How Nathan’s Famous turned competitive eating into a national spectacle

Every Fourth of July, starting when she was 15, Jacqueline Lewis and her family come together to honor a great American tradition: the Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating competition.

Every Fourth of July, starting when she was 15, Jacqueline Lewis and her family come together to honor a great American tradition: the Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating competition. “I think people want to know how many hot dogs a human can eat in that amount of time.” Lewis, now 26, told CNN on a warm June day last year while eating miniature corn dogs (at a leisurely pace) outside of the original Nathan’s location in Coney Island. “I think they want to know.” Lewis and her family aren’t the only ones who want to see how many franks competitors can scarf down in 10 minutes. Each year, close to two million people watch Nathan’s hot dog eating contest on ESPN, according to the frankfurter brand. Tens of thousands of spectators come out to Brooklyn’s Coney Island to watch the event in person. Competitors train for months in advance, preparing their bodies to consume thousands of calories in just a few minutes. And the big headline this year: champion eater Joey Chestnut will return to the contest after being barred from competing last year over his deal with Impossible Foods — a plant-based meat company. Chestnut has won the “Mustard Yellow Belt” 16 times, and once ate a world record 76 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes in 2021. Nathan’s, and the marketing visionaries behind the annual event, helped shape competitive eating as we know it today — a bombastic, showy sport that some say symbolizes America’s obsession with excess. But eating contests date back. Way back.