Contenders Pack Away Pizza For a Chance at Some Dough

Three Brothers owners Mario, Peter and Michael Repole congratulate Juliet Lee of Germantown after she won the amateur competition, swallowing 11 slices in 10 minutes. (By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)

As in any other warmup for a sport, the competitors stretched, cracked their wrists, draped their towels around their necks, donned shades and pumped themselves up with music filtered through headsets.

The announcer shouted, "Are you ready?!" The crowd at center court of Beltway Plaza Mall in Greenbelt yelled the countdown, and the competitors arched forward and opened their mouths. The race was on.

Considered by enthusiasts to be one of the fastest-growing nontraditional sports of the 21st century, professional competitive eating stopped by Maryland yesterday as about 30 contestants vied for the fastest-pizza-eating record.

"On the circuit, the most popular foods are usually hot dogs, hamburgers . . . but pizza has really had a resurgence over the last couple of years," said Matt Rizzetta, a spokesman for the International Federation of Competitive Eating, the body that sanctions and runs tournaments worldwide. The federation has attracted about 3,000 competitors to about 100 events held annually, Rizzetta said, with the most popular being Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island.

Yesterday's event was the federation's first pizza-eating tournament in a year. It was sponsored by the Three Brothers pizza chain as part of festivities for the 30th anniversary of its first restaurant in the state.

Chain co-owner Mario Repole, who along with brothers Michael and Peter bakes pizza and runs the chain's 15 stores, said the business expanded to Maryland from Brooklyn because the brothers figured it might be easier to compete farther south. But for the eaters, coming south yesterday meant stiff competition.

Among the contestants were a Harvard graduate student, a high school coach, a bus driver and an information technology director. They lead second lives as competitive eaters, assuming underground names such as "The Legend," "Yellowcake," "The Phenom" and "Humble Bob."

Many had one goal in mind: to boost their overall ranking by the federation.

"It's a matter of fighting for rankings right now, and the more you do it the better it gets," said Ken "Mango" Federighi of Ocean City, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound man ranked 34th in the circuit.

David "Brickhouse" Braunstein of Bethesda, a 6-2, 250-pounder, likened the sport to a cross between a wrestling match and a circus. But he pointed out that he's known as one of the cleanest eaters on the circuit.

Yet for all the brawn of Federighi and Braunstein, the slimmer and more petite are dominating the field.

Patrick "Deep Dish" Bertoletti, 21, of Chicago, weighing in at about 150 pounds, took home the grand prize of $5,000, the trophy and a new record, eating 19 slices of pizza in 10 minutes.

"I didn't know what to expect. My jaw's a bit tired, but I'm really pleased with my performance," said Bertoletti, who ranks fourth overall in the world for competitive eating. He holds records for eating 1 3/4 gallons of ice cream in eight minutes and 5 3/4 pounds of corned beef and cabbage in 10 minutes.

The amateur contest that preceded the professionals' produced a bigger surprise. Juliet Lee, 39, a stylist from Germantown, won after eating 11 slices in 10 minutes.

Lee, 105 pounds and 5 feet 4 inches tall, elegantly devoured slice after slice as her more robust college-age opponents withered away toward the homestretch. Lee said she decided that she, too, could enter the sport after she saw another petite Asian woman, Alexandria's Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, trounce male competitors and be ranked third in the world.

Although stunned and excited that she came in first, Lee was somewhat less than thrilled about the prize: a year's supply of pizza. "I don't like pizza," admitted the demure Lee. She said she plans to give it to her boyfriend and her daughters.