The Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland has adapted Fujitsu's HOAP-3 robot into the Chief Cook Robot. Capable of learning recipes and techniques, a Nintendo Wii remote is used to guide the teaching scenario and the answer the robot's questions. Check out the video, where the robot learns how to whip eggs, grate cheese, and slice ham for the omelet.... More

Photographs by Gordon Mark Serious Eats intern Gordon Mark went to the Nintendo World Store at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan today for the promotional release of Major League Eating: The Game, coming soon for the Nintendo Wii, a game which we've reported extensively on. Gordon was also there to watch Tim "Eater X" Janus and "Crazy Legs" Conti challenge each other in eating real and virtual watermelon. To the tune of The Who's "Baba O'Riley" (aka "Teenage Wasteland"), Crazy Legs won the six-minute meat-space competition 15 wedges to 15 wedges and one bite. Later, Eater X won the virtual competition because the Crazy Legs character threw up inside the game, an automatic disqualification. More pictures after the jump.... More

Editor's note: In early March we first told you about the release of Major League Eating, the videogame. Last week, we asked our friend Ben Brown, the internet rockstar, if he'd attend the press event for us in San Francisco to check out the game. —Adam K. Tim Janus is a world champion competitive eater. His professional name is "Eater X," and he paints his face like a super hero when he appears at public "gurgitation events." You may also know him as the man who spearheaded the "alternative beverage movement" within the competitive eating community (using lemonade instead of water as a hot dog chaser). And now, thanks to a new videogame coming out in May for the Nintendo... More

The trailer for the upcoming release of 'Major League Eating: The Game' looks like it might have potential, especially considering online play and leaderboards. The newly released website for the game does indeed confirm our suspicions that you can play as your favorite competitive eater, including Joey Chestnut or Takeru Kobayashi. The virtual gluttony is set as an online purchase through Nintendo's upcoming WiiWare service on May 12th. Check out the video after the jump.... More

Editor's note: This week, it's, like, omigawd, totally '80s for our daily In Videos segment. Big hair, breakdancing, and before-they-were-big celebrity commercial appearances to the max. So kick back your fat-laced high tops and take a chill pill. —The Serious Eats Team What better food tie-in could you have with popular icons of nerd-dom than artificially colored, diabetes-inducing breakfast cereal? You've got your Pac-Man Lucky Charms knock-off, your C3POs that look more like conjoined Cheerios than anything Star Wars related, and the pseudo-amorphous fruit-flavored blobs of Super Mario Bros. cereal. Watch the crunchy, vitamin-enriched fun, after the jump.... More

First there was Cooking Mama for the Wii, where players can prepare and cook a variety of international dishes. It always left me a little unfulfilled, since you never actually got to virtually eat anything you virtually cooked. But the world of virtual (professional) eating is near. More