• Verdict of “misadventure” reported in UK mouth stuffing contest fatality
• Article about Chef One dumpling contest results
• Registration for La Costena jalapeno and Nugget rib contests open today
• Registration closed for CT Ribs, Myrtle Beach BBQ, Houston kolaches
• Chicago dragon noodle contest Friday
• Miss Busy Lady on diets
• Pizza Eating contest in Dover, Ohio Sunday
• Tomoko Miyake attempts a curry with ostrich egg challenge (and wears the ostrich eggshell as a hat)
• Video of big eating cat named after Gal Sone

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The Krystalist blog has an entry about Jill Stoler’s 3rd place finish in the women’s division of the Chef One dumpling eating contest in Queens which mentions that the qualifier circuit for Krystal Square Off V will start in a “couple of weeks.” If qualifiers take place on weekends, this would put the initial qualifier on August 16/17 or August 23/24 depending on how the two weeks is rounded. This would result in 5 or 6 qualifiers if one qualifier a week is held.

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Registration for the Nathan’s hot dog contest that will be held at the Saratoga horse racing track on August 18 is now open on IFOCE.com, which states that the contest will not be a qualifier for the 2009 finals, but the winner will receive a year’s supply of hot dogs.

In other IFOCE contest news, registration for the Los Angeles Nisei Week gyoza eating contest will open in about an hour. Sonya Thomas says she will not enter due to high travel costs (from comment)

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Results from Will Millender of the Chef One Dumpling Eating Contest held at the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in Corona Park, Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York City

Mens division
1. “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti, 66 dumplings in 2 minutes, $1000
2. Will Millender, 57, $500
3. Ian Hickman, 50, $300

Womens division
1. Floria Lee, 38, $1000
2. Helen Chu, 30, $500
3. Jill Stoler, 28, $300

update Jill Stoler has a blog entry about the contest. Serious Eats has a short post.

update #2Will Millender has a blog entry, ghosty has a gallery and the People’s Daily Online of China has an English article

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• Jill Stoler reports from the Coney cheeseburger contest, won by Goose Gilbert. The contest will appear in the Discovery Channel documentary, Human Race 3000
• “Evolve: Guts” containing footage from the megaburger eating contest held at Clinton Station Diner will be televised on the History Channel on August 5 at 10 pm eastern
• Olathe, CO sweet corn contest report
• Eating contests every day of the Italian Festival in Ocean Township, NJ (Aug 6-10)
• Blog entry from Kobayashi’s hair dresser about his new blue dye job
• Report on the Osaka Gluttonous King qualifier (no results)

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A cheeseburger eating contest will be held at Peggy O’Neill’s in Coney Island on August 2. Footage from the contest will appear in a TV program. The contest length has not been determined and the first prize is $200.

The Goya National Black Bean Eating Championship has also been added to the schedule for August 16. The contest will take place at the Central Islip Islandia Festival and the total purse is $1750.

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The events calendar for the New York Racing Association reports that a Nathan’s hot dog eating contest will take place at the Saratoga Race Course on August 18. The first prize will be a year’s supply of Nathan’s hot dogs. It is not stated if the contest will be a qualifier for the 2009 finals. Registration will take place at the race course before the contest.

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Jill Stoler has a blog entry about Saturday’s pizza eating contest at Dani’s pizza. The top 4:

1. Gentlemen Joe Menchetti – 9.125 slices in 10 minutes $500, second independent contest win in 2 days
2. William The Champ Milllender IV – 8 slices in 10 minutes $250
3. Joel The Cannon Podelsky – 7 slices in 10 minutes $100
4. Jill Stoler 5.5 slices

(Thanks also Joel Podelesky)

(from Crawfish comment) In other Joe Menchetti news, he is now listed in the WLOCE rankings and his profile page appears on the WLOCE website. THe last time Dale Boone and Joe Menchetti were in the same organization, Boone had Menchetti blocked from competing in the black and white cookie contest, which led to Boone’s expulsion from AICE

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The website for the Buffalo Wing Festival has been set up with information about the eating contests that will take place. The wing eating contest will take place on August 30. The Buffalo Buffet Bowl contest will also return, but its date is not listed.

