Takeru Kobayashi Chews Up Previous Turkey-Eating Record By Gobbling 7.5 Pounds In 10 Minutes (VIDEO)
Chew on this: No matter how much you pig out on turkey on Thanksgiving you probably still have a way to go before you come close to gobbling up as much as competitive eating legend Takeru Kobayashi did the day before the holiday.
The controversial Koby managed to pig out on 7.5 pounds of turkey in 10 minutes and, in doing so, managed to chew up and spit out the previous record of 5.25 pounds set just the previous day before by Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas.
According to Dan Rollman of Recordsetter.com, the official adjudication organization of the event, seeing the 5-foot, 8-inch, 128-pound Kobayashi pound down most of a turkey in 10 minutes is something that he won't forget soon.
"He didn't just beat the existing world record -- he annihilated it," Rollman told HuffPost Weird News. "Never in my life have witnessed food disappear like that. The man is true culinary Houdini. It was a true honor to be so close to such a legend as he showed off his skills."
But achieving the record wasn't easy. Kobayashi told observers afterwards that the turkey was dry and, therefore, harder to swallow, which Rollman says makes the fact he broke the previous record by two pounds even more incredible.
The record might have been bigger, if not for an error in measuring.
"Due to incorrect math we announced he'd eaten eight pounds of turkey, but upon full review, we realized the official total was only 7.5 pounds," Rollman said.
But even though Kobayashi has already had his Thanksgiving dinner -- or at least the turkey -- don't expect him to fall asleep on the couch while watching a football game.
Instead, he will be spending the holiday volunteering at the Bowery Mission's Thanksgiving Day Banquet.
"I have been blessed to be able to eat for a living, while many in the world go hungry," Kobayashi said. "I hope I can use my talent to raise awareness and funds to combat hunger across America and across the globe. I am having my Thanksgiving dinner the night before so that I can spend Thursday volunteering in my community to help my less-fortunate neighbors."
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Posted: 11/24/11 10:11 AM ET