New Hot-Dog Eating Champ!
July 4, 2007, 1:00 pm
In Coney Island, a New Hot-Dog Champion Is Crowned
By The New York Times
UPDATED, Wednesday, 1 p.m.
The Nathan??s Famous Fourth of July International Hot-Dog Eating Contest was won by Joey Chestnut, who dethroned Takeru Kobayashi, the six-time defending champion of the event, in a competitive chow-down spectacle that was not decided until the final seconds in Coney Island, Brooklyn.
Mr. Chestnut ate 66 hot dogs in the 12-minute contest, establishing a world record. For the first time, he defeated his top rival, Mr. Kobayashi, who showed no apparent strains from his well-documented recent dental troubles. Mr. Kobayashi finished second in the field of 17 eaters by downing 63 hot dogs, though there was some debate at the end whether the frankfurters that were partly in and partly out of his mouth would count or not. On this Fourth of July, both men easily surpassed the previous world record of 59.5 hot dogs with about a minute left in the contest and the race between the two even at 60-60.
??I think it represents actually, well, America ?? what New York is. It??s something you expect from a city like this.? That, on Tuesday, was from Benjamin Pronk, 19, a tourist from the Netherlands, standing behind a police barrier in City Hall Park in Manhattan and watching the official weigh-in for the Nathan??s contest, arguably the apotheosis of Americana. The young Dutchman may not be far off.
The event ?? it started in 1916, according to legend ?? brings 30,000 fans to Coney Island in Brooklyn every Independence Day for a showdown featuring the world??s finest culinary competitors. The contest combines tradition, competition, showmanship and excess; in essence, so much of what makes this city great.
And this year, suspense is back in the picture. Mr. Kobayashi, the six-time defending champion and the Lance Armstrong of the hot-dog-eating world, is facing a dual threat. First, an upstart Californian, Mr. Chestnut, who is 23, scarfed down a jaw-dropping ?? and stomach-churning ?? 59.5 hot dogs and buns at a qualifying event in Tempe, Ariz., shattering the Japanese native??s world record of 53.75 hot dogs and buns, set last year.
Then, another blow ?? this one straight to the kisser. Mr. Kobayashi, who is 29, had a wisdom tooth extracted only weeks ago, leaving him with a sore jaw and a spot on Major League Eating??s ??day-to-day? list. (Folks, we??re not making this up.) Think Itzhak Perlman with a jammed finger. Think Mikhail Baryshnikov with a broken foot. Mr. Kobayashi is an artist ??- a gastronomic van Gogh ??- and artists require tip-top physical shape. Will Wednesday??s event bring an upset ?? or just an upset stomach?
On Tuesday morning, Mr. Kobayashi opened his mouth to demonstrate what dentistry had wrought: mere millimeters separated his world-renowned lips. An M.C. described the condition as ??jawthritis.? Will he be able to compete?
Mr. Kobayashi looked coy. ??I am thinking about it; I am working on it,? he said through a translator. ??It??s a game-day decision.?
Fifteen other competitors were on hand for Tuesday??s weigh-in. For these ??gustatory gladiators,? as one contestant put it, hot-dog eating is a way of life, though a few said that what they really want to do is direct.
??I??m a film director,? said Dale Boone, known as the Mouth of the South, who described himself as a direct descendant of Daniel Boone. (He wore a coonskin cap as a tribute, despite the warm weather in Manhattan.)
Dale Boone said he spends several months a year in India, where he is filming ??House of Brahmins,? a romantic comedy about an ethnically mismatched couple. ??America guy comes to India, runs into a Brahmin girl,? Mr. Boone explained. ??You want both sides to laugh at the same time. It??s a very hard thing to do.?
Another competitor, Crazy Legs Conti, handed off a DVD copy of his documentary, ??Zen and the Art of Competitive Eating,? to his fellow Johns Hopkins alumnus, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. The mayor ??was inspiring me to make the most of my Hopkins education,? Mr. Conti explained.
??My dream is to work in film and television,? he continued, adding that high rents in the East Village have led him to jobs as a window cleaner and a nude model for art classes. The mayor told him to ??really focus in on the film,? he said.
Mr. Bloomberg, who spoke at the weigh-in, appeared to be enjoying himself, taking a big chomp out of a Nathan??s frankfurter before addressing the crowd.
??Independence Day is a wonderful time to celebrate our freedoms,? the mayor said, looking rather summery in boat shoes and lightweight slacks. ??Now I don??t know what the founding fathers ever thought about this, but the right to eat as many hot dogs as possible ?? although not expressly named in the Bill of Rights ?? was no doubt on the minds of the framers.?
Leaving the stage, the mayor found himself accosted by a dancing life-size hot dog known as ??Frankster.? Mr. Bloomberg proffered a hand; Mr. Frankster raised a pair of outstretched arms. The mayor, squirming and smiling, yielded to the hug.
We??ll leave the last word to Crazy Legs Conti, who reflected on what it all means: ??I think it may outrank 1776 in terms of historical importance.?
?? MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM and and MIKE RICHARD
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