NEW YORK, New York (October 12, 2008) – Eleven of the top professional competitive eaters from the Major League Eating and the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) circuit devoured their way in pursuit of the coveted title of “World Pizza Eating Champion” at the first Famous Famiglia World Pizza Eating Championship held in Times Square, New York City.
Total prizes of $14,000 was awarded at the close of the contest.
Joey Chestnut, the worlds hot-dog eating champ, set a gut-busting record by downing 45 slices of Famous Famiglia pizza in just 10 minutes! Chestnut beat the other ten contestants by quickly folding the slices in half and shoving them into his mouth — he is known to not chew. The San Jose resident currently holds the record for hot dog eating, and now pizza eating!
The 24-year old Chestnut beat his ten rivals to win the $5,500 grand prize, including the previous pizza record-holder Pat Bertoletti. Bertoletti, a Chicago chef, held the previous pizza-eating record of 22 slices in 10 minutes. Bertoletti sucked down 43 slices of Famous Famiglia pizza, trailing Chestnut by only two slices.
The standings for the first Famous Famiglia World Pizza Eating Championship are as follows:
1st Place – Joey Chestnut, 45 slices
2nd Place – Pat Bertoletti, 43 slices
3rd Place – ‘Humble’ Bob Shoudt, 41 slices
4th Place – Tim ‘Eater X’ Janus, 32 slices
5th – Juliet Lee, 29.5 slices
6th – Eric ‘Badlands’ Booker 28.5 slices
7th Place – Pat Philben, 27 slices
8th Place – U.S. Mail, 22 slices
9th – Steakbellie, 21 slices
10th Place – Crazy Legs Conti, 20.5 slices
11th – Adam Gertler (host, The Food Network), 16 slices
The Famous Famiglia World Pizza Eating Championship is the first world pizza eating competition to be held in New York City, and sanctioned by world-renowned Major League Eating (MLE) and the International Federation of Competitive Eating.
New York City represents the quintessential pizza capital of the world and Famous Famiglia is endearingly known to many as ‘New York’s Favorite Pizza’.
Famous Famiglia proudly thanks their sponsors, Continental Airlines, DeBartolo Holdings, Escalon, Ferraro Foods, General Mills, HMSHost, and PepsiCo for their generous support with this event and the Continental Scholarship Fund.
About Famous Famiglia
Famous Famiglia is a successful New York City based pizza company founded in 1986, by the Kolaj family. Today, the company has successfully expanded its concepts across the world with more than 100 locations; targeting captive markets such as airports, motorways, universities, shopping centers, casinos, stadiums, theme parks, and more. Famous Famiglia is ‘The Official Pizza of The New York Yankees’, ‘The Official Pizza of Madison Square Garden’, ‘The Official Pizza of The Palms Casino and Hotel’, and ‘The Official Pizza of Hershey Park’.
