Pat Bertoletti has written a blog entry about his trip to Houston for the matzoh ball eating contest at Kenny & Ziggy’s Deli. He believes he was leading Joey Chestnut until about the five or six minute mark. The report closes with Pat’s thoughts on his current status in the IFOCE:

3 years on the circuit have driven me to reflection. Throught this reflection I have realized that eating is tier based. You start on a natural talent tier and as time, contest experience, and training sets in you have a break through. You then plateau and level off as your body gets used to its new capacity. I have gone through these and am on a plateau. I am trying to get over the hump as we speak. It’s one giant hurtle to overcome. To beat joey and kobey in nathans or krystal is no walk in the park. I don’t know if it’s possible for my body to hold 70 nathans but I am going to damn well try to hit that number on the 4th. One can only play 2nd fiddle for so long before he gets the itch and wants to be the lead. But, there is something to be said when you’re number 2. Motivation comes easier when you know that ever contest you need to up your game and compete on the top level.

The Jewish Daily Forward also has an article about the contest.

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• 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”

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The Jewish Herald Voice has a report on Sunday’s matzoh ball eating contest held at Kenny’s & Ziggy’s New York Delicatessen in Houston. Hopefully the event did not produce a loss for the Marvin Zindler Fund for Pancreatic Cancer Research; only four non-professionals (who contributed at least $250) competed. The contest had a representative from a CPA firm counting each competitor’s total.

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• Another video of Kenny & Ziggy’s Matzoh Ball Eating contest
• Video from the 2003 matzoh ball eating contest held at Ben’s Deli
• Acme Oyster contest returning in 2008?
• Commenter reports that winner of Des Moines bacon eating contest, Manni, is a gym owner
• Benefit Saturday to preserve Coney Island as an amusement district
• Hall Hunt has a report on his appearance at the Rays Fan Festival
• Collegiate Nationals eating contest mentioned in USA Today

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Erik Denmark has posted a blog entry and gallery from the February 23 jalapeno eating contest in Laredo, Texas.

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Kenny & Ziggy’s New York Delicatessen, Houston, TX, 8 minutes

1. Joey Chestnut – 78
2. Patrick Bertoletti – 76
3. Juris “Dr. Big Time” Shibayama – 40
4. Nathan Biller – 30
? Rubik – 14
? Elizabeth – 9

Juris Shibayama reports that the balls were about racquet ball sized in a small amount of broth and were cooked, but cold. He also says that Joey donated $500 (1/2 of his cash prize) to the MD Anderson Cancer Center and he donated $250. Patrick Bertoletti also donated an unknown amount.

update
Galleries: llamarama, smugmug (has a lot of pictures of Elizabeth)
Contest video

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The Houston Chronicle has a preview of Sunday’s World Championship Matzoh Ball Eating Contest. The contest will probably have the best field since the Krystal Square Off finals despite a relatively modest purse of $1,500. Joey Chestnut and Pat Bertoletti are expected along with Chip Simpson, Juris “Dr. Big Time” Shibayama and Dave “SykoBozo” Cagle. Nathan Biller has also said he will compete.

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Beautiful Brian has a commentary on Chestnut vs. MLE and a CD update
Hall Hunt does eating contest at Rays Fan Festival and eats 13 hot dogs in undisclosed time (Kobayashi attended last year’s Rays Fan Festival)
Picture of Kobayashi before 2007 Nathan’s finals, used on wikipedia page
Frank Pastore mentions the breaking of the 72 oz steak record on his blog (from supersizedmeals comment)
Picture of 37 inch pizza from Big Lou’s Pizza in San Antonio
Dude a Palooza has male oriented events including eating contests
Liz K buys a house (gallery)

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The Laredo Morning Times has an article about last night’s jalapeno contest. The top 3:

1. Pat Bertoletti, 266 peppers, 15 minutes, new contest record
2. Sonya Thomas, 170 peppers
3. Erik Denmark, 147 peppers

The previous record was 141 in 15 minutes, set in 1991 by Braulio Martinez

The article reports that competitors were banned from drinking beers during the contest, but Pat Bertoletti drank a beer in “about a second” after he was announced as the winner.

Erik the Red has a blog entry about his contest participation and made the cover of the Laredo Times entertainment section.

Sonya has a contest report on her news page.

The IFOCE contest report does not mention Sonya by name; the runner up is listed as “Major League Eating’s top female eater”.

IFOCE’s press release to promote the contest called for a jalapeno eating contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to decide the Democratic nomination.

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On her News & Notes page, Sonya Thomas announces that she will compete in Saturday’s Jalapeno eating contets in Laredo, TX.

It appears that Pat Bertoletti and Erik Denmark will also compete in that event based on a comment in Pat’s myspace blog.

Joey Chestnut will probably not attend, since he has been saying that his next contest is the Houston matzo ball contest.

This will be the first matchup of between members of the IFOCE top 10 since the Krystal Square Off.

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The Houston Chronicle has a preview of the matzo ball eating contest that will be held March 2 at Kenny & Ziggy’s Deli. The restaurant’s web site also has a page about the contest.

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The Matzo ball contest at Kenny and Ziggy’s New York Delicatessen in Houston is now listed on the IFOCE schedule for March 2. The contest purse is $1500 and registration opens February 6. Unlike the contest listing on my-table.com, the IFOCE contest page does not mention a minimum $250 donation for entrance into the contest.

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Chron.com on Houston matzo ball soup contest
Ansonia, CT paczki contest Tuesday – GJoe is expected
List of top 10 eating contests – The Wing Bowl is not listed
Des Moines bacon festival with bacon eating contest
Las Cruces, NM 6 pound burger challenge
Canadian 2.5 pound burger contest – via AICE news
Leeds rugby team has burger eating contest at Florida training camp

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A new show on the Travel Channel called “Food Paradise” has started production by recording trips to the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas and the 17th Street Bar & Grill in O’Fallon, Illinois. I am not sure if this is the same show that is currently seeking a host.

In other television news, AICE news reports that a film crew from the History Channel will be present at the burger contest at the Clinton Station Diner on Saturday.

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ESPN Radio 1250 has put up a page with pictures and some brief biographical information about the qualifiers for Friday’s Wing Championship Series finals.

A gallery (with minimal captions) of the Dallas Wing Championship Series is also available.

Brian Subich’s qualfication video is now available on philly.com’s Wing Bowl page

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(From an anonymous comment) An announcement for the La Costeña Jalapeño Eating Contest in Laredo, TX appears on the IFOCE website. The contest will be held on February 23 at the Jalapeño Festival. The total purse will be $5000. Registration opens Jan 22 at noon.

If no earlier IFOCE contests are held, there will be almost 4 months between full-fledged IFOCE competitions (not counting the Wing Bowl as a 100% IFOCE event). The announcement alludes to this hiatus:

The nations greatest athletes have been resting their gullets in the off-season and are ready to make a serious mark on 2008.

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1033espn.com has a page about the Dallas Wing Championship Series, which will have its first round on Sunday. Details about the first round follow:

* Sunday January 13 – Boston’s Pizza in Grapevine
* Begins with pre-game show before kick off of Divisional Game 1
* Contest begins in between the conclusion of Divisional game 1 and kick off of Divisional game 2
* Each team has 2 rounds of 3 players (6 participants total per team) competing against their own “teammates” in order to represent TEAM GAC or TEAM NATE in the finals
* 3 minute per round
* Winners from each round move to the semi final round to compete against 1 other person. The winner of the semi final round goes to the Finals on Sunday, February 2nd.

Nate of Team Nate is presumably Nate Newton, who weighed over 300 pounds as a member of the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s and was caught smuggling over 200 pounds of marijuana after his football career ended.

