Joey Chestnut wins meat pie world championship at Silver Slipper

HANCOCK COUNTY -- They came, they saw and they ate meat pies -- lots and lots of meat pies.

The Silver Slipper Casino on Saturday played host to competitive eaters from around the world who were hoping to break the record in meat pie-eating.

The competition was a Major League Eating official event with a prize of $5,000 and, more importantly, bragging rights at stake.

California native Joey Chestnut, who made himself a household name in the world of competitive eating by winning numerous Nathan's hot dog eating competitions, won the event by eating 23 pies in 10 minutes.

Famous meat pies

The rules of the contest were simple: Contestants had to eat as many 6-ounce Natchitoches meat pies as possible in 10 minutes.

The pies, or empanadas, are a famous New Orleans delicacy. They are made of flaky pastry dough with a combination of beef and pork and spices such as garlic powder and cayenne pepper and then deep fried. The pies were made by the Natchitoches Meat Pie company in Coushatta, La. and fried on the spot at the Silver Slipper.

Chestnut the champion

Silver Slipper General Manager John Ferrucci said there were 500 pies prepared for the event.

Chestnut said he had never participated in a meat pie championship.

"When they asked me to do this, they sent me some of the pies out for me to try," he said. "They were a lot spicier than I thought they would be."

He said the spice proved to be something of challenge for him during the competition.

"The spice really started getting to me," Chestnut said. "I'm not used to that kind of spice. After the fifth pie, it really started to work on me but I found a way to dig in and finish."

The outer rim of the dough, he said, was also a bit problematic.

"There's a part where the dough is folded over that gets really tough and it was hard to eat," Chestnut said. "But I ate all of it."

Beating Bayou Boyd

The previous meat pie champion was Boyd "Bayou Boyd" Bulot. Ferrucci said Bulot ate 16 meat pies in one sitting to win the title.

"He told me he could have eaten more but he felt sorry for the person eating next to him," Ferrucci said.

The Bulot family was on hand to present Chestnut with the championship belt.

"The Bulot family are good friends of the Silver Slipper and this was dedicated to them and especially Boyd and his championship eating abilities," Ferrucci said.

This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Joey Chestnut wins meat pie world championship at Silver Slipper ."