Joey Chestnut
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Joseph Christian "Jaws" Chestnut (born November 25, 1983) is a competitive eater from San Jose, California, currently ranked second in the world by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. He set the American hot dog eating record on July 4, 2006 by eating 52 HDBs (hot dogs and buns) in twelve minutes at the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.
Chestnut entered the scene in 2005 with a break-out performance in the deep-fried asparagus eating championship, in which he beat high-ranked eater Rich LeFevre by eating 6.3 pounds of asparagus in 11.5 minutes. In the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest, Chestnut downed 32 hot dogs, placing third behind Takeru Kobayashi and Sonya Thomas.
Chestnut continued to impress by beating Sonya Thomas in the Waffle House World Waffle Eating Championship and placing second to her in a Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Eating Championship qualifier, downing 56 Krystal Burgers to her 57. This phenom, who is favorite for Rookie of the Year in 2006, then did the unthinkable, eating 62 hamburgers in the championship and nearly beating the great Takeru Kobayashi.
In 2006 Joey Chestnut won Wing Bowl XIV, another installment of the annual Philadelphia event at the Wachovia Center. In the competition he ate 173 chicken wings in 30 minutes, a Wing Bowl record. He beat Rich LeFevre, who ate 151 wings. Chestnut did this by breaking each wing in half and sliding the meat off between his teeth, a technique never before seen at Wingbowl.
Among his many heroes are Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Lech Wałęsa and Stu Birdy.
He is famous for training with cheese fries. He is known to be able to eat over two pounds in 5 minutes. He trained for the 2006 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest by eating 40 HDBs in one sitting twice a week.
Chestnut qualified for the 2006 Nathan's contest by eating 50 HDB's. As July 4 approached, there was speculation that 2006 might be the year when the great Kobayashi met his match. It was not to be, however. Although Chestnut turned in a great performance leading Kobayashi through most of the contest, the final tally put Chestnut at 52, Kobayashi at 53-3/4 (a new record).
[edit] World records
- Pork Ribs: 5.5 pounds pork rib meat in 12 minutes at Chinook Winds Casino on July 17, 2005
- Waffles: 18.5 Waffles (8 oz.) in 10 Minutes at Waffle House in Atlanta, GA, on Sept. 4, 2005
- Buffalo Wings: 173 Wings at Wing Bowl XIV in Philadelphia, PA, on Feb. 3, 2006
[edit] US records
- Hot Dogs: 52 Nathan's Famous HDBs in 12 minutes. July 4, 2006.
