The 3 Amigos To Be Reunited at Canoli Contest Don 'Moses'' Lerman Ed ''Cookie'' Jarvis and Krazy kevin lipsitz Don Lerman will be on hand at this years canoli Contest as a judge . all 3 of the original 3 Amigos were recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award
Thousands attend Little Italy Festival Event offers dancing, music, food and moreBy Brian M. BoyceThe Tribune-Star CLINTON — As the sun shone brightly in the latest of August days, thousands of people mingled down South Water Street in Clinton, toward the sounds of music and dancing, with the Wabash River flowing near by.“I’d say there’s been at least 3,000 to 4,000 people this morning,” Little Italy Festival organizer Dee Ugo guessed about 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon, adding that several times that number had been there Friday evening with more yet to come this afternoon.Jerry Zanandrea, who along with his wife Susan, serve as the Re and Regina of the 43rd annual festival, said the 82 degrees of sunshine made for a great turnout.“It’s really weather dependent,” Jerry said from the main stage’s band shelter. High school kids danced in unison for the crowd before them, roses in their teeth. “When you get great weather like this, the crowds really come out.”Zanandrea’s parents, Marco and Rose, were Re and Regina in 1973, and his brother and sister-in-law, Marco and Donna held the titles two decades later in 1993, with his sister and brother-in-law Marilyn Hrovat Wilson and Ray Hrovat serving in 1999. Jerry’s grandfather, Christoforo Zanandrea, was a bricklayer who came to work in America’s coal mines in 1910, with his grandmother Giovanna bringing their children over in 1914, he said.Zanandrea participated in the annual mustacchio contest along with Robert Steed, Dirk Foltz, Jim Hutts and George Hamke, bringing along a flag with his facial hair.“The flag is the old flag from the Veneto Providence,” he said, explaining his ancestral connections to Venice can be traced to 1200 A.D. and most likely go back further.And as the streets were filled with Italian sausage, fried vegetables and deep-fried twinkies, a mix of the “old country” was also in play.In a tent on the corner of Main and Mulberry streets, Nancy Dal Sasso, president of the Little Italy Festival, kept the pots boiling at the festival’s first to-be-annual spaghetti sauce cook-off.“There are very few spaghetti cook-offs in the nation,” she said, noting the group has been trying to organize the contest for years. Four teams and two individuals competed in the inaugural event, with the rules and contest format looking identical to other cooking battles.“It’s really similar to a chili cook-off,” she said, explaining that the sauces must be cooked on-site with ingredients. No store-purchased sauces were allowed, and the winners were determined by purchased tickets used as votes at each booth.Sauces were cooked from noon to 3 p.m., with tasting done between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m.Winning the Team People’s Choice award was “The Super Saucers,” a collaborative effort on the part of 37 Van Duyn Elementary School third-grade students from the classes of Dorothy Myers and Jill Wright.“We’ve had a lot of people come through,” Myers commented earlier in the day, as 18 third-graders helped boil up their own homemade spaghetti sauce. “The weather’s been perfect.”The Individual People’s Choice winner was Marcy Vorchers, with Individual Showmanship taken by Jana Hillyer. Vorchers also won the Judges’ Individual Choice, with Team Showmanship taken by “The Three Muskateers,” Archie Poletto, Bruce Stengal and Henry Antini.The Team Judges’ Choice was won by Aaron and Dave Kendall.“I’m really pleased with the first time,” Dal Sasso said.Grape-stomping and pizza eating contests are in store this afternoon, with a meatball eating contest set for Monday, along with more dancing and music along the Wabash River’s edge.
1st 4.23 $1500 Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas 2nd 4.15 $750 Eric “Badlands” Booker 3rd 3.98 $300 Juliet Lee 08/30/2008 U.S. Buffalo Wing Eating Championship
Let's say you're in a bind. You want an excuse to eat 100 buffalo wings but your girlfriend says you're wasting your life and will never be a success.
Solution: You enter and win a wing-eating contest.
And where else would you find a buffalo-wings contest than Buffalo, N.Y., where the immortal bar food was invented in 1964 after a night of binge drinking by a bar owner with a nearly empty larder but a lot of imagination?
The buffalo-wing-stravaganza, in its seventh year, takes place Aug. 30 and 31 at Dunn Tire Park, and features a couple events of great interest to buffalo-wings enthusiasts (I'll admit I'm only occasionally partial to them myself):
- The U.S. Wings Eating Championship. Possibly the grossest-looking of all competitive-eating challenges. - The National Wing Sauce-Off - A Buffalo Wing Hall of "Flame" Induction - The 0.5 Chicken-Wing Run, which takes "several minutes to three-quarters of an hour" - The Miss Buffalo Wing Pageant - An Elvis impersonator - Chris Burke, the guy who played Corky on "Life Goes On" - Chefs like Kevin Roberts (finalist on "The Next Food Network Star"), and Drew "Wing King" Cerza (founder of the National Buffalo Wing Festival).
Anyway, that's just an idea in case you were out of ideas for what to do this weekend.
JOHN E. USALIS/STAFF PHOTO Fabrizio Manganiello, owner/operator of Fabrizio’s Italian Restaurant and Pizza, Ashland, holds two eight-inch “baby” pizzas as his son looks on.
If you’re the fastest, you can win a $100 gift certificate and help a local nonprofit organization this weekend.
The 2008 charity benefit pizza-eating contest, the first of its kind in Ashland, will be held at Fabrizio’s Italian Restaurant and Pizza, 1609 Centre St., at 2 p.m. on Saturday, the day of the 108th annual ABA/Mummers Parade. There will be adult and children’s categories.
The winners of the children’s (12 and under) and adult contests each will receive a $100 Fabrizio gift certificate and the recognition of being the best at eating a pizza.
To enter, contestants need to make a donation to a nonprofit organization. There is no set amount to enter. Fabrizio’s will supply the pizzas with the help of several co-sponsors, including the local Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola bottlers and two provisions companies — John Gross and Co. and Varano’s.
“Basically, I like to give back to the community,” said owner Fabrizio Manganiello.
A native of Italy, he has prepared Italian food since the 1960s in Rome and New York City before moving to Ashland a few years ago.
“It’s really simple in that if you do good things, they come back to you,” he said.
The idea of the contest seemed like a perfect way to help in some way and get other people involved.
“We decided to have a fundraiser for charity. It’s good in many ways, and it could become an annual event, which is good for the community and the charity that will benefit from it,” Manganiello said.
Being relatively new to the area, Manganiello wasn’t sure where the funds raised should go, so he left it up to the Catholic churches of Ashland after speaking to the pastor at the time, the Rev. Adam Sedar.
Manganiello said that if the contest takes off and becomes an annual event, future contests may have the proceeds go to a specific charity.
As of Tuesday, there were 32 contestants registered in the adult and children’s categories. Manganiello expects more entries before Saturday.
“I was only going to have one contest to see who can eat a pie the fastest, but then my daughter (Annina) told me that she and her friends couldn’t eat a whole pie, so we decided to have two contests. The kids will get to eat a ‘baby’ pie,” Manganiello said. The “baby” pizza is an 8-inch personal pie.
