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It was best to be seated early for Chestnut family dinners.
Earlier, at least, than Joey Chestnut.
Being last to the table of eight could mean an empty plate and stomach. Not because there wasn’t enough food to go around. But because the member of the family who’d become the most dominant competitive eater of all time could consume seven servings on his own before anyone else even lifted a fork.
“Everyone in my family knew I was the biggest eater,” Chestnut told NBC Local prior to his quest for an 18th victory in the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest on the Fourth of July. “Before dinner started, they would yell at me, like, ‘Hey! Don’t eat fast, leave some for everybody else!’”
Chestnut never leaves leftovers — or much chance of someone eating more than him.
He ate his way into the record books, holding more than 50 world records, according to Major League Eating. That includes 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes during the 2021 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, a record the 42-year-old king of consumption intends to gobble up.
“I’m putting together a plan for a new record, and I feel like things are going to work out,” Chestnut said. ”I’m gonna be pushing hard. I’m hungry.”
Just as he was at those family dinners in Vallejo, California – with his parents, three brothers and two sisters – in what essentially were his earliest eating contests. At the time, having the reputation of being a fast eater left a bad taste in Chestnut’s mouth.
“Growing up,” he said, “I was a little bit self-conscious of it.”
He didn’t fully ingest it until college, when he was pursuing a civil engineering degree at San Jose State University.
“My friends realized like, ‘Oh my God! He can eat fast!’” Chestnut recalled. “So, they made me do my first contest, I didn’t even really want to.”
It was a lobster-eating contest at a casino in Reno, Nevada – and a 21-year-old Chestnut agreed to enter when he was offered a free hotel room.
“Then when I got on stage for the first time I was like, ‘Oh my God, I love this. I don’t have to hold back at all.’ It’s crazy, they’re yelling at you to keep eating.”
But…he bit off more than he can chew. He was a rookie and ate like one, finishing third.
He earned his seat at the table in his second contest, eating 6.3 pounds of deep-fried asparagus to win a contest at the Stockton Asparagus Festival in California — the same contest that, years later, he’d set a world record in by eating more than 12 pounds.
“It became my favorite thing in life, competitive eating and beating people,” he said.
He developed an appetite for a new career path.
“I was doing everything right…pretty much,” he said. “I was getting my civil engineer degree finished, working construction management. Then the eating was, like, a lot more fun.”
Not so much for his parents who had put food on the table.
“My mom wasn’t thrilled,” Chestnut said. “One of her things was, ‘As long as you’re healthy, you can do it.’ So, I put a lot into my health. I eat really clean in between, so on the weekends I can go have a really, really good time.”
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The man known as “Jaws” – who has won 17 of the 20 Nathan’s contests he’s competed in and consumed 1,289 hot dogs while doing so – regularly follows a low-carb, high-protein diet.
He’s had some cheat days of late while competing in food-eating competitions at Diamond Baseball Holdings minor league baseball games across the country — a tour in which he ate 10 cheeseburger dogs in 83 seconds in Reading, Pennsylvania, and 10 cinnamon rolls and 10 bowls of chili in three minutes and 36 seconds in Wichita, Kansas.
They are appetizers for his main course: the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest.
“Get the reps in,” he said, “and my body will just be a hot-dog-eating machine by the Fourth of July.”
Chestnut talks more about hot dogs, his favorite and most hated foods, his career and other topics in a Q&A…
This is a milestone Fourth of July for the country with the 250th anniversary, do you have anything special planned for the hot dog eating contest?
“Oh my gosh, I’m gonna be pushing hard. I’m hungry. Im doing everything I can to try to get high, high numbers.
Do you ever crave hot dogs or eat them just for pleasure?
“Even if it’s midweek, no matter what, there’s always a reason for me to have a hot dog. I always have hot dogs, at least the meats, in the house. The buns, sometimes I wrap them in a cheese tortilla.”
How many hot dogs do you eat in a normal serving if you’re at a barbecue or baseball game?
“Sometimes I can limit myself to one. But that’s rare. In Toledo [while attending a minor league baseball game] it was three. It was pretty quick. It just looks better on the plate. You can’t have a plate with one.”
What condiments do you normally put on your hot dogs?
