(from Gothamist) Commenters to the message board on ConeyIsland.com have noted that “Stores for Lease” signs have been placed above several businesses. One of the locations is the Nathan’s Famous on the boardwalk, which is not open year-round. This is not the site of the main Nathan’s Famous at Surf & Stillwell where the hot dog eating contest is held, so the competition should not be threatened by this action.

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The Food Network’s website has a broadcast date of Februrary 9, 2009 for the episode of “Will Work for Food” where host Adam Gertler competes in the Famous Famiglia pizza eating contest after receiving advice from Crazy Legs Conti, Pat Bertoletti, and Tim “Eater X” Janus. Gertler came in last place, but he was only four slices behind Crazy Legs Conti.

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“Furious” Pete Czerwinski has announced that he will attempt to eat all 12 McDonald’s Value Meals in 30 minutes in early February to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada and the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital.

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Joey Chestnut is a choice in the ESPN poll for the five members of the 2008 All SportsNation team.

Jeff Olson is one of DelawareOnline’s 8 most intriguing people of 2008 (which appears to be restricted to Delaware residents). Jeff’s proposed Wing Bowl qualification stunt of eating 3 pounds of cottage cheese in 3 minutes was rejected, so he will try to qualify at a Wing Off.

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• Video of Furious Pete’s ice cream challenge
• Ian Hickman & friend complete the 28 inch pizza challenge at the Family Pizzeria in Stafford, VA
• Another NoVA challenge – the Texas Roadhouse in Chantilly, VA offers a 64 ounce steak that is free if eaten in under one hour (requires one week notice)
• 28 inch pizza contest for charity at Polito’s pizza in Wisconsin for teams of three from the Army, Navy and Marines
• 8 lb. + pound pizza challenge for two person teams in Las Vegas
• One pound burger at new Chattanooga restaurant to be named for Obama
• Steakbellie is no longer unemployed
• http://missgluttonsbliss.blogspot.com/ appears to have been pulled down

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A greatest hits CD containing high points from the first four “Hungry & Focused” albums along with three new songs from the upcoming album “Extended Play” will be released on New Years day. A promo clip is available on youtube. The album can be purchased on Booker’s myspace page and the store at majorleagueeating.com

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A list of eaters who have qualified for the upcoming Wing Bowl follows:

The winner of the first Wing Off has been posted. “Chicken Cesar” ate 4.5 Pilgrim sandwiches to qualify.

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The New York Times local news blog has a post about Friday’s fruitcake record attempt by Takeru Kobayashi. The event will take place at 11 am at the plaza of Madison Square Garden located at 34th Street and Seventh Avenue.

update The Gothamist blog entry says the event will take place at Gabriella’s Restaurant on Columbus and 93rd.

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Clay Today has an article about Hall “Hoover” Hunt being inducted into the Jacksonville Krystal Hall of Fame with more information about the boxes that Hall Hunt will appear on:

A total of 15 customers are being recognized and inducted to the Hall of Fame. Three of those are from the Jacksonville area and all of those individuals will have their faces stamped on Krystal boxes that surpass one million units per person present in the states where the fast food restaurant can be found– “from Texas to Virginia and everywhere in between”.

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Newsday reports that “Furious” Pete Czerwinski won the National Potato Latke Eating Championship held at Zan’s Deli. Czerwinski’s total of 46 latkes in 8 minutes broke “Goose” Gilbert’s previous record of 31 latkes. Will Millender came in second with 29 latkes. A caption in the picture gallery reports that “King” George Van Laar came in third with 26 latkes in what may be his farewell performance.

update The article about the contest has been picked up by the AP and is currently one of the most viewed Odd News articles on yahoo.com. The contest was mentioned by NPR this morning and Healthy Comedy also has a blog entry about Furious Pete’s victory.