There was also a slight change in the adult contest to allow for people who could not eat a whole large pizza. The adult pizza will be the 14-inch size.
For more information, call the restaurant at 875-2455.
TEXAS CITY — County Judge Jim Yarbrough this week confirmed rumors that have been swirling on the competitive eating circuit: He’s hanging up his bib.
The two-time champion of the shrimp eating contest at Texas City’s annual Shrimp Boil and Dance won’t be there to defend his title at the Nessler Center on Saturday, but he’s content knowing he’s peeling out at the top of his game.
“There may be some people that debate whether I’m a good county judge, but nobody can debate whether I’m a good shrimp eater,” Yarbrough said.
Actually, that’s not entirely true.
According to the International Federation of Competitive Eating (www.ifoce.com), the shrimp-eating record in any officially sanctioned contest — Texas City’s event is not one of them — is Erik “The Red” Denmark, 29, of Seattle.
On Sept. 22, 2006, he packed away almost 5 pounds of shrimp in 12 minutes.
Confronted with this information, and with a photograph of Erik The Red with his maniacal countenance twisted around a mouthful of red chili peppers, Yarbrough declared, “I think I could take him!”
That remark could fuel a frenzy of speculation among analysts as to whether Yarbrough intends a Brett Favre-style return next shrimp season but, for now, he’ll have to make way for a new field of young, promising gustatory talents.
Yarbrough had been mentoring a county employee, but the man fell behind in his training and lost weight.
“He lost 100 pounds on me, and he doesn’t have the elasticity in his system anymore to properly compete,” Yarbrough said. “He’s not a power eater anymore.”
Also out of the picture is longtime Yarbrough rival Ron Plackemeier, who was rumored to be heading to College Station this weekend as Yarbrough heads for Austin. It wasn’t clear if the Texas A&M and University of Texas alumni would renew an annual football bet that in years past has had the loser jump into the courthouse fountain, among other embarrassments.
The absence of Yarbrough and Plackemeier leaves Frederick Moldofsky of BP as the only returning contestant, making him the de facto favorite.
Other entrants are James Lambert of Regent Care Center, Bill Caraway of Associated Federal Credit Union, Ruben Altamirano of Bay Electric, Cory Bush of Marathon Petroleum and County Tax Assessor-Collector Cheryl Johnson. +++
Contestants in a past year's National Cheese Eating Competition munch their blocks of cheese. The contest, held every year in Arthur, will take place at 3 p.m. this Saturday.
To read more about the Arthur Cheese Festival, including a list of scheduled events, click hereThe objective might not seem that difficult to devour a one-pound block of Colby cheese in less than 5 minutes.But George Fritz of the Arthur Cheese Festival said it has only been in recent years that contestants in the annual cheese-eating competition have made it all the way through.The 10th Annual National Cheese Eating competition will begin at 3 p.m. Saturday in Arthur as part of the 37th Annual Arthur Cheese Festival.Fritz supplies the contestants with a bottle of water to 'chase' the cheese. "No one has ever requested any other type of chaser; seems as though the water works quite well," Fritz said.In previous years, the title went to whoever could finish the most cheese in the shortest amount of time. Only in the past couple of years has the entire block been finished. "It's taken pretty close to the 5-minute range," Fritz said. The rules are simple: no vomiting, and whatever is in the contestant's mouth at the end of the competition must be swallowed to count. The event is limited to first 36 contestants to enter the competition. The contestants are divided into a youth division (12-years-old and under) and an adult division (13-years-old and above)."It's strictly an individual competition, though support helps the more serious competitors," Fritz said.The typical cheese-eating contestant hails from the local area and has often competed more than once. Many of the contestants have come from University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign and Eastern. As with consuming any large quantity of food, particularly of one type, health becomes an issue. Fritz counts that he has not seen any health issues spurt out from the competition. "I don't know of anyone getting sick as a result of the competition," Fritz said. In the time that Fritz has been organizing the contest, he has not known of any preparation or training for it. "This isn't like the hot dog eating contests in that I don't know anyone that really takes time to prepare for it," Fritz said.Those competing do not have to fill out any forms in advance. They may simply show up on the day of the competition and sign up for it.
REGIONAL: CHAMPION EATER JOEY CHESTNUT DEVOURS 9.8 POUNDS OF RIBS IN 12 MINUTES
Defending his title as a champion ribs eater, San Jose resident Joey Chestnut devoured nearly 10 pounds of ribs in 12 minutes Wednesday in Reno to set a world record in speed rib-eating.
"I can't believe he can consume that much," the 24-year-old San Jose State University student's mother, Vallejo resident Alicia Chestnut, said today. "He's incredible."
Chestnut, best known for his hot dog-eating skills, wolfed down 9.8 pounds of ribs in 12 minutes at the Best in the West Nugget World Rib Eating Championship. His three brothers accompanied him to the event.
Second-place winner Pat Bertoletti took in 7.4 pounds of ribs. Fifteen contestants participated.
Alicia Chestnut said her son, who has competed in speed-eating contests for the past three years, is competitive but enjoys the company of the other contestants.
"He's having fun," she said. "He's very healthy; he's not fat at all. He's just having a very good time."
Chestnut has participated in more than a dozen competitive eating events, but occasionally the food doesn't agree with him, according to his mother.
Once, she said, "he ate crab cakes and he said that the spices were really hard for him."
"He's not much on the sweet stuff," she added.
Chestnut also does not like to cook, but has always enjoyed his mother's food.
"He loves my cooking, he says," Alicia Chestnut said. "He likes lasagna, he loves all Italian food... For a while I was making a lot of chicken and rice and he hated that."
On the Fourth of July this year, Chestnut ate 59 hot dogs in Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest, tying with hot dog-eating legend Takeru Kobayashi. Chestnut won, however, in a subsequent five-hot dog eat-off.
In addition to studying civil engineering at San Jose State University, Chestnut works as a project manager for a construction company, according to his mother.
MASON — When Bob Shoudt watched grown men competing against the clock and each other to eat the most hot dogs, he knew he had found his calling.
"I saw it on TV and couldn't wait to try it," Shoudt said. "I thought it looked easy. It wasn't easy."
Despite learning the hard way that stuffing one's face full of hot dogs is not exactly the picnic it appeared, Shoudt persevered. Seven years later he's known worldwide as "Humble Bob" and is ranked as the fifth-best eater in the world by Major League Eating, the official sanctioning body of competitive eating events.
Shoudt will test his mettle against Joey Chestnut, the undeniable best eater in the world, on Labor Day at Kings Island when both men compete in the first Skyline Chili Spaghetti eat-off.
The food contest also will feature ranked rookie Tim Gravy Brown and local resident looking to test their chompers against the finest competitive eaters in the world.
The eat-off begins at 2 p.m. on Labor Day, Monday, Sept.1, and is free with admission to the amusement park.
"These guys are very accessible. That's part of their appeal," said Major League Eating commissioner Richard Shea.
Even though competitive eating is most associated with the annual Fourth of July hot dog eating contest in New York City, Shea said the league sanctions more than 80 events annually.
"It brings back images of Americana" Shea said. "It's a fun, pageantry rich event."