“If I can get ‘em, raw onions and mustard. They’re pretty simple. If no raw onions, mustard is fine with me. Sometimes I’m craving a full-on Chicago dog with all the toppings. There’s a couple places in Indiana that do really good, drag it through the sink and they top it.”
What’s your diet normally like?
“It’s a fairly green diet. Lots of greens, good protein, stay away from carbs, sugar during the week completely. I don’t have bread in my house unless it’s a practice or something. I try to do coffee in the morning, not too much breakfast. I like to have one larger meal a day and then a couple little protein supplements.”
What’s something people would be surprised to learn about you?
“I love to have a garden…I love good tomatoes. Cucumbers. Gardening. I’m just a goofy dude.”
What’s your favorite food?
“You’re married to one woman and that’s fine, but you don’t have to be married to one food. I get cravings. I love prime rib some days…Or I love good Mexican food…tacos and burritos, it makes me happy. I get a craving for a good pasta, good pasta with a pesto sauce. It’s like a cheat day for me if I eat pasta. When I eat it, oh my God, it sticks on me. If I eat like six pounds of pasta, the next day I’m like six pounds heavier.”
What’s your most hated food?
“I’ve been done dirty sometimes by a couple sponsors. There’s this zombie pub crawl in Minnesota. It was cow brain tacos. They pitched it to me, they were gonna really cook them like gourmet style. They sent me the recipe, so I made them at home. Then when I got to the event they were like boiled brains. They were rough, there were purple veins sticking out. That was gnarly. I won’t be doing cow brain tacos again.”
What food would you most like to try in an eating competition that you haven’t done yet?
“I would love to do a little bit more overseas. It would be really cool to do some pasta in Italy. That would give me a reason or really have a cheat day. Or do sushi in Japan.”
What do you remember most about your first eating contest?
“It was lobster. I just turned 21 and it was at a casino in Reno, Nevada. So, they offered me a free hotel room if I did the contest, and I was like I’ll do it. And so, I did it and it was such a pleasant surprise how much I loved it. It’s my favorite thing in life, competitive eating and beating people.”
What’s your advice to new competitive eaters?
“Don’t forget to breathe. A lot of people, they’re eating in front of people for the first time and they keep stuffing their mouth and they forget to breathe, and they’re like a deer in headlights and panic. Stay calm, swallow, breathe and wiggle it down.”
What do you do to prepare for the hot dog eating contest?
“Hopefully when I’m doing really well, I’m working out, I can recover and do a practice every fifth, sixth, if I’m not recovering fast, every seventh day. Hopefully I’ll be able to do a good number of practices, get the reps in and my body will just be a hot dog eating machine by the Fourth of July.”
What are the practices like?
“Oh baby, they’re full-on simulated contests. I videotape them, I have a couple of friends yelling at me. It gets intense. Sometimes I’m slowing down and it’s like no you gotta keep on going. Then I watch the video and try to simulate eating later in the week. A lot of trial and error over the years I’ve kept a lot of notes of what works and what doesn’t.”
What’s your gameday routine for eating competitions?
“I’ll do my fast the day of, probably 24 hours no solid food. Make sure I’m empty and it’s an easy highway to digest. It’s a clean highway, there’s no traffic jams. So, that’s the way I do it, even if it’s a smaller event, my body, I prep it so it’s easy to get it in, get it down and recover.”
What are you most proud of in your career?
“The hot dogs on the Fourth of July. Consistency, a lot of people can win something once or twice, but being able to do it over and over again. Consistency and longevity, I’ve been able to really make my body work for me for a long term.”
What does it feel like to be the undisputed GOAT of something?
“It’s wild. There are people who will still say [Takeru] Kobayashi, I love those people because they keep me pushing hard. I don’t think anybody goes in wanting to be the GOAT of anything, but you just find something you’re absolutely obsessed with. I’m obsessed, and I love it and I got lucky and it’s been such a fun ride.”
Who better to end this national debate than Joey Chestnut himself…is a hot dog a sandwich?
“No, a hot dog is a hot dog. It’s pretty simple. You don’t go to sandwich shops looking for a hot dog. And you don’t go to a hot dog shop looking for an Italian sub.”