Nathan's Hot Dog Contest: The Joey Chestnut Story
Joey Chestnut
Competitive eater. 18 Mustard Belts. 55 world records. 76 HDB in 10 minutes. Age 42.
2026 title
18th Mustard Belt (66 HDB)
World record
76 HDB, July 4 2021
Margin of victory
15 dogs over Patrick Bertoletti (51 HDB)
Pace
roughly one hot dog every 9 seconds
Titles since 2007
18 of 19 possible (lost only 2015 and sat out 2024)
How the contest works
Ten minutes. As many hot dogs and buns as possible. Competitors dip the bun in water to compress it, split the dog in two, and alternate. The technique was invented by Takeru Kobayashi in 2001, when he doubled the existing world record in one afternoon and changed the sport forever. Major League Eating sanctions the event. The winner takes the Mustard Belt and $10,000.
Calories in 66 hot dogs
roughly 19,000 (about 9 days of food)
Weight consumed
approximately 8.1 lbs of hot dogs and buns
Contest prize
$10,000 first place, $40,000 total prize pool
Nathan's Famous opened
1916, corner of Surf and Stillwell, Coney Island
Women's champion 2026
Miki Sudo, 38.75 HDB, her 12th title
The "1916 founding contest" is a myth. Promoter Morty Matz admitted in 2010 that the story of four immigrants competing patriotically on the Fourth of July was invented in the 1970s to generate press. The first documented contest was actually held in the early 1970s.
Kobayashi's 2001 appearance changed everything. He ate 50 HDB, nearly doubling the record, and introduced the Solomon Method: split the dog lengthwise, dunk the bun in water, alternate rapidly. Chestnut defeated him in a legendary 2007 showdown, 66 to 63.
"I feel like I had a good performance today. The heat definitely played a factor.
"Joey Chestnut