U.S. chows down for fun and sport

By Pauline Arrillaga
The Associated Press

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It is the night before the 2004 World Oyster Eating Championship, and Shea is doing what he does best — hyping one of his up-and-coming "athletes" in what he considers the signature sport of the 21st century.

His audience: the wife of the marketing director for Acme Oyster House — a buff, beautiful gym goddess who, at this moment, is resolved to eat only a fraction of her hamburger.

His subject: Sonya Thomas, a 105-pound Burger King manager who is, as Shea spins it, the "fastest-rising star in competitive eating." To prove his point, Shea rattles off a statistic. Tiny Thomas consumed 65 hard-boiled eggs in six minutes, 40 seconds to set a world record.

The Oyster House spouse flinches. "That's nauseating."

"Physical poetry," Shea counters. "She's a phenom."

The records Asparagus: 5.75 pounds of tempura deep-fried spears in 10 minutes. Beef tongue: 3 pounds, 3 ounces in 12 minutes. Bologna: 2.41 pounds in six minutes. Buffet: 5-1/2 pounds in 12 minutes. Matzo balls: 21 baseball-sized in five minutes, 25 seconds. Mayonnaise: Four 32-ounce bowls in eight minutes. Pancakes: 3-1/2 pounds of pancakes and bacon in 12 minutes. Pickles: 2.7 pounds of kosher dills in six minutes. Pork ribs: 4.65 pounds in 12 minutes. Spam: 6 pounds of Spam from the can in 12 minutes. The Associated Press

Shea, 35, is one-half of the brains behind the IFOCE. He and his brother, George, 39, established the so-called governing body of all stomach-centric sports in 1997 and have since turned a pastime once reserved for fairs and frat parties into a national craze.

Just how big has competitive eating gotten?

On the Fourth of July, at New York's Coney Island, all the top dogs of the competitive eating circuit were on hand:

• No. 5 Rich "The Locust" LeFevre, 60, a retired accountant who holds records in Spam, corn dogs and chili.

• No. 4 Eric "Badlands" Booker, 35, a subway conductor and expert in burritos, corned-beef hash, doughnuts, matzo balls, peas, even hamentaschen (traditional Purim pastries).

• No. 3 Ed "Cookie" Jarvis, 38, a real-estate agent and consumer of cannoli, chicken fingers and corn on the cob.

• No. 2 Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, 36, the rookie — tops in everything from asparagus and fruitcake to tacos, turducken (turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken) and eggs.

• And No. 1 Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi of Japan, 26, the 155-pound Michael Jordan of his craft.

When it comes to eating hot dogs, "The Tsunami" still blows everybody away. For the fourth straight year, Kobayashi chewed up the competition yesterday.

Kobayashi gulped down 53-1/2 wieners in 12 minutes — about one every 15 seconds — shattering his own world record by three dogs.

Meanwhile, Thomas relished two new records: She ate more hot dogs — 32 — than any other woman and any other American in the contest's history.

The Shea brothers launched the IFOCE in 1997 in a Manhattan steakhouse over sirloin, shrimp and cabernet with a New York Post reporter and two former hot-dog champions.

Since 1991, George — a public-relations man — had been promoting the annual Nathan's Famous hot-dog-eating contest, which became a fixture on Coney Island in 1916.

"We used to do it for maybe two TV cameras, two still cameras and a crowd of 30," George recalls.

Then, in 1993, Nathan's went international, holding a hot-dog contest in Japan. Later that year, TV Tokyo dispatched a Japanese eater to America to take on the reigning Nathan's champ.

The American won, and around that time the bejeweled Mustard Yellow International Belt — the World Cup of competitive eating — made its appearance.

Japan sent more eaters to New York to bring the belt home, and a rivalry erupted. So did the competitive-eating craze.

In 1997, Nathan's launched eat-offs in several U.S cities to lure America's top gurgitators to the table on Independence Day. But it occurred to the Sheas and their cabernet-quaffing friends: Why limit this endeavor to Nathan's? To New York? Indeed, to hot dogs?

Last year, the IFOCE put on 40 contests of conspicuous consumption — among them the Crawfish Eating Championships in Baton Rouge, La.; the Sweet Corn Fiesta in West Palm Beach, Fla.; and the first World Corny Dog Eating Championship at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas.

Sponsors enlist the IFOCE to organize and publicize the contest, provide an emcee and supply participants from a pool of 350 "professional" eaters it has under contract.

This year, the Sheas expect to produce more than 70 contests.

The exploits are not without critics, those who go beyond "that's nauseating" and view it as the poster child for everything wrong with America — corpulence, consumerism, exhibitionism, excess.

"It's the fall of Rome, my dear," sniffs food historian Barbara Haber. "Incredibly decadent. Wasteful. It's calling attention to a body function that should be limited, that should be convivial, that should represent positive qualities: family, friends, pleasure."

The rebuttal? "There are real records. There are real disciplines. There are real histories and pedigrees," George Shea retorts.

In the next breath, he notes: "If Mom likes it, it ain't fun."

And there are real competitors, many involved in eating contests long before the Sheas came along. There are portly and skinny. Young and old. Guys and girls. Husbands and wives. They have Web sites and posses. They cut rap albums about eating. They lend their names to documentaries such as "Crazy Legs Conti: Zen and the Art of Competitive Eating."

And what do they get for their efforts? A few contests have purses. At a chili-eating event, LeFevre won $500 and a year's supply of chili.

Thomas went home with a car after gobbling 167 chicken wings in 32 minutes at Philadelphia's revered Wing Bowl.

Most maintain they do it for love of the sport.

"It's mostly for the free food and the good times," says Crazy Legs Conti. "We don't get a paycheck, but we get a full stomach."

The one thing this rage also has is fans, and each new contest draws in more.

Rich Shea paces the stage at the New Orleans French Quarter Festival, barking introductions into a microphone. Hundreds of onlookers pack the pavement.

"They have to eat with a fork. They can't touch it with their hands," said onlooker Faith Weidenhaft, 53. "And they don't get sick afterward!"

"It's really disgusting," she concludes. "But very cool to watch."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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