USA: Professional eaters vie for the Date Nut Bread-Eating World Championship in New York city

The holiday season is always a time for feasting, but gorging took on new meaning in New York on Wednesday (December 20) at the Date Nut Bread-Eating World Championship. Ten contenders met at Madison Square Garden to see who could swallow the most date nut bread and cream cheese sandwiches in an eight minute period. Sponsored by the International Federation of Competitive Eating, the challenge was the final Major League Eating event of 2006. Competitors were allowed to soak the sandwiches for five seconds in a liquid of their choice before shovelling them into their mouths. Soaking the sandwiches properly is key, according to professional eater Patrick Bertoletti. "The Challenge of eating the Chock full o'Nuts date bread sandwiches is it's just very dense and delicious and takes a lot of liquid, you have to dunk it in water or liquid to help facilitate getting it down," said Bertoletti. Bertoletti chewed away at his competition and won the event with a stomach-filling 29.5 sandwiches, taking home a 2,500 U.S. dollar cash prize. "The most difficult part is the mental barrier that you hit. At a certain point your body tells you to stop, and you have to overcome that. I guess I did a good job today; I'm the winner, so I can't complain," said Bertoletti. Bertoletti, who is currently in chef school, holds titles in 11 food-eating competitions, including swallowing 1.75 gallons of ice cream and eating 10.8 pounds of key lime pie.

ITN Source | December 26, 2006

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