World Grilled Cheese-Eating Championship

by Liz and Krista

(This Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich, bought by the sponsor, GoldenPalace.com will be on display. Jealous?)

We are going at it again and meeting up to watch some of the world's top-ranked competitive eaters attack a pile of grilled cheese sandwiches for a new title and possibly a new world record. The contest takes place this Wednesday, February 1st at the Planet Hollywood in New York and we're lucky enough to have work schedules that are flexible for important life events like this. Although, as Krista found out, mentioning to your boss the reason one actually needs to take off half of the day is to view a competitive eating contest in Time Square might not be a good idea. Note to self: remember less is more.

The Players

Here is a partial list, as supplied on the IFOCE website, of eaters who will be competing for the world title. These are all competitors who won qualifying rounds all around the country in order to participate in this all-star contest:

Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas
Joey "Jaws" Chestnut
Cookie Jarvis
Tim "Eater X" Janus
Bob "Humble Bob" Shoudt
Hall Hunt
Ron Koch
Richard "The Locust" LeFevre
Patrick Bertoletti
Eric "Badlands" Booker
Crazy Legs Conti
Leland Collins
Walter Hamilton

We were lucky enough to meet a lot of these eaters at the meatball competition, so we're hoping the camaraderie we sparked there will extend into this and future competitions. Or, at least, we are hoping certain comments in our previous article didn't damage the tenuous relationship we forged at the Tropicana. Or worst of all did we even forge a relationship? Are we considered just a flash in the pan of the serious competitive eating devotees?

Odds

Sonya won the 2005 world competition last year, eating 25 sandwiches in 10 minutes. However, this number was soon surpassed by others as they qualified for this year's competition. It seems a lot of records are being smashed this year. Is it something in the air? Has global warming affected the competitive nature of these eaters?

In August, Eater X ate 31 grilled cheese sandwiches, setting a world record and starting a ripple through the competitive eating community that Sonya would have a run for her money.

Then, during the October qualifier, Joey Chestnut broke Eater X's record by one and a half sandwiches, setting the current bar at 32.5 sandwiches in 10 minutes.

If there's anything to be learned by this sport, it is never to underestimate the new blood. You never know when an ingénue or a secretly-training pro is going to pop out of the woodworks and out eat the current best. Isn't that what keeps us on the edge of our seats? Another one we'll be keeping our eyes on is Pat Bertoletti, who was a huge upset at the corned beef competition earlier in the month, beating out both Sonya and Joey Chestnut by eating 11 sandwiches to their 10 3/4 (they went into overtime to determine 2nd place, which went to Chestnut by an eighth of an ounce!). He's young (20-years-old), and a serious contender. Could he be the new darling of the IFOCE? How long will it be until Sonya is usurped as the reigning champion? Is there a shelf life for a competitive eater? These are some of the questions we will be asking of as we talk to the competitors this Wednesday.

Burning Cheese Questions

We also want to hear from you, dear readers. We want to know what questions you would like us to pose to these eaters as they set out to consume the greasy cheese filled goodness. What are you dying to know? What hard-nosed questions should we be getting to the bottom of?