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Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs hosts an annual hot dog eating contest at the site of their first restaurant at the corner of Surf and Stillwell avenues in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York.
According to oral history, in 1916, four immigrants had a Nathan's hot dog eating contest at the site of the first Nathan's Famous stand to settle an argument about who was the most patriotic, though it may have been a publicity stunt. After 12 minutes, Irish-born Jim Mullen had eaten 13 hot dogs and the other three contestants could not go on. Ever since, a 12 minute contest has been held every year on July 4, Independence Day, usually at noon (except for years 1939, 1940, and 1941 as a protest to World War II and 1971 as a protest to civil unrest). In 1993 There was a one time one-on-one contest under the Brooklyn Bridge between Mike ?The Scholar? DeVito and Orio Ito.
Every year songwriter Amos Wengler writes and performs a new song for the contest. Previous song titles are "Hot Dog Time!", "Hot Dogs, Hot Dogs" and "Where is the Belt?".
The International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) has overseen this contest since 1997 when the federation was formed. Rules used in the early days of the contest were likely different, but are largely lost.
Today, roughly 20 contestants stand on a raised platform behind a 30-ft-long table with hot dogs and drinks. Condiments are optional and are usually not used. The hot dogs are grilled then allowed to cool slightly so as not to cause any burning when eaten. Whoever eats (and keeps down) the most hot dogs (and buns) in 12 minutes is the winner. Partially eaten hot dogs count and the granularity of measurement is eighths of a hot dog. Any hot dogs still in the mouth at the end of the 12 minutes count if they are swallowed.
There have been controversies. For example, in 1999 NY1 news reporter Adam Balkin discovered by reviewing the tape that Steve Keiner jumped the gun and had eaten half a hot dog before the contest had officially begun. The judge, who was standing in front of Keiner, missed it or else Keiner would have been disqualified. According to the rules, the judges' word is final so Keiner took first place.
After the winner is declared, a plate with the number of hot dogs eaten by the winner is brought out. Winners receive a trophy, the coveted international "bejeweled" mustard-yellow belt (of "unknown age and value" according to George Shea, co-founder of the IFOCE), and a "year's supply" of Nathan's hotdogs (actually, just two cases). There is no cash award. The belt rests in the country of the latest winner. It is currently (2004) on display in the Imperial Palace in Kyoto, Japan.
Contestants must be at least 18 years old to compete, but this rule has not always been in effect.
In 2003 ex-professional football player William "The Refrigerator" Perry competed as a celebrity contestant. Though he won a qualifier by eating 12 hot dogs, he stopped eating 5 minutes into the actual competition having eaten just 4. George Shea stated on July 1, 2004 at a ceremony following a showing of Crazy Legs Conti's documentary that the celebrity contestant experiment will likely not be repeated.
Contestants need to win one of the qualifier contests held at various locations worldwide in order to compete. There is a limit to how many qualifiers one can be entered into in a given year and and there can be no more than 15 contestants at any given qualifier (first come/first served). The first international qualifier was held in 1993. There are generally about 20 qualifying events. The first national qualifiers were held in 1997. Additional prizes are sometimes given to winners of qualifers such as a paid trip to the July 4th contest.
For example, Don "Moses" Lerman out-ate everyone at the Saratoga, NY qualifer on August 22, 2004 at the Saratoga Race Track. He can participate in the 2005 contest at Coney Island.
The Nathan's contest has been featured in these documentaries:
In 2002, the plot of an episode of "King of the Hill" revolved around the contest (Season 7, Episode 128, "The Fat and the Furious"). The episode mentioned the IFOCE, the mustard colored belt, the Japanese invasion, and Steve Keiner by name.
In 2004, the contest began at 12:40 pm presumably because ESPN was covering the event live for the first time. The competition draws many spectators and worldwide press coverage as well as the occasional protest from The VivaVeggie Society, a vegetarian advocacy group.
CNN's Jeannie Moos covered the contest on CNN in a piece called "A Different Story," (July 4, 1996). VivaVeggie protesters could be seen in the background calling out the ingredients in hot dogs.
In June, 2004 a 3 story high "Hot Dog Eating Wall of Fame" was erected at the site of the annual contest. The wall lists past records going back to 1984 and has a digital clock which counts down the minutes until the next contest.
Two days before the event is the "weigh-in and certification ceremony" hosted by the mayor of New York city and representives from Nathan's Famous and IFOCE at City Hall Park in Manhattan.
