• 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

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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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• Final Denver hot dog qualifier report
• Column criticizing Juris Shibayama for finishing “toward the back of the pack” that does not bother to find out his actual placing
• Megamunch blog entry and gallery from the UEPa meeting at Gregory’s Steakhouse
• Report on Tour de Donut in which cyclists can reduce their reported finishing times by eating donuts
• The Serious Sports News Network reports that a congressional committee will investigate allegations that PEDs were used in the Nathans’ finals
• Mini-essay contest for slots in the Bowie burrito eating contest, also lists expected ranked entrants

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The top 2 finishers in yesterday’s beef patty eating contest at Meritone Family Festival in Connecticut can both be found in the bodybuilding.com forums. “Furious” Pete Czerwinski took first place by finishing 14 beef patties in 3 minutes and 14 seconds (video and pictures) and John Taylor, runner-up in the Nathan’s Hartford qualifier, was the only other competitor to finish his 14 patties in the 8 minute limit. Kara Walker won the amateur contest in her first competition.

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• Hall Hunt completes the Grandfather Mountain Marathon (Boone, NC area)
• Singapore qualifier videos and photos
• Fort Wayne hot dog contest report (full results)
• Manning brothers compete in Oreo Double Stuf Lick Race with $10,000 prize
• Two questions by Skinnyboy
• Greenwood, SC hot dog contest results
• CBS 46 video of Atlanta bacon contest
• Michelle Lesch wins 10th South Africa oyster eating contest

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Chinook Winds rib eating contest results from a Jason Erb email:

1st Joey Chestnut 8.05 lbs, 4th victory in a row
2nd Rich Lefevre 5.3 lbs, 4th 2nd place finish in a row
3rd Erik Denmark 4.55 lbs, 3rd 3rd place finish in a row
4th Jason Erb 3.7 lbs, 3rd 4th place finish in a row
5th Brickhouse Braunstein 3.35 lbs

update

Blog entry and gallery by KC Photo

Desert Diva blog entry

Picture of Joey, Erik and fan

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The Rafu Shimbon reports that a gyoza eating contest will be held on August 23 at the Nisei Week Festival in the Little Tokyo section of Los Angeles. In 2006, the festival held an IFOCE gyoza contest. This year’s contest will probably also be an IFOCE event because the article says that national food eaters will participate.

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• Registration for the Ash Creek (CT, August 17) rib contest and the Myrtle Beach BBQ contest (August 30) opens tomorrow
• Transcript of Joey Chestnut on CNN July 4
• Furious Pete attempts to break Cookie Jarvis’ 76 ounce steak record at J & R Steakhouse (result)
• Jill Stoler’s report on the 120 ounce steak attempts
• Video of amateur contest at Delaplane Strawberry Festival
• 17 Year old eats age in hot dogs
• Video of radio interview of Joey Chestnut and the LeFevres
• Kobayashi has a blog entry about dining at Gray’s Papaya hot dog stand with Stephen Dubner

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A segment about Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub containing footage from a 2002 event in which diners attempted 3 and 6 pound burgers has been uploaded to youtube. No one was able to finish a 6 pound burger, but Lori Weiss did manage to set the record for the three pound burger.

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• Log of Pat Bertoletti on yesterday’s Steve Dahl show. Bertoletti will be competing against sandwich makers at the Taste of Lincoln Avenue on July 26 or 27.
• Video recorded by Gersh Kuntzman alleging cheating by Kobayashi after regulation time ended at the Nathan’s finals
• Press release about today’s UEPa meeting at Gregory’s Steakhouse
• Short article about Rich LeFevre

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WFAA.com reports that the next stop in the La Costeña Feel the Heat Jalapeño Eating Challenge Tour will be in Dallas Sunday at the Taste of Dallas food festival. The contest will be one minute and award $500 to the winner.

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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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• Joey Chestnut on the Today Show after defending his Nathan’s title
• Short article about Hall Hunt on jacksonville.com
• Mini burger eating contest in Long Beach Monday. Purse is $600 in restaurant gift certificates.
• FCC affirms $4000 fine of WIP for not following listed rules in Wing Bowl 13.
• Parody about alleged performance enhancing drug use in the Nathan’s finals
• Southington, CT hot dog contest also goes into overtime
• Kobayashi has a blog entry about Hungry & Focused 4 showing Super Paul Barlow’s cover art
• Kobayashi also has a link to Erin Wigger’s gallery of competitive eaters

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DelmarvaNow.com has a gallery of the hot dog eating contest held July 4 at Fish Tales restaurant in Ocean City, MD. A caption reports that Ken Federighi won the contest by eating 16 hot dogs in 12 minutes. J.D. Kisner took 3rd place (the runner-up was not listed)

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The Salisbury Post has an article about controversy over Dale Boone’s use of hot tea at the July 4 Apple Ugly eating contest:

After friends pointed that out, [contest runner-up Keatin] Shelton e-mailed the Apple Baking Co., which organized the competition, to say that he didn’t think Boone’s record should count.

“I believe the tea may have given him an advantage,” Shelton wrote. “Anyway your rules were broken.”

The rules say that contestants can have cups of water. The rules also say contestants can’t use condiments on Uglies — which are “delicious enough on their own.”

The contest organizers say that Boone’s victory will stand.

There has been previous controversy over hot beverages in pastry eating competitions. Some competitors objected to the use of hot coffee in the 2003 San Gennaro Cannoli Eating Championship

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• Preview of the Chinook Winds rib contest. Rich LeFevre and Erik Denmark are listed as expected entrants.
• Steakbellie on the Camden qualifier
• Megamunch finalizes plans for the UEPa meeting. The 120 ounce steak is free if finished.
• Quotes and podcast of George Shea at the Nathan’s finals.
• According to CNN, Heinz’ sales are up 16.5% and profits are up 30.9% over the past two years. Nelson Peltz got Heinz to co-sponsor Nathan’s.
• 11 “Pushing Daisies” themed pie eating contests at the Orange County Fair from July 11 to August 2

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WZTV (Fox 17/ Nashville) has an article and video about Juris Shibayama with footage from his medical office. The reporter surprises “Dr. Big Time” with a Twinkie eating contest, which the spinal surgeon wins.

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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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The Daily News Online has a preview of Sunday’s rib eating contest at Chinook Winds Casino in Oregon. The columnist, Rick S. Alvord, turned down an offer from the casino:

The fine folks at the casino told me to call them if I had a craving to interview Chestnut. Yeah, well, my career hasn’t deteriorated to that point yet, but thanks anyway.

For some reason, I think I already know what he’d say …

A mock Joey Chestnut interview follows. (Perhaps the real Joey Chestnut could have informed the author that the Wing Bowl does not take place at night)

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The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s food blog has an entry about a contest scheduled for Saturday:

A three-person team from local Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwich outlets will be attempting to make sandwiches faster than a team of three world-class, competitive Major League Eaters can eat them. It’s called the Freaky Fast Sandwich Making and Eating Contest.

update (from Crawfish) Contest information is now available on IFOCE.com. The three MLE eaters competing are Tim Janus, Tim Brown and Mike Fitzgerald.

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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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