NPR on history of competitive eating
NPR’s “All Things Considered” did an episode about the history of competitive eating that includes coverage of last week’s Nathan’s qualifier in Washington, DC and an interview with Jason Fagone, author of “Horsemen of the Esophagus”. With Kobayashi’s retirement, all the protagonists of his 2006 book are now out of competitive eating:
- AICE / All Pro Eating, last contest 2018
- Wing Bowl, terminated in 2018
- Bill “El Wingador” Simmons, arrested for drug distribution
- Tim “Eater X” Janus, last contest 2015
- Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, radio silent since 2018
2021 Guinness Eating Records Page
Here is a picture of the eating records page from the 2021 Guinness Book of Records. Here are the competitive eaters in that roster: (Full Size)
5 records Leah Shutkever
2 Pete Czerwinski, Michelle Lesco, Pat Bertoletti, Kevin “LA Beast” Strahle
1 Kelvin Medina
Leah Shutkever announced that she will have an entire page in the 2021 Guinness Book of World Records. 
Gideon Oji, billed as a kale eating champion, will appear in an upcoming book titled Little America - Incredible True Stories of Immigrants in America.
Tim "Eater X" Janus announced that he moved to Korea yesterday. After this move, all of the protagonists in the book Horsemen of the Esophagus are now either living in Asia (Takeru Kobayashi, Tim Janus) or retired (Bill "El Wingador" Simmons, Sonya "The Black Widow Thomas", AICE co-founders).
A video of the book Hot Dog Eating Champ by "Jimmie Chestbump" being read aloud with captions can be viewed on youtube.
George Rossoatos has made a chapter from his book Interdiscursive Readings in Cultural Consumer Research titled "Furious Pete and the Re-Evaluation of All Values available for download for free.
Crazy Legs Conti has self-published a book titled The Loneliness of the Long Distance Eater: A Competitive Eater's Diary available on amazon.com.
The 2019 Guinnesss Book of World Records has a page primarily devoted to Kevin "LA Beast" Strahle. Records from Michelle Lesco, Pete Czerwinski and Kevin Medina of the Philippines also appear in the bottom row of the page.
Shimmerzine has a surrealistic short story by Sara Saab about a female competitive eater with an eight gallon stomach capacity who lives on a train after a mysterious force from the sea killed her family.
Adventures in Poor Taste has an analysis of The Flash's metabolism, which requires him to eat 50 times more calories than the average human. If he obtained all his nutrition from hot dogs, he would need to eat about 3,518 Nathan's Famous 8 packs to sustain himself.
TailStix has an interview with "Super" Paul Barlow mainly about his movie roles. He also mentions the origin of his competitive eating career and the book he wrote "You Know You’re A College Student When…�
The competitive eating scene at a French restaurant in the James Bond parody Tremor of Intent by Anthony Burgess was named one of the top five food scenes in British literature by Paste Magazine. The list claims the scene was similar to a crab eating feast in the book Goldfinger (which did not appear in the movie.)
A book containing photos of Yuka Kinoshita was released on amazon.co.jp today.
NJ.com has a review of "Snow on the Barb Wire", the recently published autobiography by Bill "El Wingador" Simmons. The five time Wing Bowl champion will give a talk about his book in the Philly Author Series on February 9.
PhillyVoice has an article about Bill "El Wingador" Simmons and his new memoir, Snow on the Barb Wire. According to the article, he uses the book to "settle some scores with old Wing Bowl opponents".
5 time WIP Wing Bowl champion Bill "El Wingador" Simmons has published a book titled Snow on the Barb Wire about the path that led to his incarceration for narcotics distribution and his quest for redemption. He has also started a website at elwingador.com and a twitter at @elwingador. (via comment)
1916-71 Nathan’s eating contest “history” in “Eat This Book”
Pages 58-61 from “Eat This Book” about the “history” of Nathan’s Famous eating contest can be viewed below (click on pages to enlarge) or by using Google Books. The section treats the 1916 origin story as a historical fact instead of an “urban legend”.
“Famous Nathan” book released
“Famous Nathan: A Family Saga of Coney Island, the American Dream, and the Search for the Perfect Hot Dog” a book by Lloyd Handwerker, a grandson of Nathan Handwerker, the founder of Nathan’s famous was released yesterday. Lloyd Handwerker will give a talk about the book tonight at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn.
In the book, Lloyd Handwerker corroborates the claim made by Mortimer Matz in a 2010 New York Times interview that the 1916 origin story for Nathan’s is a fabrication.
(image from page 5 of the book)
update Jun 23Daily Beast has an article about the book with this paragraph about the contest:
So, what would Nathan have thought about the modern-day popularity of the hot dog eating contest? Lloyd was a bit hesitant when I asked him. “Some of the old timers are disgusted by it,†he admitted. While he wasn’t sure if his grandfather would have agreed with them, he “couldn’t deny the advertising impact on the company.†But on the other-hand “he hated waste†and each night he even inspected the garbage to see what people weren’t finishing.
New books out about Nathan’s Famous
The Village Voice has an article about Famous Nathan, a book about the history of the hot dog restaurant that will be released June 21 co-authored by Lloyd Handwerker, a grandson of the company founder. The book is a companion to the 2014 documentary by the same name and will include a debunking of the 1916 contest origin myth. Another book Nathan’s Famous: The First 100 Years of America’s Favorite Frankfurter Company by William Handwerker, who is also a grandson of the founder, was released on May 10.
Juan "More Bite" Rodriguez announces that he will be the model for the cover of a book written by Jordan Silver.
Today is the 10th anniversary of the publication date for the hardback edition of "Horsemen of the Esophagus: Competitive Eating and the Big Fat American Dream" by Jason Fagone.
According to amazon.com, today is the 10th anniversary of the release of "Eat This Book", the official IFOCE/MLE book by Ryan Nerz, who was working for Shea Communications.
The Onion's AV Club has a list of the most famous vomiting scenes in literature, television and movies. The pie eating contest in Stand by Me and Mr. Creosote's explosion in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life are included.
The Huffington Post has an interview with "Furious" Pete Czerwinski about his new book Stay Hungry.
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