The first four qualifiers of the Pittsburgh Wing Championship Series finals are listed on espnradio1250.com’s WCS page: Mr. Good Time (30 wings), Obi Wing Kenobi (28), Broken Wing (65) and The Red Hot Wing Nut (54).

update Derek “Wing Tut” Payne has a blog entry about his participation in the Thursday qualifier.

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The organizer of the Lewisville, Texas tamale contest sent the following email:

Would it be possible to ask eaters on your site to rank the following five factors in order of their importance in deciding whether or not to attend a specific event?,

Location of the event (i.e. host city)
Date/Time of the event
Type of food being consumed
Prize money being offered
How I am treated at the event

If not, I certainly understand, but as an event sponsor and host we would really like to know what steps we could look at to make our event better for the participants. Thanks for your consideration.

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From IFOCE.com

Waffle House Waffle Eating Championship, Texas State Fair, Dallas, TX
1. Pat Bertoletti 29 waffles
2. Joey Chestnut 28.5 waffles
3. Tim “Eater X” Janus 21.25
4. Brad “Old School” Sciullo 17.5

Pat now has a two contest winning streak against Joey.

update CBS11.com has a video of the contest.

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From AICE news Black & White Cookie Eating Championship

1. Ian “The Invader” Hickman 11.0 cookies
1. Dale Boone 11.0 banned from AICE contest following event
3. Chris “the American” Schlesinger 9.66
4. Mike “The Real Skinny” Hoffman 7.50
5. Joel “The Cannon” Podelsky 7.00
6. “Sweet” Jill Stoler 3.00

Joe Menchetti was present, but was prevented from competing by Boone’s objections.

There was also a tie in the Texas State Fair corny dog eating contest with Brent Ricord and Mike Wilkes with 12 corny dogs in 10 minutes. DallasNews has an article about the contest. Both first place finishers received the original prize amount.

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The Fifth Annual World Corny Dog Eating Championship will take place at the Texas State Fair in Dallas on Sunday. The first prize is $500 and 2 roundtrip tickets on Southwest Airlines.

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The Kingpin of Cowtown received a press release about the Waffle House contest to be held October 7 at the Texas State Fair. The expected competitors listed in that document are:

The ten-minute all-you-can-eat waffle-eating contest will feature not merely an all-star cast of competitive eaters, but a virtual cornucopia of interesting characters to boot. Nipping at the heels of Chestnut and Bertoletti will be 26th-ranked Brad “Old School” Sciullo, a chef from Uniontown, PA, who can down a gallon of milk in 26 seconds. Sciullo recently upset a legion of higher-ranked gurgitators at the World Buffalo Wing Eating Championships. Also competing will be Brickhouse Braunstein from Bethesda, Dave “U.S. Male” Goldstein, and Walker “Texas Ranger” Duke, a waffle-specialist from Dallas, who has been boasting to everyone in earshot that he plans to upset Joey Chestnut in what he’s billing as, “the nosh heard around the world.”

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Hall Hunt has some pictures from the Kolache contest in Houston on his blog.

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TimeRecordNews has a report on the beanie burger eating contest at the Texas-Oklahoma Fair. Maurel Merette took advantage of 3 time champion Nathan Biller’s absence to win by eating 4 beanie burgers in 7 minutes.

I have not located any media coverage about the Houston Kolache contest. Friday night in Texas during football season is probably not the best time and place to maximize coverage.

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Kolache results from Sonya:

1. Joey Chestnut, 56 kolaches
2. Pat Bertoletti, 54
3. Bob Shoudt, 36
4. Sonya Thomas, 34
5. Hall Hunt, 27

Sonya will also compete in the Chicago jalapeno contest, where she expects to compete against Pat Bertoletti, Rich LeFevre and Erik Denmark.

Chron.com did a preview of the contest yesterday containing an interview with George Shea, who estimates the value of the publicity produced by Nathan’s contest at $100 million.

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