8 Minute Contest (IFOCE rank in paranthesis)
1st - Pat "Deep Dish" Bertoletti(3)- 29.5 Sandwiches, $2500
2nd - Joey "Jaws" Chestnut(2) - 26
3rd - Humble Bob Shoudt(5) - 18.75
4th - Tim "Eater X" Janus(7) - 16.5
5th(tie) - Erik the Red Denmark(14) - 13
5th(tie) - Juliet Lee(37) - 13
7th - Arturo "the Natural" Rios(9) - 12.75
8th - Justin Mih "So Hungry"(13) - 11.33
9th - Crazy Legs Conti(11) - 10.5
10th - Wild Bill Myers(29) - 7.5
Click Here to watch video of the contest taken by Brian Seiken
You can tell Pat wasn't even happy to be holding this
oversized $2,500 winning check...right
The contest was held in New York at historic Madison Square Garden and to me the venue of New York is uniquely suited for competitive eating. Although, I am from the West coast and would desperately love to see more contests closer to home, I do have an affinity for the Northeast region of the country. Although, I have had mixed results on the East coast, mediocre at best in fact, if you don't consider the final Nathan's qualifier that I won on July 3 (22 HDB's) and my performance on the fourth (22 HDB's) which I am very proud of. But, regardless I do welcome the challenge of competing in the home city of competitive eating and I hope for improved results on the East coast this coming year.
Here I am trying to catch some luck (not necissarily a miracle) on 34th street
The date nut bread sandwiches turned out to be a much bigger obstacle than expected. The bread was very sweet and dense and the cream cheese was spread thick whcich as the contest wore on became virtually unbearable to many. Pat and Joey perservered and pulled away from the pack, especially Pat who clearly has a great tolerance and technique for sweet foods. It was Pat's day all the way; he built around a 5 or 6 sandwich lead going in to the last minute or so and held on for a decisive victory. I was a bit surprised at how dominate Pat was considering I know he only slept for about 2 hours the night before. Chestnut flew in on the red eye once again to NY from San Jose the morning of the contest and I am sure he wouldn't make excuses but from personal experience that really fucks with your system.
I can't say the 13 sandwiches was a great accomplishment for me and really the totals 3rd - 10th should not carry too much weight in my opinion, everyone seemed to struggle. Juliet Lee was a bit of a surprise as she did very well and she is sweet too (personality). She will definitely need to work on speed and capacity though if she wants to improve. I think she is going on all natural ability right now which is impressive and potentially very scary how good she can be.
The night before the contest a few of us met up with Kobayashi for dinner (one should never pass up this opportunity), who was in New York to film a commercial with Sonya Thomas. We met up at Pizza Gruppo where Tim Janus was working the bar and serving pizza. We didn't get too crazy since it was the night before the competition though it was hard to hold back. The thin crust pizza was excellent and the service was even better. Some pics below:
Kobayashi looking determined to enjoy this pizza,
or destroy it, it's hard to tell
Janus takes a break to pose with us while Kobayshi plays photographer
Click Here to see the rest of the pictures from this set on Flickr
4 comments:
great job, those sandwhiches sound brutal.
the pictures of the pizza are killing me...i'm STARVING now!!!!
In the video, the sandwiches look very slow. I hadn't thought about how much the cream cheese would clog up the speed. Great job anyway.
Sounds like you ripped through those cream cheese sandos like no ones business. 3rd place is great especially when the only people to beat you are pat and joey... pretty soon will see your name ahead of theirs now and again.
Hey Erik, my bad... for some reason I thought you tied for 3rd... but fifth place is still elite status. Keep up the good work.
Post a Comment