3update The buffet bowl date is August 31 and the time is 4pm (from US Male & Wild Bill)

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• Nathan’s finals gallery
• Lamb’s rib eating contest in California
• Dani’s Pizza qualifier galleries and results (from MissGluttonsBliss)
• Coney Island taco eating contest video
• Octopus ball eating contest in Japan

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• NY Time City Room blog has a picture of Pat Bertoletti, Sonya Thomas and Bob Shoudt superimposed with faces from the Spook-A-Rama ride
• Epicurious’ list of food-based video games
• Topeka jalapeno contest report
• Nathan’s gallery by MissCharo
• George Hadary wins Dallas La Contena jalapeno eating contest
• Yelp reviews of Nathan’s finals

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Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics, attended the Nathan’s finals and has a short blog entry about that event with a picture of post-contest hot dog debris.

Kobayashi says he dined with an unnamed author who is probably Dubner before the Nathan’s finals and has a blog entry about meeting him .

Dubner says that competitive eating might be a topic of SuperFreakonomics. Will the IFOCE have Ryan Nerz write another book to counter that project?

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Registration for the 5th Chef One Dumpling Eating Contest is now open (registration form). The competition will take place at the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in Flushing Meadows, Queens on August 3. The event will have men’s and women’s divisions and both divisions will award $1800 in prize money. Joe Menchetti and Floria Lee are expected to return to defend their titles.

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Valerie Bromann, who previously photographed the Krystal Square Off finals, attended last week’s Nathan’s finals and posted a blog entry and gallery with over 100 pictures.

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• Erik Denmark has a report from Coney Island
• Ian Hickman interview for delawareonline.com
• MissBusyLady believes Joey Chestnut should have won Nathan’s in regulation time
• HungrySisters on the Nathan’s finals
• List of Delaware eating challenges
• Mindy Kaling predicts she will eat “thousands of beets” at The Office Games
• NY Daily News reports on Peggy O’Neill’s July burger contest and reports the winner as “Pete Zerwinski”
• Greenwood, SC hot dog contest Saturday, $100 first prize
• Top 16 things overheard at the Nathan’s finals
• Will Millender added to non-IFOCE rankings
• Darren Rovell says he will drink 6 bottles of ketchup in 10 minutes if the Steelers leave Pittsburgh

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• Kevin Ross article on pe.com
• Pete Davekos article in the Boston Herald
• Podcast of the Lefevres’ appearance on Nevada Public Radio
• column about Brooklyn Stinky Cheese contest
• Wall Street Fighter’s blog entry about attending the Nathan’s finals
• Mindy Kaling to compete in the Office Games beet eating contest
• Rich Shea clips from Awful Announcing
• Qualifier schedule on nathansfamous.com still lists June 24 Tokyo qualifier
• Michelle Lesch to go for 11th oyster eating contest at the Knysna Oyster Festival in South Africa

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Kobayashi has written two blog entries containing English about the recent Nathan’s finals. One thanks fans for their support, the other contains Kobayashi’s thoughts on the overtime format (not automatically translated):

In this case, I think the correct approach is to look at the situation as this: we decided the winner through a different event (rather than that we decided the winner in an extension of the 10-minute battle).

So for me, deciding the champion in a five hot dog challenge is no different to deciding the champion by playing “rock, scissors, paper”.

Kobayashi also has a blog entry comparing winning qualifier totals with the amounts eaten in the finals.

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Ken Hoffman of the Houston Chronicle has a column about serving as a judge at the Nathan’s finals, where he was assigned to keep track of Juris Shibayama’s total. Hoffman did not focus 100% on counting the amount of hot dogs eaten by “Dr. Big Time”:

Even though I was counting Shibayama’s hot dogs, I was videotaping Chestnut and Kobayashi’s furious assault on processed meat and enriched white bread. I looked like a total tourist with my badge and camera dangling from my neck.

While the contest was going on, my cell phone rang. It was my buddy Sean Pendergast. “I’m watching on TV — which judge are you?”

The column reports that the Major League Eating Wii game will be released next week, which would give it a Bastille Day release date and set up the possibility of a crepe eating contest to promote its launch.

George Shea describes how the overtime format was decided on:

“In most matches, we use a one-minute overtime to decide ties,” Shea said. “However, the speed with which Kobayashi and Chestnut eat would have made it very difficult to judge who had eaten more. I felt it would be more decisive to have a five-hot-dog eat-off.”

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Juliet Lee has updated her WriteNow page with news from her trip to the Nathan’s finals where she received the 2008 IFOCE Rookie of the Year award. She also announced that she finished recording a documentary being produced by the Food Network.

The pictures above are from valjean615’s flickr gallery from the Nathan’s finals, which includes pictures of all competitors entrances (Arturo Rios also removed his shirt like Juris Shibayama) along with the Rookie of the Year ceremony. Patrick Vandam and Juris Shibayama were apparently the other finalists for that award.

