Southlanders step up to the plate - of meatballs

Most people would find the steaming plate of meatballs from Bartolini's restaurant in Midlothian an appealing and hearty meal.

For Mark Huguelet, 33, of Midlothian, and Chris Sanders, 37, of Richton Park, the dozen sauce-covered meatballs also were a challenge: How quickly could they devour the pound and a half of beef?

Both men were taking a step into the wild world of competitive eating, where contestants try to eat as much as possible as quickly as possible.

There is a formal International Federation of Competitive Eating and dozens of professional "gesticators" who earn a living by entering eating competitions. There even are competitive eating celebrities, such as Takeru Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut, who went head-to-head in the ESPN-televised Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest the past several years.

This "sport" is alive and well in the Southland, most notably at Bartolini's in Midlothian. On July 18, the restaurant will hold its third annual American Meatball Eating Championship, an event that brothers Christopher and Dominic Bartolini hope will become "the meatball eating competition of the world."

In order to compete in the big event, which has a $3,000 grand prize - plus a $1,000 bonus if an amateur wins - one first must qualify by calling the restaurant and by eating a dozen 2-ounce meatballs in less than four minutes. That's what Huguelet and Sanders were trying to do Thursday afternoon.

"I've seen the past few years of meatball-eating competitions and kind of wanted to try it once," said Huguelet, a Bartolini's regular who Christopher Bartolini said has been known to eat an entire large deep dish pizza himself.

For the competition, Huguelet and Sanders sat down in front of the meatballs, surrounded by onlookers and timed by Christopher Bartolini.

As they sat down, Dominic gave them advice: Successful eaters "ate, chewed and drank (water) at the same time. ... It helps push it down."

With the stopwatch running, Huguelet and Sanders left knives and forks lying on the table in favor of their hands, opting to pick up the sauce-covered meatballs by hand. Sanders popped whole meatballs in his mouth, while Huguelet opted for smaller bites.

Sanders soon fell behind and after four meatballs could not eat any more.

"You've gotta be prepared" for speed eating, Sanders said afterward. He had decided to do the competition only that day and had eaten breakfast.

"I was already full when I walked through the door," he said.

Huguelet, with an empty stomach, had better luck and plowed relentlessly through the meatballs. He had eaten seven at the two-minute mark and kept up that steady pace to finish off the last scraps in 3:45.

"It's amazing how some of these guys can just pound that stuff down," Huguelet said of competitive eaters such as Kobayashi and Chestnut. "It was my first time doing it. ... I was basically just trying to keep it down."

His mark of 3:45 is good enough to qualify for this year's formal competition and a shot at $4,000 in prize money.

The competition will be held under the auspices of the Association of Independent Competitive Eaters of New York, which will be bringing in three "professional eaters" to take a shot at the Bartolini brothers' meatballs.

The $20 entrance fees go entirely to benefit the St. Vincent de Paul and St. Steven's food pantries.

want to try YOUR LUCK?

To enter the American Meatball Eating Championship, contact Christopher or Dominic Bartolini at (708) 396-2333.