patrick Bertoletti would probably be rookie of the year if not for Joey Chestnut. I am not sure why Sonya Thomas went to San Diego instead of NC or SC for grilled cheese. It would be a much shorter trip and she would have a better idea of what result would be needed for the the best overall mark would be since those contests are later in the circuit.

NJ Pizza
Ed Cookie Jarvis 1st, 2 full pies and two generous bites, Bob Shoudt, 2nd 1 2/3 pies, Pat from Moonachie, 3rd 1 1/2 pies, Brian Seiken 4th (See here for Brian’s explanation why he didn’t finish 3rd)

Iowa Smoked Pork
No results are in. With Patrick Bertoletti going to Detroit, it would be a big upset if the LeFevres don’t finish 1-2 and Kevin Carr will probably finish 3rd.

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Articles mentioning the (Camden) New Jersey Tomato Festival Pizza Contest

• nj.com 8/19
• nj.com 8/20
• northjersey.com
• philly.com

There will also be a tomato throwing contest. Perhaps teams of IFOCE members and AICE members could compete in that.

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