update #2 The video in the Newsday article can be viewed on youtube and Torontoist has a portrait of Furious Pete

update #3 A contest video has been uploaded

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• Beautiful Brian’s Christmas CD is ready and a copy will be mailed to any IFOCE member who requests it
• Another article about Chip Simpson’s win in the Bonita Springs, FL wing eating contest which continues to include the claim that he defeated Kobayashi in a wing eating contest
• “Furious” Pete Czerwinksi halves the 15 scoop challenge record at Ricky’s Candy, Cones & Chaos
• Christmas Day latke eating contest in Red Bank, NJ
• Cameron McKirdy challenges Badlands Booker to a rap battle on July 4, 2009 (from email)
• Toby Keith’s 100 ounce challenge reportedly finishes with 2 burgers, making it a 132 ounce challenge (from email)

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The listings for Good Morning America say that host of Man vs. Food, Adam Richman, will appear on Good Morning America on December 23. It was announced that Richman would appear on the December 3 show, but I do not think he was on that episode.

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Some free newspapers have been added to the Google News archives. One article describes Lynda Kuerth’s (spelled Linda Querth) victory in the 1977 Olivet College banana split eating contest. Ms. Kuerth’s mark of 13 banana splits doubled her closest competitor’s total, but was two less than the amount she ate in 1976. She did not starve herself before the contest but instead ate 6 slices of meat loaf for dinner before having the banana splits for dessert.

Lynda Kuerth’s victory came to the notice of contest organizers at Jim’s Steaks in Philadelphia which resulted in her travelling east to compete there and becoming the record holder at that restaurant for the remainder of the 20th century.

An image of the article is available after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

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The Eating Machine has posted two short clips recorded at last night’s Wing Off at PJ Whelihan’s in Maple Shade, New Jersey, but it does not include any contest footage or results. The Eating Machine apparently did not compete in the qualifier as he had already qualified for Wing Bowl 17 by eating 30 ounces of mayonnaise in 1:30. This is a better rate per minute that the official IFOCE mayonnaise record of 4 32 ounce bowls of mayonnaise in 8 minutes held by Oleg Zhornitskiy

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The Memphis Business Journal reports that The Big Foot Lodge in Tennessee has changed its name to Kooky Canuck to settle a lawsuit from a California restaurant with the same name. The Sasquatch Burger challenge has been renamed to the Kookamunga Challenge.

The restaurant’s website has been redesigned and the URL has changed to KookyCanuck.com from eatatbigfoot.com

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• Pictures from 2005 have been added to the Major League Eating flickr gallery
• Video clip about the Buffalo Wing Festival contest containing a Sonya Thomas interview
• Kobayashi highlight video clip
• Man vs. Food videos playlist on youtube
• Gal Sone and Tomoko Miyake have late birthday parties

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The Wing Bowl page on 610WIP.com announces that tickets for the upcoming Wing Bowl are all sold three days after going on sale. The ticket purchase link remains active, but a message saying no tickets are available will result after entering an amount.

Tickets to Wing Bowl 16 sold out in 45 minutes.

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(from Man vs. Food message board) The Pizza Machine in Springfield, Illinois, whose previous claim to fame was a 40 inch pizza that was delivered by crane, now has a 60 inch pizza. At 2827 square inches, the area of the pizza exceeds the area of the 52 inch square pizza from Big Mama’s & Papa’s Pizza in Los Angeles by 123 square inches. The 60 inch pizza must apparently be purchased in combination with a party package at a cost of $350. No eating challenge for the 60 inch pizza is listed. The pizza appeared on Country Fried Home Videos on CMT.

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Results from previous polls in the sidebar can be seen at http://eatfeats.com/polls-archive Thanks for the bug report.