It is typical for news sources that report on the contest to use punning headlines and copy such as "'Tsunami' is eating contest's top dog again", "couldn't cut the mustard" (AP), "Nathan's King ready, with relish" (Daily News), and "To be frank, Fridge faces a real hot-dog consumer" (ESPN).
Reporter Gersh Kuntzman of the New York Post has been covering the event since the early 1990's and has been a judge at the competition since 2000. Darren Rovell of CNN has competed in a qualifer.
The contest has been a national favorite since its beginning. Since 1986, a Japanese competitor has held the belt in all but 4 years (1993-1995, 1999). For example, in 2000, the first, second and third places were all taken by Japanese contestants (Kazutoyo Arai, 新井和響, 25; Misao "Beast" Fujita, 藤田操, 24; Takako Akasaka, 赤阪尊子, (female), 22).
In comparison to some of the top contestants of the U.S. who are tall and fat, Japanese contestants are usually very thin and not that tall. One reason may be Ed Krachie's "Belt of Fat" theory which states that the stomach fat of the larger competitors restricts their stomachs from expanding. In 1998 Krachie wrote a journal article called "Can abdominal fat act as a restrictive agent on stomach expansion? An Exploration of the Impact of Adipose Tissue on Competitive Eating". It has been submitted to and rejected by many scientific journals in the United States and Canada.
Despite the collective will of the Americans to take back the prize, most U.S. contestants have not come close to Japanese records, though they are catching up. Of the 6 contestants who have ever eaten 30 hot dogs or more, half are American, although it is the Japanese who hold the top two positions. The best non-Japanese competitor, Sonya K. Thomas, is 6 hot dogs behind the #2 eater but 21.5 hot dogs behind the #1 record holder Takeru Kobayashi. Even among Japanese contestants, Takeru Kobayashi is untouchable. No one from any country has even matched his worst showing of 44 hot dogs in 2003. Kobayashi is the only person to eat more than 40 hot dogs (his record is 53.5 (2004) or on average a little under 13.5 seconds per hot dog). He is also the only person in the recorded history of the contest to win four competitions in a row. Kobayashi also competes in other (non-hot dog) eating contests in Japan.
These Japanese contests are sponsored by TV Tokyo's (テレビ東京) TV Champion (TVチャンピオン), started in 1992 is a weekly TV program whose subject has been mostly food-related (sushi championship, fast-eating championship, kids' cooking championship ...).
Each contestant has his or her way to eat hot dogs. Takeru Kobayashi pioneered the "Solomon Method" at his first competition in 2001. The method is to break each hot dog in half, eat the two halves at once, then eat the bun. Kobayashi does a little hip-wiggling dance while he eats, which lead to speculations that it was part of his technique, but he insists he was just getting into the music. Anyway, table manners are not a part of the game. Charlene LeFevre hops to help get the hot dogs down. Contestants typically stand while eating or lean forward.
Because buns absorb water, some contestants prefer to drink as little as possible. Others dunk their hot dogs (or just the buns) in water and squeeze them to make them easier to swallow.
Eating the hot dogs and buns separately is called "Tokyo style" or "Japanesing".
Contestants train and prepare for the event in different ways. Some fast, others drink and purge large amounts of water before the event. Takeru Kobayashi meditates, drinks water and eats cabbage, then fasts before the event. Kevin Lipsitz used to train by having eating races with his dogs, but animal rights advocates convinced him to stop. Several contestants, such as Ed Jarvis, aim to be "hungry, but not too hungry" and have a light breakfast the morning of the event.
The IFOCE does not sanction home training and does not endorse any particular training methods.
The contest has been criticized for glorifying overeating and for contributing to the obesity of its participants. Some competitive eaters object to the contest allowing eating buns and hot dogs separately and call for a return to "picnic style" eating. Some object to the IFOCE requiring a signed contract as a requirement of participation. Other contestants believe it is not fair that some purge the food right after the contest.
?The Nathan?s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest has become a highlight of America?s greatest patriotic holiday...It epitomizes the spirit associated with the start of summer each year.? - Wayne Norbitz, president and COO of Nathan?s Famous
"My congratulations to the guy from Japan who won the hot dog eating contest. He ate 25 hot dogs in 12 minutes. He's the big winner. He'll receive a check for $1,000 and colon cancer." - David Letterman (7/7/2000)
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