Hot Dog: Joey Chestnut challenges rivals after vegan scandal

On September 2nd, Netflix will be competing for the sausages, or rather who can eat the most of them. The duel will be between 16-time US hot dog eating champion Joey Chestnut (40) and his long-time rival Takeru Kobayashi (46), who has won the title six times so far.

The two candidates hold several world records. In 2021, Chestnut devoured 76 hot dogs in ten minutes.

However, Kobayashi often lost in direct duels with his rival, so rumors kept cropping up that he was retiring from competitive fighting. In the run-up to the latest duel, however, he made it clear: “I will not retire until I have beaten him one last time.”

Since 1916, the restaurant chain “Nathan's Famous” in New York, which specializes in beef hot dogs, has organized a now legendary hot dog eating contest for the US national day on July 4th. Between 2016 and 2023, Californian Chestnut has always won the competition. Last year, he is said to have received a fee of around 170,000 francs from “Nathan's” for his appearance, the “New York Post” reports.

But in the meantime, Chestnut has entered into a partnership with the company “Impossible Foods”, which offers vegan meat alternatives – and now also Frankfurters. As a result, “Nathan's” has excluded its record champion from this year's eating contest.

“Chestnut is the Michael Jordan of competitive eating. “But imagine Michael Jordan saying he wants to remain the face of Nike, but at the same time he wants to promote Adidas,” the New York Post explains the conflict. Chestnut, however, was disappointed by the exclusion. Now, however, he is being offered a much bigger stage at Netflix.

Netflix will broadcast the match “Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef” live on September 2nd from 9 p.m.