Great America Park Funnel Cake Contest - 4/11

Official Funnel Cake Results:
4-11-2009

10 minute contest - Santa Clara, CA

1 - Joey Jaws Chestnut (1) - 5.44 lbs., $2000
2 - Pat Deep Dish Bertoletti (2) - 4.78, $1500
3 - Humble Bob Shoudt (4) - 4.12, $1000
4 - Erik the Red Denmark (15) - 3.56, $500
5 - Kevin "00" Ross (23) - 2.82
6 - Nasty Nate Biller (19) - 2.63

I would not say funnel cake is an ideal contest food. But this was a very well run contest with a committed sponsor so the food was not that big of a deal. Many of us have never had an experience with funnel cake. It's one of those foods that you know exists, you may have seen it, but have you ever really ordered it? Funnel cake looks light and fluffy since it is not really a solid mass. But, don't be fooled, funnel cake is a very dense food; it is essentially something akin to a pancake batter that is dripped in to a frying pan filled with vegetable oil. So, a good majority of the density of the food is derived from fry oil. Regardless if the food was slow, the contest was fun and rumor was there will be more funnel cake contests at other parks later in the eating season hosted by subsidiaries of the same parent company that put hosted this contest. Just recently it was annocunced at IFOCE that the 2nd funnel cake contest will take place on May 23 in Virginia.

I am always happy to win money and to not have a tough travel schedule so this was a successful contest for me in that sense. However, as this is my 4th full season on the competitive eating circuit, I know that now is my time to make a jump in the rankings and pull some upsets. Gradual improvement is great but it ain't spectatcular.

Check out some contest video taken by Pizza Party owner Bear Silber Here