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Man Dies in Company-Sponsored Pastry Eating Contest

YumSugar — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:00:22 -0800

A few months ago we noticed that competitive eating was a rapidly growing "sport": This year, 1.5 million people tuned in to ESPN to watch the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, and there's now a game, Major League Eating, available on the Nintendo Wii. Yet while it's entertainment for many, it comes at a cost for others. Yesterday, Saurab Sabharwal, a 22-year-old engineer at Nokia-Siemens in Gurgaon, India, died during a company-sponsored pastry eating contest held in the office cafeteria. After choking, he ran to the bathroom alone, and was found unconscious an hour later. Colleagues called for an ambulance, which rushed him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. This isn't the first death we've heard of from competitive eating. Last month, a Taiwanese student fell unconscious and died during a steamed bun eating contest.

Does this call for further measures to be taken, so that others don't get hurt? Should a medical expert have been mandated to stand by, just in case? Or should government officials consider placing a ban on eating contests?

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Student Dies in Eating Competition

partysugar — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:15:52 -0700

Last week, a student in Taiwan died during a steamed bun eating contest. The 23 year old was participating in his university's annual eating contest, an event that featured 60 students split into 30 teams of two. The student couldn't stop vomiting and fell unconscious during the competition. Although he was rushed to the hospital, it was too late. The cause of the death remains unclear, but some believe he choked to death.

At a time when American major league eating competitions are gaining popularity, I hope the news of this death will force people to wake up. Is a competition involving overeating — in a world where people starve to death — really necessary? What do you think of the news? Are you sick of hearing about eating contests?

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Joey Chestnut Wins First Ever World Pizza Championships

YumSugar — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:00:42 -0700

Yesterday the world's best competitive eaters met at a pizza eating competition in New York City's Time Square. Joey Chestnut, the nation's champion in hot dog and hamburger eating, broke the record with an amazing 45 slices in ten minutes at the Famous Famiglia pizza eating competition. Pat "Deep Dish" Bertoletti was Chestnut's closest opponent — he ate 43 slices in the quick ten minutes.

Chestnut folded the regular cheese slices before launching them into his stomach. He washed the pizza down with water in paper cups and "never appeared to chew." After winning the pizza-eating contest, Chestnut is certainly the current star of Major League Eating. Although I find the whole thing pretty disgusting, I'm excited to see what other records Chestnut miraculously beats.

What do you think?

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Chestnut Defeats Kobayashi in Hamburger Eating

partysugar — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 07:45:03 -0700

Yesterday competitive eaters Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi met for a highly anticipated rematch at the Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Eating Championship in Chattanooga, TN. The dynamic duo last faced off at Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Competition. Chestnut slammed Kobayashi with his quick consumption of 93 hamburgers in eight minutes. Rising star Patrick Bertoletti out ate Kobayashi by one burger and came in at second place. According to Richard Shea, the president of Major League Eating, the event was a momentous one:

There are precious few moments in professional sports when you can watch as a competitor affirms his place in the history books. With this win today, Joey Chestnut just said to the world: I am Krystal King hear me growl.

Chestnut was awarded $20,000 for winning. Although the sport of competitive eating continues to gain momentum and popularity, I remain grossed out. How about you? Have you warmed to over-eating as a competition? How many burgers could you stomach in eight minutes?

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Food Network's New Show Is Not About Competitive Eating

partysugar — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:51:22 -0700

Yesterday the Internet was abuzz with rumors about the Food Network's new competitive eating show.

However, I spoke with a source at the network today, and she informed me that, contrary to gossip, the Food Network is not filming a competitive eating series. According to PR manager Lisa Krueger, the show is more like a culinary version of The Amazing Race. Called Eat the Clock, Krueger says it will feature "two teams who will race through a variety of culinary hot spots and compete in challenges for the ultimate chowhound smack-down." Apparently the words "ultimate chowhound smack-down" were mistaken for competitive eating.