Shea said Major League Eating likes to promote competitions with foods that are associated with an area.
"We wanted to the food to be tied with Cincinnati and southwest Ohio, so Skyline Chili made a lot of sense," said Kings Island spokesman Don Helbig. Kings Island put up the $5,000 that goes to the winner.
Helbig said that each competitor will start with a five-pound plate of chili spaghetti in front of him or her, to be replaced when finished. Top competitors like Chestnut and Shoudt are expected to eat between 10 and 15 pounds.
"We're going to go through something like 200 pounds of chili spaghetti easily," Helbig said.
Shoudt said that chilli spaghetti is not a difficult food to train for because "it mostly involves stuffing your face." Shoudt said eating some foods requires learning to rhythmically dunk in water (like hot dogs) or to systematically pick apart (like chicken wings).
"It will be a really neat experience for our guests," Helbig said. "The experience is treated like a heavyweight title match with emcees and music."
While Shoudt, who in his other life is an information technology manager, takes the food competitions seriously, he will admit to seeing the humor of the situation. Eating at an amusement park also will offer a new kind of thrill.
"I'm going to try and ride a roller coaster after the contest," Shoudt said. "I have no idea what that will feel like."
*Where| Grand Park, The Market Common, on Farrow Parkway, on the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base
Weekend of BBQ, music and fun
Saturaday:
International Federation of Competitive Eating _ Barbeque Sand wich Eating Championship, 2 p.m. front of main stage. Joey Chestnut, the 2007 National World Champion of Barbeque Sandwich Eating, scheduled to compete. Free.
Bacon Eating Contest Raises Money for American Heart Association
Last update: 2:59 p.m. EDT Aug. 26, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 26, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating contest may have Joey Chestnut, but the Brown & Toland Medical Group calls Beverly Del Rosario "champ."
The senior human resources associate munched her way to a first unofficial competitive eating title earlier this month when she won Brown & Toland's inaugural bacon eating contest. Money raised through the competition benefited the American Heart Association.
Brown & Toland recognizes the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet, said Vice President of Marketing and Communications Richard Angeloni. However, the contest seemed like a new way to raise awareness among employees about heart disease, the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States.
"Obviously we all know the dangers of eating too much fat and cholesterol," Angeloni said, "but this seemed like a fun way to help raise awareness and money for a great cause."
Del Rosario said she would do anything to raise more awareness, even if it meant eating a half-pound or more of bacon.
"Whatever I can do to support the program," Del Rosario said. Del Rosario, among dozens of fellow Brown & Toland employees, will march in the American Heart Association's Start! Heart Walk slated for noon on Sept. 19.
Brown & Toland has been a corporate sponsor of the association's Heart Walk since 2004. In 2006, employees began raising money for the Heart Walk and last year topped the $50,000 mark, the fifth highest amount among 80 participating corporations in San Francisco. Through all efforts combined over the last four years, Brown & Toland has donated more than $100,000 to the association to help combat cardiac disease.
This year's walk will cover three miles, from Justin Herman Plaza in downtown San Francisco to PIER 39 and back again. The event emphasizes the importance of walking as a heart healthy exercise while raising funds to help fight heart disease and stroke.
Colley Handspike was cool as a bell pepper Sunday.
The Atlanta resident crouched at the table, Latino music blaring, and stared intently at his meal of fiery, plump, mostly green-with-a-few-red jalapeño peppers. The challenge: Eat as many as you can in one minute. One at a time.
Colley Handspike of Atlanta ate 20 peppers in less than a minute to win the contest Sunday to benefit the Atlanta Community Food Bank. He vowed to spend his $500 prize on his fiancee.
Douglas Foster of Asheville, N.C., chews his peppers Sunday in the La Costeña ‘Feel the Heat Jalapeño Eating Challenge Tour’ during the Festival Peachtree Latino at Underground Atlanta. Foster rated the heat of the peppers a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10.
John Ascuaga's Nugget World Rib Eating Championship
Returning this year at 6 p.m. Wednesday are the World Rib Eating Championships, operated by the governing body of stomach-centric sports, the International Federation of Competitive Eating. Even more interesting, the returning champion here is Joey Chestnut, whose victory on July 4 in Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island, N.Y., was his second win in a row. Chestnut has in the past put away 8.4 pounds of pork rib meat in 12
Hello Friends and distractors this is Don Lerman Speaking, A short ime ago I changed the format of my site to include Google alertsas well as the old and familiar pictures that I was accustum to posting . I want everyone to know that I'am not copying eatfeats articles or any other sites as a matter of fact sometimes I post them ahead of eatfeats as I have 24 hr staff up dating and monotoring my site for me .
Just asCBSs is not competing against Nbc or Abc I "m not competing against eat feats or any othe site, I wish them well. I haven't been competingfor some time now and thus havent been at many contests and my well of contest pictures is running dry , So I urge eaters and fans to send me picture sof them competing and iIwill post them when the appropiate time comes and may I add that all pictures will be become the property of Moses News .co and myself in for the purpose of posting them soley on my 2 sites ansd can not be returned , I have heard both postiveand negative remarks on my new format and I welcome all opinions ..Don''Moses''Lerman
Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps.
Let's take a deep breath and salute Phelps' Olympic-record eight gold-medal performance one last time before the impending media and endorsement onslaught. Lost in Phelps' historic achievement was a nugget that certainly impressed me the most — the fact that during training, he consumes upwards of 12,000 calories a day.
That's almost as impressive as what Phelps did in the pool. It got me thinking as I watched the likes of Joey Chestnut, Eater X, Crazy Legs Conti, Badlands Booker and Fairfield native Lars Andersen consume tray after tray of ribs at the Ash Creek Salon rib-eating contest last Sunday afternoon in Bridgeport. Could Phelps — the world's fastest man in water — gobble down barbecued meat as quickly as he glided through the pool at the Water Cube? And by the same token, could any of the competitive eaters swim a lap across the pool — empty stomach or not?
The answers are probably no to both. Here's perhaps a better question: In an era when it seems Time magazine writes a cover story every month about how obese Americans have become, which is the more impressive accomplishment — Olympic swimming gold medals or the spray-painted gold rib necklace won by "Humble" Bob Shoudt?
Taking my tongue firmly out of my cheek (and using a couple toothpicks), obviously the Olympics are the more prestigious feat, but don't discount the growth of competitive Advertisement eating.
True, it's hard to list some of the 300-plus behemoths as athletes, but competitive eating itself is probably a sport — even including the postgame vomiting. If you've watched the annual gluttony-fest called the Fourth of July Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, then you're somewhat familiar with the carnival aspect of Major League Eating — the world sanctioning body.
Many of the competitors arrive in outfits and with gimmicks that would make some WWE stars blush. During the duration of Sunday's event, MLE President Richard Shea — wearing the straw hat of a 1930s carnival barker — kept spurring the action in his best huckster fashion. (Shea introduced Chestnut as the George Clooney of macarooney.)
But for all absurd pageantry, once the competition starts it's all business. "Yeah, it's unconventional and it's ridiculous," said "Eater X," whose day name is Tim Janus. "But it's still a sport."
Janus — who holds world records for eating canolis and tiramisu — might not fit the build you'd think of a professional eater. Though he paints his face like the old wrestler the Ultimate Warrior, Janus is of average height and build and says he eats healthy when he's not in competition. I asked Janus what would be the decathlon of competitive eating.
He thought about it, but deferred to the Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest as the sport's Super Bowl, World Series and Olympics all rolled into one. "If you want to be taken seriously, you have to do well at Nathan's," Janus said. "If you win that, you're legitimately the greatest eater in the world."
The current world's greatest is Chestnut, who milled through the crowd at the Ash Creek, occasionally stopping to take pictures with his growing fan base. The 24-year-old holder of the coveted "Mustard Yellow Belt" didn't have an entourage or phalanx of bodyguards, appearing as a normal guy — albeit a guy that once inhaled 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes.
When the clock began, Chestnut turned from Clark Kent into the sport's Superman, his jaw tearing through the racks of ribs like a typewriter across a page. Though he won't end up on the cover of Sports Illustrated anytime in the near future, Chestnut is to foodstuffs as Phelps is to water. Chestnut, the prohibitive fan favorite, ended up losing to Shoudt — who amazingly is a vegetarian except for eating contests — by a mere two ounces. Will competitive eating ever surpass the Olympics or even be digested into them?
That's a tough scenario to envision, since gorging on food was more of an ancient Roman pursuit than an ancient Greek one. Maybe the future of competitive eating lies within the episode of "Seinfeld" featuring the famous "Velvet Kramer" painting. An elderly couple gazes aghast at the artistic portrait of the "hipster doofus," surmising, "He is a loathsome offensive brute, yet I cannot look away."
The Pennsylvania man, who placed second in last year’s Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Eating Championship walked away with the first-place prize from the first leg of the seven-city qualifying tour today.
Bob Shoudt, a middle school teacher from Pennsylvania, ate 58 of the little Krystal burgers in eight minutes. Coming in second was Larry McNeal of Newnan, Ga., with 28 burgers; followed by Chattanooga restaurant manager Rick Petralia who ate 20 Krystals.
Only Mr. Shoudt, who goes by “Humble Bob” is guaranteed a place at the Sept. 28 world finals in Chattanooga. Mr. Petralia and Mr. McNeal may be offered wild card spots if no else beats their eating numbers at future trials. They have the chance to compete in two other trials to improve their records.
Mr. Shoudt ate 95 of the Krystals at last year’s contest. He was bested when Joey “Jaws” Chestnut set a world record by eating 103 of the burgers in the same amount of time.
Mr. Shoudt, though he crushed his competitors today, said he was disappointed with his showing.
“I didn’t eat for three solid days, and that was a crucial mistake,” Mr. Shoudt said. “I’m just way too light-headed right now. I totally messed myself up, but I will be ready for the finals.”
After this first Chattanooga competition, Krystal will head to Jacksonville, Fla., on Sept. 1, then to Atlanta, Nashville, Knoxville, Birmingham and Memphis, lining up qualifiers for the final competition.
The competitive eaters are trying to win a $50,000 cash purse. Organizers say that’s the largest cash prize in competitive eating. The first-place winner will receive $20,000 in cash. The runner-up will take home a paycheck of $10,000, while third place will leave Chattanooga $5,000 richer.
On the line for the remaining finalists are the following payouts: 4th - $3,000; 5th - $2,500; 6th - $2,000; 7th - $1,850; 8th - $1,500; 9th - $1,400; 10th - $1,250; 11th - $1,000; 12th - $500.
For complete coverage, read tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Krystal Square Off V: Celebrity Square Off Today, Chattanooga Qualifier Saturday
Submitted by Joe Legge on August 22, 2008 - 5:05am. |
Major League Competitive eating returns to Chattanooga today and Saturday for a warm-up and qualifier in advance of Krystal Square Off V next month. You can catch several events on-air and in person this weekend.
Friday morning on WDEF News 12 This Morning, Humble Bob Shoudt drops by to talk about his technique. Bob was the runner up in last year's "Square Off," consuming 95 Krystals in eight minutes. Look for Bob around 6:20am.
Then at 1:00pm Friday, the lighting and running the "official" Krystal Square Off grill takes place. The grill will be lit at the Krystal Company headquarters at 1 Union Square. Then a procession of Krystal employees will lead the first-ever running of the ceremonial grill down Chestnut to the Riverfront
Posted by John Manalang - Tuesday, August 19, 2008 10:33 AM
Eating is a sport, no doubt about it, folks. It's about desire, passion and stuffing your gut with more edibles than you can handle. And that, should be a competition in London on 2012.
That's why we salute the Food Network's ode to our favorite sport, when they decided to enter the world of competitive eating with a new show project, tentatively called, Eat theClock. Yes, you read that right. According to the report, the show will be a mix between The Amazing Race and an eating competition, where two teams of contestants take over several Los Angeles eateries and sink their teeth into a food eating frenzy. Hey, that sounds like our weekend plans!
The pilot episode will be shot soon, and Food Network plans to premiere it sometime next year if they like the taste of it. Speaking of eating, make sure to catch (well, cover first) Hurl! every Sunday night at 7
C'mon guys, keep it down By NEIL KIRBY, The Saratogian08/19/2008
“Buffalo” Jim Reeves, left, beats Crazy Legs Conti by a fraction of a dog in Monday’s eating contest at Saratoga Race Course. RICK GARGIULO/The Saratogian SARATOGA SPRINGS - Who's hungry?
Eight competitors of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest at the Saratoga Race Course on Monday volunteered to eat as many dogs as they could in 10 minutes without palming it in their hands or worse, vomiting.
"I eat for a living and love every bite of it," said second-place winner Jason "Crazy Legs" Conti, who is ranked 11th in the world of competitive eating.
Conti was the subject of the 2004 film "Crazy Legs Conti: Zen and Art of Competitive Eating," which played at Tribeca and Los Angeles film festivals. According to his Web site, Conti is not only a competitive eater but also a window-washer, nude model and avid sperm donor. But eating for a living is his claim to fame.
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"Nathan's hot dogs taste so good you should enjoy one in 10 minutes, but I happen to like about 22 in ten minutes," he said. "I'm a 'progurgitator' in every sense of the word. Whatever they put in front of me, I consume it."
But Conti was bested by "Buffalo" Jim Reeves, a math teacher from central New York, in an upset, something not unusual to fans of Saratoga Race Course.
Reeves, who's ranked 28th in the world, shoveled in 23¼ dogs, slightly more than Conti.
"It's kind of odd," Reeves said. "I was always self-conscious about eating in front of people, being a big guy, but I don't know these people. I don't do this at home in front of friends and family."
Reeves won a year's supply of - what else? - Nathan's hot dogs.
"I'll put the supply in my freezer and use them to train for next year's circuit," Reeves said.
Open registration to take on world eating champion
Joey Chestnut to compete at Kings Island Sept. 1
Staff Report
Monday, August 18, 2008
Details are now becoming available for the previously announced professional eating contest to be held at Kings Island Monday, Sept. 1.
