Stephanie Torres is one of the most recent additions (December 18) to the list of 72 ounce steak finishers at the Big Texan in Amarillo, Texas. At 105 pounds, she is one of the all time lightest successful challengers. Aty Vargas was an eyewitness to Ms. Torres’ meal and reports that she defeated her father, the owner of the restaurant, in a steak eating contest.

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“Big” Ben Monson has started a bodybuilding.com thread with pictures about his recent road trip throughout the southwest where he completed the following eating challenges:

• Quadruple Bypass Burger, Heart Attack Grill, 1:49, second to Joey Chestnut
• Big Texan 72 ounce steak, Amarillo, TX, 9:40 (3rd person after Joey Chestnut & Frank Pastore to break 10 minutes
• Chillz 8 waffles & frozen custard, Albuquerque, 11:12 new record
• 5 pound Sopaipilla, Sadies, Albuquerque, 7:56 new record
• 6 pound burrito, NASCAR Cafe, Las Vegas, 12 minutes, new record

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Amarillo.com has an article about a planned hotel for downtown Amarillo. Big Texan Steak Ranch owner Bobby Lee is one of the investors in the project and a hotel restaurant will have an 89 ounce steak to pay homage to both the 1889 founding of Amarillo and the 72 ounce steak at the Big Texan. Diners who complete the 89 ounce steak will not only receive the meal free, they will also get their hotel room at no charge as well. The planned opening date is summer 2010.

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The website for the Big Texan Steak Ranch has been updated. A page about Joey Chestnut breaking the 72 ounce steak record has been added. The foreword of the Story of the Free 72 oz. steak, which is now available at Barnes & Noble, can be read online. The webcam for 72 ounce steak attempts remains, but the finishers database, which was removed in 2005, has not been restored.

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Here is some additional information about the challenges featured in the Man vs. Food episodes which debuted on December 3:

Big Texan Steak Ranch 72 ounce steak Amarillo, Texas

• BigTexan 72 ounce steak statistics home page
• 72 ounce steak challenge webcam
• List of all finishers 1991-2005 in the eatfeats.com database
• BBC article about the Big Texan Steak Ranch
• Amarillo.com article about Joey Chestnut breaking the Big Texan’s 72 ounce steak record
• News video (without audio) about Joey Chestnut breaking the record
• Former Big Texan record holder Frank Pastore’s blog entry about Joey Chestnut breaking his record. Pastore was a Cincinnati Reds pitcher when he broke the record for the seventh time in 1987 and is now a conservative talk radio host.
• Video clip from 2000 episode of Ripley’s Believe it or not about the Big Texan starring Rich & Carlene LeFevre

Big Foot Lodge Sasquatch Burger Memphis, TN

update Dec 22, 2008 The Big Foot Lodge changed its name to Kooky Canuck and its challenge burger is now called the Kookamunga Challenge to settle a lawsuit with a California restaurant

• The Big Foot Lodge’s page about the challenge
• The Big Foot Lodge’s Hall of Fame and Hall of Shame. Joey Chestnut is the current record holder at 7 minutes 36 seconds. Roger Robinson has completed the challenge 3 times in 2008.
• Memphis Commercial Appeal article about Jeremy Payne becoming the second finisher of the challenge
• Memphis Flyer article about Pat Bertoletti becoming the first person to finish the challenge
• The picture of the burger below was photographed at a ball in Memphis, so it is probably the Sasquatch Challenge burger. According to the photographer, the woman holding the burger completed it.

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(From Kevin Ross email) A web page has been set up for the Travel Channel series Man vs. Food. The program will feature Adam Richman traveling around the country to attempt restaurants’ eating challenges. The first two episodes will be televised on December 3 and the locations will be Amarillo, Texas (Big Texan Steak Ranch) and Memphis (The Big Foot Lodge). A list of all locations is available on the website.

Earlier this year, a producer placed a casting call on eatfeats for a host for the show.

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• Joey Chestnut to appear at Edmonton Oil Kings minor league hockey game on Friday
• Badlands Booker to perform “Mamma Mia” rap before Famous Famiglia pizza contest
• Hall Hunt’s Krystal performance mentioned in jacksonville.com
• Big Texan Steak Ranch to appear on the Travel Channel in December
• Wichita State professor has won a local jalapeno eating contest five times

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Route 66 News reports that a book titled “Story of the Free 72-oz. Steak” about the Big Texan Steak Ranch’s signature meal has been published. The book contains a list of a challenge finishers since 1990. (Records before that year have been lost)
The book is available through mail order.

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The BBC’s website has an article about the 72 ounce steak challenge served at the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas:

Americans, of course, are not completely insensitive to those global challenges, and they are not entirely immune to the effects of them either. But it certainly doesn’t look as though the appeal of the steak challenge is flagging. This year has been one of endless bad news for the American economy but the challenge is more popular now than it was last year.

The American appetite for escapism, here at least, outweighs any moral squeamishness people might feel at this grotesque, but compelling, display of excess.

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Amarillo.com has a column about Joey Chestnut breaking the 21 year old record for eating the Big Texan’s 72 ounce steak meal in March. The steakhouse has no plans to start a televised contest despite the fame of its eating challenge.

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The blog for the Team Emerica skateboarding team reports that several team members attempted the Big Texan 72 ounce steak challenge last night. Danger Ehren from the MTV show Jackass also tried to win a free meal.

Skinnyboy caught the webcast of their attempt last night and has some video captures. He thinks the mohawked diner looks like Pat Bertoletti, but apparently does not eat like him.

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(From BaseballThinkFactory) Susan Polgar, the first woman to obtain the rating of chess grandmaster in regular competition, recently dined at the Big Texan and wrote about that restaurant’s signature meal. According to the blog entry, Joey Chestnut was not the first Nathan’s champion to attempt the challenge:

Former Cincinnati Reds Pitcher Frank Pastore did it in a record time of 9 ½ minutes, and held that record for 21 years until Joey Chestnut took the title on March 24, 2008 with a time of 8 minutes and 52 seconds. Another famous person who tried this was Takeru Kobayashi, the six-time hot dog-eating world champion.

It is not clear from the blog entry if Ms. Polgar attempted the 72 ounce steak. She is currently the chess coach at Texas Tech so it was not that long a trip for her. (Picture is from chessphotography)

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