CLEARFIELD (Pennsylvania) - A CHEF at a western Pennsylvania Italian restaurant ate a 6.8 kilogram burger with 2.3kg of toppings in 4 hours and 39 minutes.

Mr Brad Sciullo, of Uniontown, is the first person to successfully eat the huge burger at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub, said pub owner Dennis Liegey.

The burger - called the Beer Barrel Belly Bruiser - includes a bun, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, onions, mild banana peppers and a cup each of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and relish.

When asked what possessed him to eat a burger that big, the 1.8 metre, 82kg Sciullo said: 'I wanted to see if I could.'

'I've always had a heck of a capacity and I can down about two gallons of water and I can do a gallon of milk in 20-some seconds,' said Mr Sciullo, a chef at Pasta Lorenzo's in Uniontown.

Mr Sciullo, 21, ate his 9.16kg sandwich on Monday and said he was surprised he succeeded. He realised when he had gotten through half the burger in a half-hour that he had plenty of time to finish it up.

'About three hours into it, things got tough,' Mr Sciullo said.

'It's exhausting. I chewed for five straight hours. I didn't talk.'

As is customary in such challenges, Mr Sciullo was appointed a pub escort. Mr Philip Fimon, a pub cook, stayed with Mr Sciullo through the eating frenzy, even going with him to the restroom three times to make sure he didn't throw up, Mr Liegey said.

For completing the challenge in the under-five-hour time limit, Mr Sciullo won US$400 (S$591), three T-shirts, a certificate, 'and a burger hangover, as I call it,' Mr Liegey said. -- AP