It was announced earlier this month that Joey Chestnut, defending hot dog eating world champion, would appear at Kings Island to participate in an eating contest.
According to the Major League Eating website, the food of choice is chili spaghetti. Chestnut will also be taking on anyone who wishes to challenge him, as long as they are at least 18-years-old. The total prize money for the event is $5,000.
To register, visit: http://www.ifoce.com/contests.php?action=signup&eventID=269.
Tom Herman of Warwick, John Madura of Pine Island and Wayne Halleck of the Village of Florida compete in the onion-eating contest during the Pine Island Summer Fest on Saturday.Times Herald-Record/DOMINICK FIORILLE
Somewhere within the Pine Island Summer Fest is the man who ate an entire, 8-ounce onion in 75 seconds. For the uninitiated, this is a festival record. The fastest any man had eaten an entire onion was 1 minute, 55 seconds before Saturday. They say he quartered it with a knife first and smiled as he swallowed the pieces.
"He looked really happy," Russell Kowal says. "Everybody there knew what they were getting into. He looked confident."
Cheetah Haysom da Parma saw him too: "He was a big guy."
We learn from photographs he had a mustache and teased out the finish with the last piece of raw onion on his tongue. Style points. Rumor has it he won a pie-eating contest a dozen years ago. We'd like to meet him.
Can't. He's gone now. J.R. Kuka, of Hamburg, N.J., stepped beyond the confines of Summer Fest with the $100 prize put up by the Orange County Vegetable Growers Association and disappeared. Haysom da Parma suggests speaking to last year's winner and the previous record holder.
"Ask him how it feels to lose his title," she says. But he's gone too. Haysom da Parma doesn't see anyone from the competition now that she looks around. They've all taken the goodie bags full of antacids and breath mints and split.
These onions they ate are the famed Pine Island onions, grown in the black dirt of the region. They're said to be more powerful than regular onions — makes them good for cooking or chopped up and tossed in a salad but hot when taken raw and in bulk. One imagines it would be overwhelming.
"I've eaten my share of raw onions," says Kowal, who grows them, "but never that size."
The site of the onion-eating contest has been taken over by a band covering a Janis Joplin song, and festival goers lounge on picnic tables in the pavilion. A car show is under way nearby on the grass.
It's hard not to feel the champion's absence. Would he have shared the secret to his accomplishment? Could he have described the feeling of biting into that final, pungent piece? The answers are gone with the champion. Well, maybe.
The guy working the firefighters' food stand turns his back after handing over a plain cheeseburger. There, on the table, is a tin full of sliced, Pine Island onions. There's gotta be at least 8 ounces there, easy.
It sounds like Food Network is following in the footsteps of classy shows like Hurl and Fear Factor. I expect better from the network that espouses to be about the best in food and cooking, not how fast you can jam it down your throat.
The same company that's behind Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels, Pie Town Productions, has cooked up Eat the Clock. They're comparing it to The Amazing Race, but with eating contests thrown up -- I mean, in. There will be travel involved, which relates to Rachael's travel show. Maybe they'll have Rachael try her gullet at consuming mass quantities. (Oh wait, that's the Coneheads.)
It's interesting that the network mentions The Amazing Race in the description of the show. Occasionally TAR will put an eating challenge in the show, like one year when contestants had to eat a Chicago deep dish pizza completely before proceeding to the pit stop. But that was just one challenge. TAR has at the most two eating challenges per race. Eat the Clock purports to be all about the eating.
Eat has yet to shoot a pilot, but Food Network is hoping for an early 2009 debut. Like I said, maybe I should wait to see the show before writing it off. However, on paper, Eat the Clock is antithetical to the enjoyment and celebration of food. What TV chef will want to be attached to this project?
It seems all wrong for Food Network. Competition is one thing -- I can appreciate Iron Chef America and Food Network Challenges -- but speed eating or volume eating doesn't fit the Food Network recipe. What do you think?
The Food Network is getting into the competitive eating genre with a new series tentatively titled "Eat the Clock."
The show, from Pie Town Prods. ("Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels"), is described as a cross between an eating competition and "The Amazing Race." Two teams of contestants rush to various Los Angeles eateries and gorge themselves in face-stuffing challenges.
Competitive eating vaguely resembled a trend on cable during the past year, with G4's new scarf-'til-you-puke show "Hurl" and Spike TV airing a series of Major League Eating events. ESPN also airs competitive eating events like Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest.
The "Clock" pilot is set to shoot soon. Food Network is eyeing a first-quarter premiere should the project get picked up to series.
A letter From The Editor WhyI didn"t report on the Goya National Black Bean Eating Championship held at the Central Islip Islandia Festival On or about early 2001 I sent out portfolios of myself and competitive eating in general to many companies . It was a new burgiining sport and one of the companies that I contacted was Goya Foods , I told them about the new sport and myself as a champion eater and aske them to ride the wave of success with me on this new burging sport, It was sent Certified mail to them return receipt requested and they not only signe dfor the portfolio they replied back that they will contact me in the future . well this is how I get repaid for introducing thenm to the sport , not a mention by them , not aked toparticipate in any way not even to take a bow , in essence they stole my intellectual property. Many people were ripped off . ArtBuchwald was ripped off for the Eddie Murphy movie coming to America. Steven Speiberg ripped of a protege of Jackie kennedy for Amestad so on and so forth I can go on all day. But Goya Foods is not an honorable company that's all I can say, I ha d received press alerts for the contest for about a month , but chose not to publicize the event , can you blame me. end
Krystal offers $20,000 in hamburger-eating contest
Krystal is offering big bucks to whoever wins its Krystal Square Off V World Hamburger Eating Championship on Sept. 28, the company announced today.
Top-ranked eaters such as Joey “Jaws” Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi will battle for a combined $50,000 in cash prizes, the largest cash purse in competitive eating history, according to a company news release.
“As elite, world-class athletes, these competitors are focused on the title first and foremost, but winning some cold, hard cash will make victory taste even sweeter,” said Brad Wahl, Krystal’s vice president of marketing.
The winner this year will receive $20,000 in cash, twice the amount Mr. Chestnut took home from the contest in 2007 when he ate 103 Krystal hamburgers in eight minutes. Mr. Chestnut’s mark last year shattered Mr. Kobayashi’s previous world record of 97 hamburgers in eight minutes.
By comparison, Nathan's International July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island, N.Y., awards $10,000 for first-place.
The runner-up at Krystal Square Off V will take home a paycheck of $10,000, while third place will leave Chattanooga $5,000 richer. On the line for the remaining finalists are the following payouts: $3,000 fourth place; $2,500 fifth; $2,000 sixth; $1,850 seventh; $1,500 eighth; $1,400 ninth; $1,250 10th; $1,000 11th; $500 12th.
A seven-city qualifying circuit for Krystal Square Off V kicks off in Chattanooga with an opening ceremony on Aug. 22, followed by an eight-minute contest on Aug. 23. From there, the circuit journeys through six more cities with the winner of each regional qualifier given a seat to the World Championship in Chattanooga. Three wild-card spots in the final also will be awarded based on performances in the regional qualifiers.
Mr. Chestnut receives an automatic seat to this year’s championship as the defending champion.
