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emirates man


apr/may 2015


| FEATURE | EATING 66


NATHAN’S HOT DOG EATING CONTEST IN NUMBERS


1916


The first hot dog eating contest at Nathan’s. Won by James Mullen, who defeated three other immigrants in a challenge of patriotism by eating 13 dogs in 12 minutes.





Length in minutes of 1972’s competition, won by a student from Brooklyn. The prize? Forty free hot dogs.


½


Amount of hot dog Steve Keiner ate before the con- test had officially begun in 1999. He secured the win, but would’ve been disqualified had judges noticed.


50


Number of dogs eaten by Takeru


Kobayashi in 2001, doubling the previ- ous world record.


The year all-2007 American eater Joey Chestnut


ended Kobayashi’s reign, smashing his record of 53¾ hot dogs by putting away 66.


1


Number of arrests during 2010’s contest. After a


contractual dispute saw Kobayashi


banned, he stormed the stage in a ‘Free Kobi’ T-shirt and was led away in


handcuffs by police. 8


The number of consecutive


years Joey “Jaws” Chestnut has been world hot dog eating champion, eclipsing Kobayashi’s record of six wins.


69


World record of hot dogs eaten in ten minutes, attained by Joey Chestnut in 2013.


Amount of calories23,790 in the 61 hot dogs and buns Joey


Chestnut consumed in 2014, including 1,189.5g of fat.


2,800,000 Number of peo-


ple who watched the 2014 event on ESPN2 – the


channel’s fifth most watched event of that year.


1


Number of wedding proposals during


2014’s contest. Joey Chestnut popped the question to his girlfriend, Neslie Ricasa, on stage prior to competing. Luckily for Jaws, she said yes.


B


ack in London, Randy Santel’s stomach is rumbling. Given that an affiliation with Major League Eating would limit him to appearing at their events alone (and render country hopping tours like this impossible), Santel is determined to spearhead the eating scene’s future alone. Recently launching Foodchallenges.com, an online compendium that lists food contests in 26


countries, along with how-to guides for budding eaters and eateries alike, Santel is keen to raise eating awareness by notching wins in every nation proffering contests, before hanging up his fork in order to coach the supersized stomachs of tomorrow. And aside from the spiteful poli- tics of it all, Santel believes the main reason competitive eating hasn’t gone mainstream already is that, put simply, competitors have awful table manners. “The eaters need to start taking it seriously,” says Santel. “No one


wants to watch a bunch of slobs throwing a bunch of food down their mouth. It’s why not many people watch people dunking food in water, because it’s nasty.” Santel nods towards the enormous cutlery at his lap. “That’s why I bring my own utensils.” Seconds out from round one, and the mega platter of food is placed


in front of Santel. Ten minutes to complete the challenge and get his name on the wall of fame, else he pays the full £23 price and goes home a loser. The volume doesn’t concern Santel (‘Atlas’ to his fans), but admits the fastest time of 2mins 47seconds will be tough. Santel tears off some squares of kitchen roll, positions two pints of water and a pint of Coke in front of him, flexes his muscles for the many cameras trained on him and turns his baseball cap backwards. Taking rapid bites around the burger’s circumference, Santel de-


vours the entire thing in just a handful of mouthfuls. First plate down, Santel’s harem of female fans cheer in support, before he takes a sip of water, a rare breath, then devours the hot dog in just seven bites. Plac- ing the entire portion of chilli cheese fries on his specially made spork, he inhales huge amounts at a time and, believe it or not, actually does it all rather gracefully. And then with nothing left bar a few fallen chips and dollops of chilli, Santel scoops them on to his fork and hoovers them into his mouth. It’s over. The time: 2:58. It’s eleven seconds shy of the record, but a win nonetheless. After using his napkin to rid his face of greasy leftovers, Santel


signs some pictures for his female fans. But do competitive eating groupies exist? “Oh,” smirks Santel, coming over unusually coy. “Well, I don’t like to kiss and tell, but I mean, there are people that find guys that golf sexy, so do girls find guys who can eat sexy? Yeah. And if a girl makes me a meal – I like her.” But sad news for any women hoping to make Randy Santel breakfast, given he plans to establish himself as the de facto figure for food challenges on Earth, Santel claims he has no time for dating. And the ring on his wedding finger? “It says, ‘Married to my dreams’, which is basically my career,” says


Santel. “I don’t plan on even going on a date for a long, long time – probably seven or eight years.” He grimaces. “Mom’s not happy about that.”


Once his UK trip comes to a close a week later (during which time


Santel secures his place as the eating scene’s most decorated eater, with over 250 victories), next up is three months in the gym to zap any weight gained on tour, and then it’s off to Australia for yet more food contests. So, if you’ve actually not realised already, it’s worth noting Randy Santel is a man hungry – starving – for success. Speak- ing of which, as our post-challenge interview draws to a close, Santel is quick to usher a waitress over to the table. “Could I get the buffalo chicken sandwich, please?”


Foodchallenges.com


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