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A list of 7 “Wing Off” qualifiers is available on 610WIP’s Wing Bowl 17 page. Winners of the Wing-Offs will receive a slot in the Wing Bowl. The first qualifier will take place tomorrow at PJ Whelihan’s in Maple Shade, New Jersey. The second Wing Off will take place at Paddywhack’s in Philadelphia on January 9. There will be 6 Wing Offs between January 9 and January 22. The Wing Offs will be co-hosted by former Eagle Hugh Douglas, so wearing a Terrell Owens jersey to the contest is probably not advisable. 😉

update Here is a list of the Wing Offs:

A link to the live chat page for the chat session hosted by Adam Richman of Man vs. Food is available on the Travel Channel website. The chat will begin at 11 pm eastern and run until midnight. There will also be a chat for viewers only starting at 9 pm.

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• Report on the Wigan pie eating contest. The winner, Fred Wyatt, was 61 and took 56 seconds to eat his pie. No mention or picture of the oversized pies reportedly made by accident appears in the article.
• Pictures and video from Hall Hunt’s induction into the Jacksonville Krystal Hall of Fame
• “Furious” Pete Czerwinski is a semi-finalist in the Bodybuilding.com BodySpace spokesmodel search
• Clip of the bratwurst eating contest on Beavis & Butthead
  
• Tasha attempts to be the first local female to qualify for the Wing Bowl since Melissa “White Widow” Perzin competed in Wing Bowl 14.
• Pictures from two parties Kobayashi attended

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Episode slideshow, location list and commercial

This week’s challenge restaurant, Juan in a Million, has an online Wall of Fame for its breakfast taco challenge, but it does not appear to have been updated since about 2002. The actual current record is held by the “Hong Kong Hero” who ate 7 breakfast tacos in 2004.

Other links: yelp thread about Adam Richman’s attempt in September (contains spoilers), Dining in Austin review

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The new poll asks who you think is the top performer in restaurants’ eating challenges in 2008. The choices are:

• Elizabeth Canady – set record in Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 3 lb. burger
• Joey Chestnut – broke 21 year old record for the Big Texan’s 72 ounce steak, also set the record in the Big Foot Lodge’s Sasquatch Challenge
• “Furious” Pete Czerwinski – set a record for a Canadian 72 ounce steak challenge which beats the Big Texan record also records in the Niagara Falls Italian Challenge, Swingbelly’s BBQ challenge, Filthy McNasty’s burger challenge and came the closest to finishing the Clinton Station Diner’s Zeus burger
• Brad Sciullo – first person to finish the 20 lb. Belly Bruiser from Denny’s Beer Barrel, also broke the almost 4 year old record for that restaurant’s Ye Olde 96er

If they are any other choices who you think should be in the poll, I will add them.

This poll is limited to North American eaters. Hatsuyo “the Witch” Sugawara is probably in contention for the world top eating challenge performer, but I have not been able to find a list of her eating challenges.

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A video about a quartet of diners’ attempt to finish the 54 inch square pizza from Big Mama’s & Papa’s Pizzeria in Los Angeles has been uploaded to youtube. Captures from the video can be viewed after the jump.

A youtube page about the pizza has been set up. One of the captions of the videos says that a team of five that finishes the 54 inch pizza in under two hours will receive $1000.

The pizzeria is located on 5051 Hollywood Boulevard. (Van Halen fans might know that 5150 refers to a section of the California Welfare and Institutions Code allowing for involuntary confinement of the mentally ill.)

Another new team pizza challenge for four diners is available at Premier Pizza in Oakdale, Minnesota.

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Metro.co.uk reports that the pies made for tomorrow’s meat pie eating contest at Harry’s Bar in Wigan, England have a diameter of 12 inches and a height of 3.5 inches. The original intentions were to use 12 cm by 3.5 cm pies, but no units of measurement were provided to the cook. The measurement mix-up expands the volume of the pies by a factor of over 15 (2.5 cm/ in.)^3.

This is not the first time that an issue affecting the contest has received a lot of publicity; a dog ate the pies that were to be used for the 2007 competition.

Youtube has a clip about another object constructed to improper specifications.

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