Who's top dog muncher?
San Jose man confident he will finally outchomp the six-time champ as giants of competitive gobbling prepare to gorge
All eyes will be on Joey Chestnut's mouth this afternoon when the 24-year-old San Jose resident attempts to live out his personal dream of winning the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island, N.Y.
Chestnut is also aiming to break his own world record of eating 59.5 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes, which he set last month in Tempe, Ariz.
"I'm hoping for 60, 61," Chestnut said Tuesday by phone after participating in the annual weigh-in for contestants that was hosted by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in Manhattan. "But I can just as easily see No. 62 going down."
This year's event took on a new twist after Takeru Kobayashi, 29, the world's most famous speed eater and six-time Nathan's contest champion, reported that a jaw injury would prevent him from competing at full chomp. Some openly wondered whether Kobayashi was playing possum to lull the up-and-coming Chestnut into a false sense of security.
Minutes after Chestnut stood toe-to-toe with his Japanese competitor at the weigh-in, the San Jose State University student was no closer to determining whether the injury was real.
"I don't know what's in his head," Chestnut said. "But I know he didn't come here to lose. So I'm not going to focus on him or whether the injury is holding him back -- I've got to focus on me."
Patrick Bertoletti, 21, the world's third-ranked eater behind Kobayashi and Chestnut, according to the International Federation of Competitive Eating, said he was willing to give Kobayashi the benefit of the doubt.
"If he wasn't really hurt it'd surprise me," Bertoletti said Tuesday. "I think it sucks for him because he wants to compete, and I don't think he's scared of Joey."
Bertoletti, one of Chestnut's closest friends in the small community of speed eaters, said he's watched Chestnut grow from a once-shy guy to a more confident munching machine in the past year.
Last Fourth of July, after training in his San Jose apartment for months, Chestnut ate a personal best 52 hot dogs and buns on Coney Island -- but still lost to Kobayashi by just under two wieners.
Chestnut wept afterward and vowed to train even harder.
"Joey takes this seriously," Bertoletti said. "He's been exercising, working out, losing weight. I think if he has a bad day, he'll eat 60. If he has a good day, it'll be a big, big, number."
Chestnut agreed he was more prepared for this year's bout. "I feel more comfortable. I'm getting used to all the expectations people have on me, my own expectations, the media stuff."
Ryan Nerz, author of "Eat This Book: A Year of Gorging and Glory on the Competitive Eating Circuit," said the Kobayashi injury had ratcheted up the hype for this year's event, but that it came at the expense of a difficult year personally for the eater. First, Kobayashi's mother passed away. Then Kobayashi was struck by the debilitating "jaw-thritis" that made it painful to open his mouth and bite down. He also had a wisdom tooth extracted in late June.
"I know he wants to win it," Nerz said. "After his mother died, he told me he wanted to win this one for her."
Nerz added that Kobayashi could "snap out" his jaw to make it possible to compete, but Nerz said he warned the eater, "Be careful with that. It sounds dangerous."
Competitive eating has reached new heights of popularity in the last two years. Aside from drawing 30,000 people to a hot dog stand in Coney Island and live broadcasts on ESPN with an audience of 1.5 million, a year-round professional eating circuit has cropped up, and Chestnut pocketed more than $60,000 in prizes last year. Bertoletti made $40,000, he said.
As more evidence of the mainstreaming, the San Jose Mercury News ran an editorial Tuesday that argued the city stood to earn revenues off Chestnut's fame.
"Since there is no big eating contest on the West Coast, there's opportunity for San Jose," the editorial reasoned. "The city has spent millions of dollars bringing the Grand Prix auto race to town; it could get cheaper mileage by sponsoring Chestnut at an eat-off with burritos or Vietnamese spring rolls. Tens of thousands would flood downtown restaurants. And those fans would surely know how to eat."
In New York, Chestnut has brought along four family members from San Jose to support his effort. Since last year's defeat, Chestnut started exercising and running more often to drop from 235 to 215 pounds. He's prepared for the estimated 17,000 calories he'll ingest.
"My body has been cooperating with me really well lately," Chestnut said. "We'll see how it goes."
