Nugget rib-eating contest draws old and new rivalries
A lady in the front row yells at her 62-year-old husband, Rich LeFevre, as he shovels ribs into his mouth as fast as he can. He’s easily the oldest person of the 13 in the timed eat-off and he’s almost a tray behind the two people ahead of him.
“It’s just meat!” she cries.
LeFevre’s face is covered in grease and his glasses have flecks of meat on them as he races the other men in the 12-minute eating competition.
This is the 2007 Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-off’s 2nd Annual World Rib Eating Championship.
“We wanted something just totally different and unique to kick this off,” said Michael Traum, spokesman for John Ascuaga’s Nugget.
He said the competition joined the Cook-off roster last year when the casino added another day to the festival.
With three minutes left in the competition, the emcee announces to the crowd, “It’s like the 18th mile in a marathon. They’re starting to get the meat sweats.”
In addition to the sweats, grease, drool and water are pouring down the chins of the eaters.
At the end of the competition, LeFevre, from Henderson, finds a hole where his front tooth should be. The crowd sees the change when LeFevre smiles at them – at least until his wife tells him to stop.
LeFevre, sacrificing a tooth to the competition, took third.
Pat Bertoletti, 21, placed ahead of LeFevre. The skinny, mohawked eat-off vet lined up plastic cups of red juice before the race. During the competition, the juice stained his mouth bright red from leaking out of his meat-stuffed cheeks.
Bertoletti’s defeat came from the eat-off’s biggest star, Joey Chestnut of San Jose, Calif. Chestnut, 23, earned competitive eating fame earlier this year when he gobbled a world record-breaking 66 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes.
Chestnut and Bertoletti, of Chicago, have squared off on rib chow-downs before. At last year’s competition, Chestnut took first by shoveling 4.5 pounds of meat into his stomach. Bertoletti finished half a pound behind him.
Four days before this year’s competition, Bertoletti beat Chestnut in another rib eat-off in Connecticut. Chestnut upped his stomach capacity to 5.53 pounds. Bertoletti managed to swallow 6.06 pounds.
“It didn’t make him mad, but he didn’t want to lose to me again,” Bertoletti said. “I definitely went into this competition a lot more confident.”
At the end of the 12-minute eating race, contestants had one minute to finish the meat remaining in their mouths. Chestnut’s shirt is saturated in grease and he covers his mouth as he chomps and chokes down the meat he’s been holding in his cheeks.
Storing food like a chipmunk worked. After their trays of bones have been weighed, Bertoletti took second place having eaten 6.1 pounds of meat. Chestnut chomped down seven pounds for first place.
At the end of the last minute, some meat overflowing out of their mouths, Bertoletti takes off the headphones he’s worn throughout the competition and pats Chestnut on the back.
“It’s like a fraternity, is the best way I can think of to describe it,” Chestnut said. “There aren’t books out there on competitive eating, so it’s all about word of mouth.”
Competitive eating takes more than just 12 minutes a competition – it takes training.
For Bertoletti, it’s cooking the food at home before chowing down in public.
Before the hot dog competition that earned him his title, Chestnut ate hot dogs, competition style, once a week.
For Reno, he just watched his caloric intake and kept his stomach stretched with water and food.
“It’s about knowing your body,” Chestnut said. “It’s just like running 28 miles. I couldn’t do that. But maybe they couldn’t eat competitively.”
Bertoletti, who first ate competitively at 19, said it has taken him three years to figure out his body and its eating abilities.
Those three years have paid off. After stepping down from the stage, Bertoletti said he was ready for dessert.
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