21 POUNDS! THE TOP GROSS WEIGHT EATING PERFORMANCES OF ALL TIME

The last week or so has been busy for competitive eating, both on and off the table. Dale Boone got pissed off at a cookie contest and was DQ'd (or banned, says Eat Feats...not sure which is right) for "bad sportsmanship." Cookie Jarvis isn't happy about the IFOCE using his personal home videos in some MLE DVD. He might have a case---IFOCE contract be damned---but does he have the appetite to press the issue?

But the biggest news isn't Gal Sone's new toilet paper (thanks for that one OJ), it's Pat Bertoletti downing TWENTY ONE POUNDS of grits in Saturday's Louisiana Downs World Grits Eating Championship. Twenty one. I really don't know what to say about that, other than Eater X also ate TWENTY POUNDS to BEAT Joey Chestnut. Unbelievable.

With that, I scoured the EatFeats database and came up with following list of every 10 pound eating performance in competitive eating history. If you haven't already guessed, Pat's 21 lb outing is the most gross weight ever consumed in a contest. Here's the list. I'm sure I'm missing a few entries, so if I am, please let me know.

21 lbs of grits (10 min) (9/29/07) - Pat Bertoletti
20 lbs of grits (10 min) (9/29/07) - Tim Janus
20 lbs of rice balls (30 min) (date unk.) - Takeru Kobayashi*
19 lbs of grits (10 min) (9/29/07) - Joey Chestnut
18.5 lbs of grits (10 min) (9/29/07) - Sonya Thomas
15.5 lbs of grits (10 min) (9/29/07) - Hall Hunt
15.25 lbs of shortcake (10 min) (6/17/07) - Pat Bertoletti
13.5 lbs of shortcake (10 min) (6/17/07) - Tim Janus
13.5 lbs of grits (10 min) (9/29/07) - Patrick Van Dam
13.1 lbs of watermelon (15 min) (7/30/05) - Jim Reeves
13.0 lbs of pasta (14 min) (7/11/05) - Takeru Kobayashi
13.0 lbs of watermelon (15 min) (7/30/05) - Rich Lefevre
12.9 lbs of watermelon (15 min) (7/30/05) - Pat Bertoletti
11.3 lbs of lobster (12 min) (8/13/05) - Sonya Thomas
11.22 lbs of watermelon (15 min) (7/24/04) - Rich Lefevre
11.1 lbs of shoofly pie (8 min) (6/23/07) - Pat Bertoletti
10.8 lbs of key lime pie (8 min) (3/21/06) - Pat Bertoletti
10.2 lbs of key lime pie (8 min) (3/21/06) - Tim Janus
10.63 lbs of corned beef & cabbage (10 min) (3/16/07) - Pat Bertoletti
10.63 lbs of corned beef & cabbage (10 min) (3/16/07) - Joey Chestnut
10.37 lbs of chili (10 min) (10/4/03) - Rich Lefevre
10.37 lbs of chili (10 min) (10/5/02) - Rich Lefevre
10.3 lbs meatballs (12 min) (12/3/05) - Sonya Thomas
10.0 lbs of pasta (14 min) (7/11/05) - Sonya Thomas

* per IFOCE.com records page

A few notes about this list. Of the 24 entries, Pat Bertoletti owns six, Rich LeFevre and Sonya Thomas four, and Tim Janus has three. In all three of Janus' performances, he finished second to Pat Bertoletti. The first recorded 10 pound performance was Rich Lefevre's 10.37 pounds of chili in 2002 (a mark he would somehow tie the following year). Twenty-five percent (6) of history's 10-pound performances were put up in Saturday's grits contest.