For more information on the Krystal Square Off V, visit krystalsquareoff.com
Sport of Eating to Award Cash Prize of Olympic Proportions
Largest cash purse in competitive eating history up for grabs at the World Hamburger Eating Championship
Last update: 6:15 a.m. EDT Aug. 14, 2008
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Aug 14, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- When the very best from the sport of eating descend upon Chattanooga for the Krystal Square Off V World Hamburger Eating Championship on Sept. 28, 2008, it will be more than just the title on the line. Top-ranked eaters such as Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi will also battle for some serious money as The Krystal Company announced today that it will award an unprecedented $50,000 in cash prizes, making it the largest cash purse in competitive eating history.
"Victory will be as good as gold at the Krystal Square Off V finals this year as we give away the largest cash purse in competitive eating history," said Brad Wahl, vice president of marketing, The Krystal Company. "As elite, world-class athletes, these competitors are focused on the title first and foremost, but winning some cold, hard cash will make victory taste even sweeter."
The winner this year will receive $20,000 in cash, twice the amount Chestnut took home in 2007 when he shocked a live audience of 10,000 by eating an unfathomable 103 Krystal Hamburgers in eight minutes. Chestnut's mark last year shattered Takeru Kobayashi's previous world record of 97.
The runner-up at Krystal Square Off V will take home a paycheck of $10,000, while third place will leave Chattanooga $5,000 richer. On the line for the remaining finalists are the following payouts: 4th - $3,000; 5th - $2,500; 6th - $2,000; 7th - $1,850; 8th - $1,500; 9th - $1,400; 10th - $1,250; 11th - $1,000; 12th - $500.
A seven-city qualifying circuit for Krystal Square Off V kicks off in Chattanooga with an opening ceremony on Aug. 22 followed by an eight-minute contest on Aug. 23. From there, the circuit journeys through six more cities with the winner of each regional qualifier awarded a seat to the World Championship in Chattanooga. Three wild card spots to the final will also be awarded based on performances in the regional qualifiers.
At the Krystal Square Off V final, the seven regional winners and three wild cards will face off against the world's number one ranked eater Joey Chestnut, who receives an automatic seat to this year's championship as the defending champion.
The Krystal Square Off is one of the two majors in the sport of competitive eating and the only world hamburger-eating championship sanctioned by Major League Eating, the world governing body of all stomach-centric sports.
For complete details on Krystal Square Off V, visit krystalsquareoff.com .
Olga ''The Old Gal'' Receives Honorary Doctorate from Czech State University Olga Says I'll be there to watch Hall Hunt & Pat Bertoletti Compete on Aug. 17th
Don Lerman TO Undergo Implant surgery Don Lerman will go under the knife on Sept 17th do undergo an entire upper portion of his mouth for dental implants . He will be under anesthesia and the operation will take 4 hrs . the healing and recovery will be 9months to a year. end .....
Loosen your belt and get your appetite ready for the return of stomach-centric sports to Chattanooga.
7 cities, including ours, will host qualifying rounds for the fifth Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Eating Championship.
The qualifying circuit, which pits amateur hopefuls against the world's best competitive eaters, kicks off in Chattanooga with an opening ceremony and eight-minute contest on Saturday August 23rd. Instead of a two-minute drill to qualify as in years past, those hoping to reach the finals must sign-up and compete in an eight-minute heat this year. "Day off at each contest, up to five locals can show up that ways its amateurs who have never eaten in a contest before and truly have a shot to go against the best," says Kenny Hammontree, Krystal's Marketing Promotions Manager. Registration begins tomorrow at Noon. You can sign up here.
The winner of each qualifier will be awarded a seat to the World Championship in downtown Chattanooga on September 28. The Chamionship will be held at the waterfront, just like last year. Three wild card spots will also be up for grabs among the top three non-winning eaters... and Joey Chestnut, who downed a record 103 Krystals in eight-minutes last year, gets an automatic invite.
Hammontree says former champ Takeru Kobayashi will be gunning to get his title back. "He is our 3 time champion before last year, but he was injured last year and so he's undefeated and gunning for Joey and gunning for the new record and looks to eat well over 110 Krystals this year."
Not to be scoffed at: Competitve eating is the world's fastest-growing hobby
What compels a person to swallow 65 hard-boiled eggs in six minutes? The money? The danger? The adoration of fans?
By Tim Walker Friday, 8 August 2008
AP
Eric Booker, left, and Sonya Thomas compete in a ham biscuit eating contest in 2006. Thomas ate 60 to Booker's 42
What's the most dangerous thing you can do sitting down? It takes stamina and determination, and it tests your body to the limit. It brings fame and fortune to its top competitors, but claims as many lives as motorsport. Whitewater kayaking? Operating a crane? Or could it be competitive eating?
In the US, home of professional food consumption, the governing body Major League Eating (MLE) presides over a pastime that, it claims, is the world's fastest growing sport. Last month, 1.5 million people tuned in to ESPN to watch 23-year-old Joey "The Jaws" Chestnut defeat Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi in a tie-breaking eat-off at Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest, the biggest event on the eating calendar. Chestnut walked away – gingerly, no doubt – with $10,000 in prize money.
Chestnut and Kobayashi are the Federer and Nadal of competitive eating. Between 2001 and 2006, Kobayashi, 29, won the Fourth of July contest at Coney Island, New York, six years in a row. In 2007, Chestnut beat his rival for the first time, breaking the Japanese champ's world record by eating 66 hot dogs (and their buns) in 12 minutes. When, a few days before the competition, Kobayashi announced that his vigorous training regime had resulted in an arthritic jaw, the news was briefly the lead story on the New York Times website. He recovered in time to compete, but could only stomach a personal best of 63 dogs.
Kobayashi retains some of his records, like the 41 lobster rolls he put away in 10 minutes, or the 17.7lbs of cow brains he once poked down in 15 minutes. But the young Chestnut's CV already reads like Godzilla's weekly shopping list. In June 2006, he ate 47 grilled cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes. In October 2007, he ate 103 hamburgers in eight minutes. And in April this year he ate 8.8lbs of tempura deep-fried asparagus spears in 10 minutes, at the Asparagus Fest in Stockton, California. His pee must have smelled funny for weeks.
The queen of the women's circuit is the diminutive Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, holder of numerous world records including hard-boiled eggs (65 in six minutes, 40 seconds), baked beans (8.4lbs in two minutes, 47 seconds) and oysters (46 dozen in 10 minutes). Thomas, who weighs in at just 105lbs prior to competition, is living proof that you needn't be obese to be a champion eater. In fact, she believes that her skinny build allows her stomach to expand with less difficulty than if it were surrounded by constricting adipose tissue; this is known as the Belt of Fat theory. Even the legendary Kobayashi weighs a modest 160lbs pounds.
Ryan Nerz is a spokesman for MLE, and the author of the competitive eating chronicle Eat This Book. As a non-competitor, he's still unsure of the motivations of most professional eaters. "America will make a sport out of anything," he says. "A lot of college fraternities and Wall Street banks hold eating contests, where they take bets on how many Big Macs they can eat in 10 minutes. Guys like to claim they're big eaters the same way they claim they're big drinkers.