While I find competitive eating to be quite disgusting, a show about it has the potential to be a hit. Still, I'm interested to see what Eat the Clock is about. Will you watch? Are you more inclined to watch if competitive eating were involved?

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Competitive Eating Is a Growing Sport

YumSugar — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:00:41 -0700

It may not be in the Olympics — yet — but competitive eating has become one of the world's fastest-growing sports. Last month, as many as 1.5 million people tuned in to ESPN to watch Joey Chestnut beat Takeru Kobayashi in Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest. According to the Major League Eating spokesman Ryan Nerz:

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 also evolved in recent years. The demographic has changed from the overweight, blue-collar male champions to trimmer, younger, white-collar competitors that include men and women. Many competitors believe in the Belt of Fat theory — that a skinny build allows the stomach to expand with less difficulty than if it were surrounded by a constricting layer of fat tissue.

Have you or would you ever try competitive eating? For some recent records in the world of competitive eating,

Yummy Links: From Joey Chestnut to Hell's Kitchen

partysugar — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:00:36 -0700

Learn how competitive eater and Nathan's Hot Dog champ Joey Chestnut eats 15 pounds of hot dogs. — Time
Why Americans are crazy for all things bacon. — Salon
Speaking of America, here are ten foods only Americans could have invented. — Endless Simmer
Yesterday sliced bread turned 80. — SlashFood
Looking for good barbecue? Try one of these twelve restaurants. — Concierge
Disgusting: the world's worst eating contests. — Esquire
For my next party I plan on making these adorable, tasty looking salami cones. — Janet is Hungry
Eleven foods to add to your grocery list. — FitSugar
It's confirmed: the winner of Hell's Kitchen will be one of 65 chefs in Ramsay's kitchen and is only 'executive chef' by title. — Serious Eats

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Get Your Eat On! Competitive Eating Game For the Wii

YumSugar — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:21:47 -0700

Interested in competitive eating, but can't quite stomach the thought of eating a bajillion hot dogs in one sitting? Then get ready, a new video game will allow you to pretend you're a Competitive World Eating Champion. On May 12, game publisher Mastiff will be releasing Major League Eating: The Game for the Wii.

I read about it the other day and have been dreaming of the craziness ever since. The game will use the Wii controller extensively in order to "simulate a variety of eating techniques" — I can't wait, it will be hilarious to see my friends making eating motions with the Wii controller — and will play like a fighting game.

While regular competitive eating seems rather gluttonous, not to mention a total waste of food, a virtual competition could be a bit fun. So who's going to challenge me when it comes out?

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Joey Chestnut Does It Again

YumSugar — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:10:31 -0800

This afternoon, over 20,000 fans packed the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Penn., to see the sixteeth annual Wing Bowl. Joey "Jaws" Chestnut, who was the reigning champion, held onto his title by chowing down on 241 chicken wings in 30 minutes. This was 14 more than his nearest competitor Patrick Bertoletti and 36 more than third place Bill "El Wingador" Simmons.

For his gastronomic feat, Chestnut — when did he obtain the nickname "Jaws"? I swear he didn't have it for the Fourth of July Hot Dog Contest — received a Toyota Tundra, a 2008 Black 883 Sportster motorcycle, a championship ring, and, of course, all the bragging rights.

So what do you folks think, could you eat that many wings in 30 minutes? Could you even eat half the amount? Also, can you believe the number of folks who attended? From the look of things, this place was packed!

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You Gotta Eat Food to Donate Food

YumSugar — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:13:19 -0800

You may have eaten a lot of food on Thanksgiving, but did you eat enough to feed ten people? Tim "Eater X" Janus did. In a strange publicity stunt aimed to draw attention to New York City's hungry, competitive eaters from around the globe gathered to see who could eat the most during a Thanksgiving battle. Janus pushed out his competitors — including hot dog champ Joey Chestnut — by chowing down on a 10-lb. turkey, 4 lbs. of mashed potatoes, 3 lbs. of cranberry sauce, and 2.5 lbs. of beans. The event raised $6,000 — enough for 30,000 meals — for the Food Bank of New York City. The week prior, the league donated $4,000 to Second Harvest food bank.

