While Chestnut, known for dominating the annual July fourth Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest and a host of other foods, won’t be doing any competitive eating on Saturday, he’s excited to be in his environment with one of his favorite condiments, counting spicy brown mustard and stone ground mustard as preferences as they have low calories and lots of flavor.
“I enjoy everything in food. It’s always good. I still love contests but I also love meeting people,” he said.
While there likely aren’t any job boards offering full-time competitive eating positions, Chestnut makes it clear his life isn’t just waking up and eating. During the week, he opts for a “super green” intake, and does a cleansing, recovery and practice period to prepare for competitions.
He trained for two months prior to his Labor Day hot dog-eating competition with rival eating champ Takeru Kobayashi, which was broadcast live on Netflix and saw Chestnut break his own 10-minute record by downing 83 hot dogs.
Another recent contest saw him consume 14 pounds of balongna in eight minutes.
“If I ate like that every day I wouldn’t be able to do this,” Chestnut said.
He’s glad to talk with others who have aspirations of competitive eating and prepares them for the reality. He never set out for this as a career, working as an engineer, but found a talent for eating a lot and fast.
Chestnut was always a big eater and often finished before others at family meals. He later found his enjoyment of eating, competition and being in front of a crowd was a great way to exploit his talent, not feel guilty about overeating, set a few records and travel the world.
While Chestnut has 55 records across 55 food disciplines from asparagus to Twinkies, there are still goals. He’d like to have the sushi record and wants another shot at a crab cake title, with a rare loss in a contest in which the food made all the competitors sick.
Chestnut’s kryptonite consumable is raw oysters, confessing the texture makes him sick. But the New Orleans setting for that contest has him never saying never.
He’s living a dream by eating hot dogs in Las Vegas, burgers in New York and even mustard in Springfield. He’s excited about his trip to the Champion City, which is just a two-hour drive from his Indiana home, meeting MustardFEST attendees and being in his element.
“I’m just a goofy dude who loves to eat and hates to lose,” said Chestnut. “I love competitions, food and happy people. This is gonna’ be fun with great weather on a nice Saturday.”
For more information on MustardFEST, go to www.facebook.com/SpringfieldOhioCVB.
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