"At the big eating events you have normal guys who get up and do this thing well, beat a bunch of people, and all of a sudden they have a camera shoved in their face. They get a whole new group of friends, a blog, a MySpace page, fans. It very quickly becomes their identity, and it transcends their former identity as a waiter at a pizza restaurant, an accountant or whatever."
The profile of a typical competitive eater has changed in recent years, from the overweight, blue-collar champions of old, such as Eric "Badlands" Booker, who has released two competitive-eating-themed hip-hop albums (Hungry and Focused and Hungry and Focused II: The Ingestion Engine) to a younger, slimmer, more middle-class competitor. There are now even two women in the world top 10, including Sonya Thomas.
MLE has made attempts to take the sport global, including holding a mince pie eating contest in Somerset in 2006, and a chicken satay eating contest at the first MLE Asia event in Singapore last week. Lup Fun Yau, 35, holds UK records for the eating of sugared doughnuts without licking one's lips (six in three minutes), and full English breakfasts (five and ¾ platefuls of fried food in 12 minutes). "It's a US sport," he says. "They take it far more seriously and the prize money is much bigger. The Black Widow and Joey the Jaws have made millions from it; they're in it for the money. But for people in England it's just about having a laugh, getting in the newspaper and having your 15 minutes of fame."
Kobayashi's jaw condition was a rarity, but intestinal injuries are expected to become more common as eaters develop training regimes as rigorous as an athlete's. Some top competitors regularly knock back large amounts of liquid (water, milk, or cola) to teach their stomachs to stretch. As well as the ever-present threat of gastric rupture, such treatment may damage their stomachs' digestive capabilities in the long term. "They're very close-lipped (pun intended) about their training methods," says Nerz. "They have to work on their stomach capacity. They have to work on being able to swallow large, barely chewed chunks of food. And some of them simply have natural talents – Joey Chestnut just has a really big mouth."
MLE maintains strict safety standards at all of its events, including the presence of emergency medics, and a lower-age limit of 18. But no one can legislate against unsanctioned competitions. Such episodes have led to a number of deaths. Adam Deeley, a graphic design student from Swansea, recently died after eating five fairy cakes in an impromptu contest. In January, a woman in California died after drinking almost two gallons of water in a competition sponsored by local radio – the prize on offer was a Nintendo Wii. And in 2002, a 14-year-old schoolboy from Japan choked to death after challenging his friends to a bread-eating race.
"Something like that happens every couple of years," says Nerz. "And we think that bolsters our whole reason for existing. Eating contests will occur whether or not they're organised by a governing body like MLE. So you may as well make sure they're organised with an emergency medical technician at every contest, and with a group like us who'll monitor the safety of each contest. The reason each of our events is only about eight to 12 minutes long is that, not only will the audience and the media reach a limit of what they want to watch, but also the competitors won't cause themselves any distinct damage."
It says something about the decadence of the developed world that we should celebrate the swallowing of 47 glazed doughnuts in eight minutes (by Eric Booker), while the world food crisis rages just outside the stadium gates. Then again, as Nerz argues, motorsport also has an ethical case to answer: "[But] people don't complain about Nascar wasting gas."
The competitive eaters' hall of fame
Mayonnaise: Four 907g bowls in 8 minutes - Oleg Zhornitskiy
Mince pies: 6 pies at the Wookey Hole Big Eat in Somerset in 10 minutes - Sonya Thomas, 29 November 2006
Nigiri sushi: 141 pieces in six minutes - Timothy Janus, 11 April 2008
Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches: 42 sandwiches in 10 minutes - Patrick Bertoletti, 8 August 2007
Spam: 2.72kg of Spam in 12 minutes - Richard LeFevre, 3 April 2004
Pork ribs: 3.81kg in 12 minutes - Joey Chestnut, 16 July 2006
Pigs' trotters: 1.31kg of pigs' trotters in 10 minutes- Arturo Rios Jr, 23 June 2007
Peas: 4.31kg in 12 minutes - Eric Booker
Shrimps: 2.26kg of spot shrimps in 12 minutes - Erik Denmark, 22 September 2006
Jalapeños: 177 pickled jalapeño peppers in 15 minutes - Patrick Bertoletti
Waffles: 29 waffles in 10 minutes - Patrick Bertoletti, 7 October 2007
Lobster: 44 Maine lobsters (5.13kg of meat) from the shell in 12 minutes - Sonya Thomas, 13 August 2005
Some people will compete to be or do anything, as long as there are enticing rewards to be had.
SOME people eat to live and others live to eat. Then, there are those who eat to compete, amazingly, in a circuit called Major League Eating.
Why am I not surprised this is the work of Americans, who call it the professional eating circuit? They’ve even marketed the franchise globally. So far, there’s no World Series Eating, but give it time.
The contestants are called “gurgitators” – Americans will conjure a word for anything!
Despite the very American-ness of the event, the world’s champion eater is a Japanese chap called Takeru Kobayashi. I like the name – there’s a ring of Star Trek to it, and fans will know what I mean.
Anyway, Major League Eating came to Singapore for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and guess what?
Kobayashi, who won the contest held in New York for six years running before losing it the last couple of times to an American, beat the same rival. His feat – he wolfed down 5.4kg of satay in 12 minutes, when the American, Joey Chestnut, could manage only a pathetic 4.1kg.
Most people would be stuffed at their 10th straight stick of satay spread over a half-hour meal. Seen in this context, Kobayashi’s feat is nothing short of phenomenal.
Did someone say: “And pointless?”
Not that I have anything against eating competitions. As a teenager, I could hold my own against friends who were well above my height and weight class when it came to eating.
One of our favourite games was to go to a restaurant, order a particular dish repeatedly and see who could put away the most – the first to give up footed the bill for everyone! Last one standing was dutifully crowned champion. Teenaged males often do the silliest and most pointless things.
I never won, but I never had to pay the bill either, I’m proud to say!
Eating contests didn’t get much publicity back in the 1970s, except for a few paragraphs in the newspapers or magazines.
These days, the Internet and YouTube can turn any small, local event into a truly global circus – Major League Eating gets regular coverage on TV, too.
I’ve seen these professional eating contests on TV, and boy, you need a strong stomach to sit through one of these. A plate of sausages may look tempting enough for your average, hungry non-vegetarian, but when people start shovelling them in end to end, sauce dribbling down their chin and corners of their mouth while trying not to regurgitate the contents of their stomach ... not a pretty or appetising sight, you’ll agree.
What drives these “professional eaters” and what’s the point behind it all? It seems anywhere there’s the slimmest chance for competition, the Americans will organise one. Man’s competitive spirit knows no boundaries ... and there are always people who will watch!
As for Kobayashi, he’s a lad with immense willpower and concentration skills, almost of yogic proportions. During a contest, he says he gets into a zone where it’s just him and the food. Everything else is presumably just cosmic dust.
“It’s like I’m in a trance,” is how he describes this surreal state. If the flower-power generation had this ability, perhaps none of the great rock music of the 1960s and 1970s would have been recorded!
