DennysBeerBarrelPub.com reports that Brad Sciullo broke the record for the “Ye Olde 96er” burger by completing the 11 pound sandwich in 2 hours and 23 minutes. The previous record of 2:54 was set in 2005 by Kate Stelnick and tied later that year by Lori Weiss. Brad’s feat was recorded by the Travel Channel.

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Several articles about competive eating from the New York Times archive which previously required payment are now available for free (in reverse chronological order)
preview of 2005 NJ pizza contest, mentions Pat Philbin
2005 Review of Zen and the Art of Competitive Eating
Short article about Kate Stelnick (she claims to have drunk 14 glasses of water while eating the 96er)
Long 2003 profile of Carson “Collard Green” Hughes
Preview of 2003 Wing Bowl, focuses on Bill “El Wingador” Simmons and “Belly” Donna Villec
Report on the 2002 pelmeni contest
2002 preview of Nathan’s finals, mainly about the Sheas
2002 article about Don Lerman, Badlands Booker & Cookie Jarvis, calls George Shea a “competitive eater since 1988”
2001 profile of Kevin Lipsitz
Article on quick start controversy at 1999 Nathan’s finals
Report on 1999 Nathan’s finals
preview of 1999 Ben’s Deli’s matzoh ball contest
1998 article about Mike DeVito, also mentions start of the IFOCE, originally the International Federation of Hot Dog Eating
1997 interview with Ed Krachie
Report on December 1996 duel between Ed Krachie and Nakajima
1996 Nathan’s final report
1995 Nathan’s finals results
Report on 1995 Nathan’s New Jersey qualifier, contest was 10 minutes long
article on 1994 Nathan’s finals, mentions Curtis Sliwa’s participation
Report on 1990 Nathan’s, says Jay Green & Mike DeVito tied for first place
Preview of 1987 Nathan’s, registrations were still being accepted by phone on July 3
Report on 1984 women’s only pancake contest

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A segment from “Inside the NBA” about Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 11 pound “Ye Olde 96er” burger can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWdRnqoQLIU After Kate Stelnick is mentioned as the first person the finish the burger in under three hours, Charles Barkley inquires about her appearance. (Embedded video after the jump)

Read the rest of this entry »

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There is a page on ebay claiming that Kate Stelnick finished the 15 pound “Belly Buster” burger in addition to completing the 11 pound 96er. I have no idea why this page was placed on ebay since there is no associated merchandise for auction.

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The most convincing evidence that Kate Stelnick did finish the 96er burger in under three hours without assistance is probably found in this fark forum thread in which RSquared18 posts several times. Rsquared18 was a member of Kate’s travel part to Denny’s and the photographer of her eating the giant burger. Rsquared18 says that Kate needed 2:53 to finish the burger, one minute shorter than the official time.

2005-01-15 02:46:28 AM Rsquared18

I was with her when she did it. The 4 of us drove almost 5 hours this wensday morning to do this. All the pictures you will see of this have been taken by me. I will post all the pictures of our adventure if someone can help me with hosting/html (i have no idea how to post pictures)
/I know someone famous!

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A clip of Kate Stelnick on the Tony Danza show has been uploaded to youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LgSirXON1g Her waistline offers absolutely no evidence that it contained 10+ pounds of cheeseburger the previous week.

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An SexyFeast blog entry from January claims that Kate Stelnick finished the 12.5 pound Zeus burger from the Clinton Station Diner. Since I have not located any information that Kate has done any challenges outside Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub, I am assuming that the author saw the picture of Kate with the Zeus burger from the May 2005 AICE Zeus contest, in which Kate served as an honorary official and not a contestant, and jumped to the conclusion that she completed the burger. A Steakbellie blog entry from February says that the diner told him that no one had finished the burger in the three hour limit. Of course, both blog entries could be correct if Kate needed more than three hours.

The blog entry has an accompanying podcast, but no information about Kate’s potential feat can be found in it.

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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 now been 1 year since Kate Stelnick conquered Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s massive 96er burger and no other finishers have been announced in that time despite that restaurant receiving a tremendous amount of publicity. Even if Denny’s made Kate a slightly smaller burger because they thought she had no chance at completing it, as some commenters on this site have stated, finishing an 8-9+ pound burger in her first attempt is an extremely impressive accomplishment.

It would be extremely interesting to see where Kate could have gone in competitive eating if she had decided to pursue it. Even if she has no desire to compete in head to head eating contests, she probably could obtain endorsements and tv appearances solely by destroying restaurant’s eating challenges. Hardee’s thought enough of her feat that they alluded to it in their commercial about Denny’s 4 pound sourdough burger which has never been finished (because it is not on the menu) so Kate herself should probably be able to land appearances in advertisements. A spinoff of Food TV’s Eating with Rachel Ray on $40/day called Eating with Kate Stelnick on $400/day 🙂 could also be envisioned.

Kate’s desire to withdraw from competitive eating is understandable considering her consumption of the 96er resulted in only winnings of $75 (which she donated for tsunami relief) along with a lot of unwanted publicity and numerous rude posts made about her on internet forums (which I hope were not repeated to her face.) If Kate has competed in her last eating contest or challenge, I would like to thank her for showing the world her amazing ability on one instance and wish her the best in her future plans.

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I have decided to start next week’s poll given that Kate Stelnick’s reply makes the current week’s question about the legitimacy of her feat a moot point. The new question asks what is the preferred length of an eating contest. The Barrick Burger contest on January 21 is the only event on the IFOCE circuit longer than 15 minutes (the Wing Bowl is also longer than 15 minutes but that is not technically an IFOCE event). The only long duration event for AICE is the Zeus burger 3 person team contest I believe. I am curious to see if the competitive eating community would like to see more events of longer duration.

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On Thursday it will be one year since it was announced that Kate Stelnick, a TCNJ student weighing less than 120 pounds, was the first person to finish a 10-11 pound 96er burger from Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, PA in under 3 hours. Ms. Stelnick claimed to have no previous competitive eating experience or training and has not attempted another eating contest or challenge since that time. The new poll question is designed to determine how legitimate the competitive eating community considers Kate’s feat.

Updated 1/10 2:56 pm I have started a new poll given that Kate Stelnick’s comment on this entry makes this question moot.

Previous poll results: Who will be the top ranked US eater at the end of 2006

Joey Chestnut -> 55%
Other -> 29%
Sonya Thomas -> 17%

Total Votes: 42

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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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I have added a section on giant cheeseburgers, including information about Kate Stelnick’s feat, to the Wikipedia entry about cheeseburgers

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