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• Furious Pete wins Coney Island burgers by eating 9.75 burgers in 6 minutes. He will attempt Clinton Station Diner’s Zeus burger today.
• Rock Hill, SC hot dog contest
• Pensacoloa, FL hot dog contest
• Round Rock, TX jalapeno eating contest
• St. George, UT hot dog contest
• St. Petersburg, FL hot dog contest

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Results from the Nathan’s finals

1. Joey Chestnut 59, won 5 hot dog eat off
2. Takeru Kobayashi 59
3. Tim Janus 42
4. Pat Bertoletti 38
5. Sonya Thomas 34

Online news archives contradict Rich Shea’s claim that the contest was the first to be tied at the end of regulation time: 1990, 1980, 1978 (Memorial Day weekend)

Comments on this post are now closed. Please use the second place poll thread to comment on the Nathan’s finals.

update #4
Gothamist blog entry and gallery
Sports Illustrated article and gallery
Joey Chestnut’s mother prepares for her son’s return
Jill Stoler blog entry about Coney Island contest

July 5 update #3
Yardbarker report from Coney Island. Juliet Lee was named rookie of the year.
Newsday article and gallery
New York Post report
San Jose Mercury article
Calorie Lab blog entry
ABC News article
Wackbag thread with Pat Philbin pictures
Times and Democrat column
Southtown Star article about Pat Bertoletti
BBC news video
Kobayashi’s blog entry about the contest
Praise for Rich LeFevre
Anti-CE thread in Serious Eats from Raphael Brion

update #2 IFOCE.com has full results (from Crawfish)

AP article
Gersh Kuntzman column
ESPN.com video
flickr gallery by dietrich (from TechCrunch)

update NECN.com has the contest video in its entirety

The teleblog follows after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

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• Tampa Bay Online article about Nathan’s finals
• Joey Chestnut interview for Tampa Bay Online
  

  Q: Do you and Kobayashi actually hate each other?
  A: We might like each other in 15 years when we’re done. A lot of us are close friends.

• Hall Hunt article in First Coast News
• AFP article about Nathan’s finals. Kobayashi says he will eat at least 60 HDB
• Japan Today article about Nathan’s finals
• Little Italy pasta contest July 5
• Updated odds on gambling911.com
• re-release of 2007 Jason Fagone article about C E injuries (from Wing Kong & Megamunch)
• Youtube video of QVC qualifier
• More comments on the WSJ Health blog

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amNY has an article and gallery from this afternoon’s weigh in. The finals have been officially shortened to 10 minutes. The listed weights in the article:

Joey Chestnut, 210 lb.
Takeru Kobayashi, 128 lb.
Juliet Lee 110 lb.

Gersh Kuntzman has a new column disparaging Kobayashi’s chances at reclaiming the belt.

The Big Lead sport blog has a preview of the Nathan’s finals

Sarah DiGregorio, who wrote the Village Voice article about Conti & Janus, will appear on the Ron Kuby show on Air America this evening at 5:45

update

Gothamist has a blog entry about the weigh in

NY1 has an article and video

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Articles about Nathan’s finalists

• Pat Philbin – NJ.com
• Hall Hunt – Orlando Sentinel
• Nate Biller – MySanAntonio.com
• Pete Davekos – Boston Herald
• Takeru Kobayashi – NY Daily News

• The Wall Street Journal’s health blog on competitive eating
• Will Millender and Sal Carbone expected at Peggy O’Neil’s hamburger eating contest
• IFOCE BBQ sandwich eating contest near Tulsa July 26 – registration opens Monday (from Crawfish)
• The Sporting News blog thinks Nathan’s hype is down in 2008

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Badlands Booker has emailed the following information about his performance tonight

July, 2 2008

Hungry & Focused 4 Fork Knife & Mic Concert Live @ Rehab

25 Ave B, Lower East Side (Formerly Club Midway), New York, New York
Cost : $5. More Info: www.clubmidway.com

Don’t even think about Sleeping on July 4th Week Because Badlands will be burning the midnight oil performing songs off the critically acclaimed CE Themed-Hip hop Album Hungry & Focused 4_Fork knife & Mic. I will also be performing hits from the previous H&F albums in anticipation of the upcoming 92nd. Annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. so come by Club Rehab The Day B4 the big show, Wednesday night at 11:33 PM. to experience Hungry & Focused Live Midnight Show. Don’t miss it and we’ll See u There!

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