On one hand it's fantastic to see that they're donating the funds, on the other it's a sad that a waste of food is needed in order to donate food. What do you think?

To see the video from the earlier preliminary competition — it's quite long, fast-forward to 30 minutes for the turkey portion of the battle —

Could You Eat One Hot Dog Every 10.9 Seconds?

YumSugar — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:20:03 -0700

Yesterday, at the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, reigning champion Takeru Kobayashi was bested by Californian Joey Chestnut. In a down-to-the-wire race, Chestnut dethroned six-time champion Kobayashi by downing 66 hot dogs (plus buns) in 12 minutes - that's one hot dog every 10.9 seconds. Kobayashi, despite recently having a wisdom tooth extracted and treatment for a sore jaw - managed to do his personal best by inhaling 63 hot dogs.

However, the event wasn't without some controversy. At the final few minutes Chestnut was devouring hot dogs so quickly, the counter couldn't keep up and they had to actually go back and count all plates.

If you didn't get to catch it on ESPN, you're in luck. Catch the final few dramatic minutes, just

Competitive Eating Around the US

YumSugar — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:38:39 -0700

Most people have heard of Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs 4th of July competition - the one where Takeru Kobayashi shoves hot dogs in his mouth at lightening speeds - but did you realize that there are many different kinds of competitive eating contests? If you think shoving 59 hot dogs in your face is wild, how do you feel about pigs' feet and knuckles (the winner recently ate 2.89 pounds of the stuff) or gyoza (212 of them). In fact there are so many competitive eating contests that the folks at Senselist have actually put together a list of their favorite 16 competitive eating contests. Of those 16, my faves include:

Rhubarb Pie: Winner ate 7.9 pounds of rhubarb pie in eight minutes; North Dakota State Fair, July 2006
Jalapeno Peppers: Winner ate 247 pickled jalapenos in eight minutes; State Fair of Texas, October 2006
Strawberry Shortcake: Winner ate 15.25 pounds of strawberry shortcake in eight minutes; Mattituck, NY, June 2007
Chili Cheese Fries: Winner ate 5.44 pounds of fries; Long Beach, CA, February 2007
Whole Turkey: Winner ate 4.8 pounds of turkey in 12 minutes; Artie’s Deli, New York, NY, November 2006

Oh and don't forget, Nathan's hot dog eating contest will actually air on ESPN tomorrow at 12pm ET. While you're waiting for your bbq to warm up, you can watch the much anticipated face-off between Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut (aka that guy who broke Kobayashi's record).

Speaking of records, the list of competitive eating records is pretty darn impressive. 7.75 pounds of turduckens in 12 minutes?!?

Source: SenseList and IFOCE

59 1/2 Hot Dogs in 12 Minutes

YumSugar — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 03:58:19 -0700

Even if you're not a competitive eater enthusiast, I'm sure you've probably heard of Japanese champion Takeru Kobayashi. You've probably seen him on the news because he holds just about every record and award for competitive eating. I say just about every because this past weekend Kobayashi's record was smashed by 22 year-old Joe Chestnut of San Jose, California. During the Southwest Regional Hot Dog Eating Championship in Tempe, Arizona, Chestnut devoured 59 1/2 hot dogs (plus buns) in 12 minutes. The previous record of 53 3/4 was set by Kobayashi at last year's Nathan's 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island, New York. At the same event, Chestnut actually came in second with 52 hot dogs. Something tells me that this means FACE OFF at this year's 4th of July event. Either way I'm flabbergasted, I just don't understand how anyone can pack away that many hot dogs.

To check out video footage of last year's hot dog battle,