People often tie in Las Vegas with excess and over the top stories, and it certainly seemed to be the case when we heard about Joey Chestnut! This eating machine made the Vegas headlines when he took part in the first ever Martorano’s Masters Meatball Eating Competition. You didn’t read the headline wrong, it was a meatball eating contest! Steve Martorano, the restaurant owner came up with the idea and explained that he was undecided on whether to have a cheese steak eating competition or a meatball eating competition. “We’re really known for our meatballs though. During 2007 Gourmet magazine said they had the best meatballs.
Joey Chestnut’s brilliant effort even had him breaking the World Record for meatball eating when he ate 6.25lbs, which equates to 50 meatballs, all in a matter of ten minutes. The competition was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and was labelled as a Major League Eating-sanctioned contest. The competition prize wasn’t to be sniffed at either because the winner was set to take home $1500. If you were thinking that the results were totally unexpected then you would be mistaken as Joey is quite an expert in the field of competitive eating. He has been known to seize the championship in competitions featuring chicken, pizza and Hotdogs!
One rule of the competition was that they weren’t allowed to use their hands and had to use utensils! Joey Chestnut weighs a mighty 218lbs and stands at over six feet tall, so perhaps it was no surprise that he took first place, however coming a close second and missing out by only one meatball was Pat Bertolli. Third place prize went to Sonya Thomas, who for this contest was a bit of a flyweight as she only weighs in at 105 pounds, but managed to still consume 42 meatballs. She is certainly somebody to watch in future competitions, or maybe she was just hungry after her time playing poker!
She should maybe think about playing poker from the comfort of her own home. That way she could eat and play all day and night long. Rakeback, Full Tilt Rakeback and Pokerstars Rakeback are all games she could sign up to. Of course if she ate and played at home for too long, I can’t see her weight staying at 105 pounds for very long!