Top-Ranked Chicken Eater Loses His Crown
By
RYAN NAKASHIMA
LAS
VEGAS (AP) - Two hot dog eating champs faced an upset - not of
the stomach variety - when a Chicago culinary arts student trounced
them in eating chicken wings.
Patrick "Deep Dish" Bertoletti skinned champion Joey
Chestnut and staved off a comeback by Takeru Kobayashi to win
the chicken wing "Chowdown" for Spike TV.
Wriggling
his body and gnashing his teeth, the 22-year-old downed 4.1 pounds
of chicken meat in eight minutes flat in front of a cheering crowd
in downtown Las Vegas Tuesday to win the $25,000 top prize.
Chestnut
wolfed 4.05 pounds for second while Kobayashi came in third, inhaling
3.12 pounds.
Bertoletti,
who came into the event ranked 3rd by the International Federation
of Competitive Eating, said he used his thumb to squish meat off
the bone for speedy ingestion, using the "umbrella technique."
He credited the Buffalo Wild Wings staff for preparing a tasty
meal.
"They
were warm enough and they were soft enough. They had the perfect
amount of sauce on them," he said. "It was perfect."
Top-ranked
Chestnut, 23, was in his first cheek-to-jowl matchup against No.
2 Kobayashi since wresting Nathan's Fourth of July hot dog eating
crown from the Japanese eating machine three months ago. He said
Tuesday's loss left a bad taste in his mouth.
"It's
bittersweet," said Chestnut, of San Jose, Calif. "I
beat Kobayashi, but I didn't win."
Kobayashi
was the six-time Nathan's champ from 2001 to 2006 and came into
the contest nursing a sore jaw. While he downed wings like a cartoon
character eating corn on the cob, the 29-year-old from Nagano,
Japan, said he was more tentative than usual.
"At
first, I was a little worried about my jaw, so I ate scared,"
he said. "Halfway through I got more excited and ate faster,
but there wasn't much time."
|