Don’t you wonder what the champion gets out this, apart from the thrill of humiliating his rivals, and raking in a small fortune in prize money and appearance fees each year?
“Sometimes women send me their clothing”, a bemused Kobayashi said.
Now, here’s something you guys aspiring to be rock stars and sex symbols might want to chew over ... perhaps over satay.
Krystal Announces Schedule For Krystal Square Off V posted August 7, 2008
The Krystal Company has announced the dates and cities for the fifth annual Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Eating Championship, one of the majors in the sport of competitive eating and the only world hamburger-eating championship sanctioned by Major League Eating, the world governing body of all stomach-centric sports.
The seven-city qualifying circuit, which pits amateur hopefuls against the world�s best competitive eaters, will officially kick off in Chattanooga with an opening ceremony and eight-minute contest on Aug. 23.
From there, the road to the top burger title will journey through six more cities with the winner of each regional qualifier awarded a seat to the World Championship in downtown Chattanooga on Sept. 28. Three wild card spots to the Krystal Square Off V final will also be awarded based on performances in the regional qualifiers.
Brad Wahl, Krystal vice president of marketing, said, �The eyes of the competitive eating world will once again be on the South as Krystal hosts the Krystal Square Off V qualifying tour in seven great cities across the South this August and September. These cities have all shown phenomenal support for the Krystal Square Off and have helped make it a world-class event and a great new Southern tradition.�
Dates and cities for Krystal Square Off V qualifying circuit and championship final are as follows:
Aug. 23 - Chattanooga, Tenn.
Sept. 1 - Jacksonville, Fla.
Sept. 6 - Atlanta, Ga.
Sept. 13 - Nashville, Tenn.
Sept. 14 - Knoxville, Tenn.
Sept. 20 - Birmingham, Ala.
Sept. 21 - Memphis, Tenn.
Sept. 28 - Chattanooga � Krystal Square Off V World Championship
Individuals interested in competing in any of the regional qualifiers can visit krystalsquareoff.com to register for the event of their choice. Also, for the first time, five amateurs will be selected �on-the-spot� at each of the regional qualifiers to compete in the eight-minute event. Participants must be 18 years or over.
At the Krystal Square Off V final in Chattanooga, the seven regional winners and three wild cards will face off against the world�s number one ranked eater Joey Chestnut, who receives an automatic seat to this year�s championship as the reigning Krystal Square Off champion. Last year at Krystal Square Off IV, Chestnut shocked the competitive eating world and a live audience of 10,000 people by eating an unfathomable 103 Krystal Hamburgers in eight minutes, shattering Takeru Kobayashi�s previous world record mark of 97.
Due to a debilitating jaw injury, Kobayashi, a three-time Krystal champion, did not compete in last year�s final. The eating legend from Japan has never lost to Chestnut in a Krystal contest, making this year�s showdown the most hotly anticipated event in competitive eating this year.
�So much is riding on the qualifiers and final this year, with Chestnut and Kobayashi set for a rematch and the best eaters in the world gunning for their coveted seat at the final,� said Mr. Wahl. �We expect the excitement and thrill to be unprecedented at every stop along the tour, and we�re thrilled to give Krystal fans everywhere the chance to put their money where their mouth is for the chance to go up against the world�s very best.�
Ifoce reports that this years event at Saratoga Park will take place on August 18, A years supply of hot dogs is the prize and it will be a non qualifying Nathans contest. It has been my experience that if you happen to win this early once qualifier in August and since your already in for Coney you tend not to practice as much as those eaters that are trying to secure a perch in Coney at early spring time. I may be up there for the races anyway ..goodluck to all competing anyway
McClatchy Tribune Tim ‘Gravy’ Brown often consumes his hot dogs two at a time.
Getting ready to gorge By Louis R. Carlozo Chicago TribuneCHICAGO — While you might chomp a hot dog or three this weekend, Tim “Gravy’’ Brown was planning on downing 10 times that many. The Chicago resident ranks 13th on the International Federation of Competitive Eating circuit.
At Drew’s Eatery in Lincoln Square, a favorite training ground, Brown showed how he packs encased meat in his stomach sack. (He recently swallowed 33 hot dogs in 10 minutes.)
The weeks before. Most competitive eaters aren’t obese. Brown (200 pounds and 5 feet 11 inches tall) runs 5 miles a day five times a week: “It builds endurance, and an eating contest is endurance. It might be 10 minutes of eating, but it’s 10 minutes of hell.’’
The day before. To ready his stomach for a beef blitz, Brown takes his last meal on the day preceding a contest, at noon. He hits the gym and nightcaps with a gallon or two of water to stretch his stomach.
“Japanesing.’’ At Nathan’s 2001 contest, Takeru Kobayashi scarfed 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes, smashing the old record of 25. The 110-pounder did it by separating dog and bun, then gulping franks in twos. Admirers dubbed this “Japanesing,’’ and it’s how Brown chows: “If you grab two hot dogs at a time, it feels like one.’’
Crystal Light dunk. Brown peels buns open (“reverse bunnage’’) for a swift gulp; he dunks them in Crystal Light, starting with raspberry and moving to orange. “I have a problem with flavor fatigue,’’ he says. “In four minutes you’re repulsed by garlic and salt. I’ve tried dunking in everything from milkshakes to chocolate sauce. This is what works.’’
Brain training. Competitive eaters override brain signals that tell them they’re full. “You have to trick it,’’ says Brown, who also packs an iPod to drown out announcer prattle with books on tape or punk rock. “You don’t want to know if you’re winning or losing. You just want to concentrate.’’ His brain and gut rewired, Brown finds: “I never get full. I don’t get hungry. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love to eat.’’
Aftermath. Following competitions Brown grabs a water bottle, not so much to cool off as to push his stomach wall even more. “I usually guzzle a liter to 2 liters of water 20 to 30 minutes afterwards,’’ he says. “It’s total dedication, trying to get better every time, so the best thing to do afterwards is just hit your capacity. For anyone who takes this seriously, you’ve got to push yourself.’’
Next meal. Brown finds he bounces back quickly — and would choose a clambake or loaded Chicago dog over the plain wieners he consumes on the circuit. As for when he’s ready to eat again following a big meet, “after an hour or an hour and a half, it’s all gone. I don’t want to get into the details of that
Don Lerman Wins 2004 Saratoga Park Nathans Qualifier *pictured Tim Janus Don Lerman And Brian Subich I remember this as if it was yesturday . Saratoga Park was practicaly my private hunting ground s for a few years , I won the inugural back in2001 , its not around the corner for me , its 12 hours of traveling, 6 up 6 back a steep price I may add $ 125 round trip. I'll never forget the look on Brian Subich's face when he saw me , he had driven 9 hrs to get there , seeing me was a let down to say the least..I wish all competing Gods speed and Good luck if they have a Special on the Amtrak I may venture up there to watch and spend a day at the races ..Don ''Moses''Lerman
1st 4.23 $1500 Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas
Let's say you're in a bind. You want an excuse to eat 100 buffalo wings but your girlfriend says you're wasting your life and will never be a success.
Perhaps it's unfair to prejudge, but I am really, really disappointed in the Food Network. The announcement that they are planning 
