Turning gluttony into a spectator sport is the epitome of Americana. That makes our nation’s birthday the perfect day for the granddaddy of all competitive eating showdowns.
“The hot-dog contest is a physical manifestation of the concept of freedom,” said George Shea, the mastermind behind the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island. “The contest has come to represent the spirit of July 4th itself. That is why people go to the event. It is kind of a pilgrimage to the center of July 4th and the center of freedom.”
When our country celebrates its precious freedom Saturday with backyard barbecues and picnics in the park—tables piled high with burgers, frankfurters, potato salad and apple pie—some of us will declare independence from our diet. But it’s swimsuit season, so millions of Americans with more self-control will watch what they eat.
Not me. I will watch what Joey Chestnut eats.
I will be a judge at the Coney Island contest. More than 30,000 fans of the absurd will pack the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues to watch the annual feeding frenzy—the Super Bowl of eating contests.
I have been assigned to count the franks consumed by Chestnut, the eight-time defending champion and undisputed greatest competitive eater in history. I’m practicing counting fast. Last year, Chestnut inhaled 61 hot dogs and buns—mustn’t forget the buns—in 10 minutes. As competitors in the I.F.O.C.E. (International Federation of Competitive Eating) will tell you, the buns are what drag you down in a hot-dog contest.
This will be my 10th judging the contest in a row. As the only journalist allowed behind the scenes, I have a front row seat and backstage pass to the weirdest Independence Day tradition in America.
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Nathan’s Famous hot dog stand opened in 1916. Legend has it that they held a hot-dog eating contest that year. But official results weren’t recorded and kept until 1972, when Jason Schechter scarfed down 14 HD&B.
HD&B—that's how professional eating insiders refer to hot dogs and buns.
For the next few decades, the contest sputtered along with small crowds watching the winners eat between 10 and 20 dogs. Occasionally, a contestant had an exceptionally strong appetite and consumed 22 or 23…up to 25 franks. Few paid much attention. They were mostly big fat guys eating too much. It wasn’t pretty.
Everything changed in 2001. Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi, a skinny Japanese contestant barely out of his teens and packing swagger, rocked the world of highly processed meat and enriched white flour buns by stuffing 50 HD&B—double the previous record—in his belly.
Kobayashi employed a revolutionary technique of separating the hot dogs and buns, breaking the dogs in half and squishing the buns in water. Then he shoved the whole mess in his mouth. The waterlogged buns made everything slide down his throat with minimal chewing. Kobayashi called this “the Solomon Method.”
Why “Soloman Method?” Remember the biblical tale of wise King Soloman, who was confronted by two women, both claiming to be the mother of the same baby? In order to divine the true mother, Solomon said he would simply cut the baby in two, and give half to each woman. The first woman agreed to the deal. The other woman said no, I’d rather give up my baby than agree to this insane solution. Obviously she was the real mother.
Cut the baby in half—break the hot dogs in half. Get it? That’s Kobayashi, wise beyond his years. And one heck of an eater.
Kobayashi won six consecutive July 4th contests, peaking at 53 and 3/4 hot dogs.
Enter Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, a strapping 6-foot-3, 230-pound, Opie-looking lad from San Jose, California. Chestnut wolfed down 66 HD&B in 2007, rendering Kobayashi a dainty eater. Chestnut hasn’t lost since. He holds the all-time record, set in 2013, of 69 HD&B.
You could point to the Kobayashi-Chestnut rivalry as heralding the golden age of the July 4th hot-dog contest. Huge crowds pour into Coney Island to watch 15 men and 15 women swallow frankfurters at a furious pace. It is a chow down to the finish.
