emirates man


apr/may 2015


| FEATURE | EATING


CALORIE COUNTING Top and bottom left: Contestants at the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog contest. Middle: Randy at Pops Pizza, Quincy, USA


invigorate the games – I find it so much more entertaining than any other individual sport out there.” For all the work of


Major League Eating and Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, there’s no question that a great deal of the buzz around eating challenges re- cently is in no small part thanks to Adam Rich- man. Host of the Man v Food franchise that ran in the late noughties, the cult TV programme saw the Yankee food fa- natic travel across the United States to taste the finest deep fried fare, with each episode climaxing with Richman facing off against a food contest within the state in question. And yet,


in spite of his influence in breathing life into the competitive eating scene, Richman – who retired from challenges in 2012 – doesn’t share George Shea’s view that eating should be an Olympic discipline. “No, no, I don’t think it has any place at the Olympics,”


Richman laughs. “It’s a little bananas how intense it’s become, but I think there’s a distinction between a big sundae challenge ver- sus something that has a federation, a charter, that’s a real sport- like entity. Look, I’m not saying it’s a physical feat to be ignored or unappreciated, but it’s nothing that I would equate with the 100 metre dash.” Along with claims that competitive eating promotes obesity,


encourages waste and typifies Western greed, one of the general presumptions about the sport is that its ‘athletes’ will by default be ginormous, sloth-like men. On the contrary, much like bodybuilder Randy Santel, competitive eating’s biggest names tend to be svelte by nature – as too much belly fat can in fact prevent the stomach from expanding. And in terms of the eating realm’s marquee ce- lebrities, two men in particular have shone bright in establishing themselves as household names, stirring up a bitter rivalry in the process. Rake thin, reserved and with a loose command of English, Takeru


Kobayashi flies directly in the face of the lardy stereotype of a big eater. A six-time world hot dog eating champion at the Independ- ence Day event in New York, Kobayashi doubled the previous record of 25 hot dogs during his first appearance in 2001, eating a vomit-


inducing 50 dogs. But for Kobayashi – nicknamed ‘Tsunami’ – suc- cess has come at a price. “I now live with jaw arthritis,” he says, via his translator. “Parts


of your body are not like knives, where you can sharpen them again. When they become bad, they can’t be fixed – like a soccer player’s knees or tennis player’s elbows. For a competitive eater, that’s your jaw. The hinge on the jaw, that part is not going to get better, it’s go- ing to get worse.” Flying the flag for the USA is Kobayashi’s all-American adversary,


Joey ‘Jaws’ Chestnut. With countless titles to his name – hard-boiled eggs (141 in eight minutes), deep fried asparagus (12lbs 8.75oz in ten minutes) and grilled cheese sandwiches (47 in ten minutes) to name just three – Chestnut’s arrival on the scene signalled the beginning of the end for Kobayashi. Stealing his Nathan’s hot dog crown in 2007 – with 66 snarfed to Kobayashi’s 63 – Chestnut was also victorious in ’08 and ’09, before a contract dispute saw Kobayashi banned from both Nathan’s and Major League Eating events from 2010 onwards. With Chestnut now unbeaten for eight straight years (overtak-


ing Kobayashi’s record of six), the world record now stands at 69 hot dogs eaten in ten minutes, set by Chestnut in 2013. Though Takeru Kobayashi still competes at non-MLE contests (recent feats include 62 slices of pizza in 12-minutes and 130 tacos in ten), fans are left to wonder if the pair will ever lock horns (or rather jaws) on the same stage again. And with no worthy contender for Chestnut in sight, Na- than’s Famous’ contest will continue be a duller place in the absence of the skinny, Japanese chomper.


65


YOU VS FOOD


Hungry? Heed the advice of Man v. Food’s Adam Richman and chew your way to victory


WARM UP “I’d definitely say try the Cobra stretch. You lie flat on the ground, put your palms down and you push your upper body up and stretch out your abdomen – I think that’s important. Stretching your lower back and your abdomen is key.”


ADD SOME FLAVOUR “Have a beverage that you like. If there’s milkshake [in the challenge] I’d use something kind of inert like water that doesn’t have a big flavour. And just have as many condiments as you can to fight flavour fatigue.”


DIVIDE AND CONQUER “Before they start the clock, divide it. If the challenge is 30 minutes, divide it into thirds and just have ten-minute goals that you think are achievable. Head towards those goals in those first 20 minutes and just bite, bite, bite until you win.”


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