Celebrity competitive eater Joey Chestnut has been booted out of America’s top hot dog eating contest.
He had accepted a sponsorship from Impossible Foods, which produces vegan hot dogs. Impossible Foods produce plant-based alternatives for meat products.
Which Contest Was He Banned From?
Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest is the top hot dog eating competition in the US.
It’s a televised contest that attracts around 40000 visitors each year. It requires contestants to eat as many hot dogs as possible within 10 minutes.
What is Competitive Eating?
Hot dog eating is a form of competitive eating, a sport in which competitors race against each other to eat vast quantities of food within a limited time frame.
Whoever is able to eat the most food is declared the winner. Although hot dogs may be the original and most famous of these contests, there are pizza-eating, pie-eating and pancake-eating contests among others.
The History of Nathan’s Contest
Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest has been credited with popularising competitive eating in general.
It has a rich history, dating back to the early 20th century, when it was first held on July 4 1916 on Coney Island, New York City. A possibly apocryphal tale tells of its origins as having been started by 4 immigrants attempting to prove which of them was the most American.
What is Impossible Foods?
Impossible Foods are a company that makes plant-based substitutes for meat products.
Founded in 2011, they first came to prominence with their creation of the Impossible Burger in 2016. They have expanded, now supplying the ‘meat’ for Mcdonald’s Impossible Whoppers and selling patties in Trader Joe’s nd Walmart across the US.
Meat Alternatives
Meat alternatives can trace their history to the invention of tofu in China during the Han Dynasty (206BC – 220 CE).
They can be made from soy (tofu), wheat gluten (seitan) or mycoprotein (Quorn). Now, meat can even be created artificially using a synthetic scaffold, sometimes controversially, to grow ‘meatless’ tissue.
Who is Joey Chestnut?
Joey Chestnut is a star competitive eater who may be considered one of the most successful ever in the sport.
He holds numerous eating world records, including eating 121 twinkies in 6 minutes, 14 and a half burritos in 10 minutes and, notably, 76 hot dogs and buns, which he managed in 2021.
Insane Training Regime
Joey has a strict training regime in order to aachieve these superhuman feats of competitive eating.
He compares his training techniques to lifting weights or running, simulating the contests at home to build up the amounts he eats in preparation for contests. He fasts, stretches his stomach with milk from mountain goats, which he claims have a high calcium content.
Ban From Coney Island Contest
So why was such a star eater banned from the premier hot dog eating contest in the country?
Joey’s partnership with Impossible Foods was deemed unfeasible by the contest organisers. Impossible Foods are considered competitors to Nathan’s hot dogs because they produce plant-based alternatives to hot dogs.
Alternative Eating Contests
However, for a star of Joey Chestnut’s calibre, there will be no shortage of alternative competitive eating contests across the country.
The International Federation of Competitive Eating holds almost 50 “Major League Eating” contests in North America each year. And some contests aren’t just about quantity, with contests that challenge contestants with extraordinarily large foods like monster steaks or dangerously spicy foods such as curries.
