Nathan's Hot Dog contest legend Pat 'Deep Dish' Bertoletti reveals how to eat 70 of them in 10 minutes
A former competitive eater has taken part in hundreds of contests and holds numerous world records in competitive eating
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.With the 101st annual Nathan’s Hot Dog-Eating Contest set to take place on July 4 in Coney Island, New York, a former competitive eater has shared his tips for wolfing down hot dogs at speed.
The annual contest, which started in 1972 as a display of American patriotism, sees participants attempt to scarf down as many hot dogs as possible in 10 minutes. The most ever eaten in that time was 72 hot dogs.
Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti, who’s participated in the Nathan’s hot dog-eating contest many times, holds numerous world records achieved over his lucrative career of competitive eating - including doughnuts, pie, and ice cream.
To shovel as many hot dogs into your mouth as you can in a short amount of time, and swallow them, Bertoletti has a four-step process, which he shared with the AV Club; fold the hot dogs in half, eat them, then dunk the buns into the water to make them super-quick to consume, and eat those too.
In the video, Bertoletti shows the effectiveness of his method, proceeding to consume three full hot dogs in 25 seconds.
With dripping mushy hot dog buns and a heightened risk of choking, the method isn’t pretty - but it does work.
According to Bertoletti, whose hot dog-eating record is 55 hot dogs, there are a few important factors to becoming a competitive eater.
First, you have to stick with it, and “the other part is training and determination, and then some of it is stuff like genetics,” Bertoletti said.
However, for most people, keeping up with the competitive eaters wouldn’t be possible.
In addition to having a love for food, there is a significant amount of training required to eat an excess of any food - especially hot dogs.
For the Nathan’s competition, which you have to qualify for, Bertoletti used to do “upwards of 30 practices to get ready,” after general training by consuming a lot of liquids.
“It’s not even eating at that point - when you’re in a competition,” he said.
This year’s men’s competition will take place at 12pm on Independence Day in Coney Island and will be broadcast live on ESPN.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments