Lifestyle
Where does L.A.’s leftover produce go? This group helps get tons to the hungry every day
It’s 4:30 a.m. on a Tuesday and the lights are blazing at Food Forward’s Pit Stop warehouse. Big trucks are lining up waiting their turn while forklifts whiz around the loading dock, pulling pallets of donated asparagus, lettuce and strawberries off one truck or pushing boxes of purple potatoes, green beans and heirloom tomatoes onto another headed to needy clients later in the day.
Everything moves fast at Food Forward — a nonprofit devoted to redistributing produce that would otherwise go to waste — because fruits and veggies don’t last. When you’re moving tons of food at the edge of its usefulness — an average of 250,000 pounds or 125 tons every day — no one can afford to dawdle.
Lupe “Papi” Rodriguez uses plastic wrap to stabilize a wobbly pallet of unsold berries, tomatoes and other produce at the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market, before loading it into his truck bound for Food Forward’s warehouse.
(Jeanette Marantos / Los Angeles Times)
Mini watermelons are among the wide variety of fruit and vegetables brought into Food Forward’s warehouse.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The whole point of this hustle is to get food that would otherwise be wasted to hunger relief groups, who get the produce for free and must distribute it for free as well, without imposing any rules like listening to prayers, making donations or joining a club. Food Forward works with some 250 nonprofit groups to get it done, serving 13 counties in Southern and Central California along with seven states and tribal lands when there’s too much surplus for regional groups to handle.
So even though it’s dark and cold, Food Forward driver Lupe “Papi” Rodriguez is smiling as he gets ready to pick up pallets of unwanted fruits and veggies from wholesale produce vendors. “I enjoy my work,” said Rodriguez, who drove a produce truck for 20 years before joining Food Forward in 2021. “It’s a beautiful job, because you get to help people too.”
And it all started 15 years ago, when documentary photographer Rick Nahmias was nursing his ailing, elderly dog and a deep disappointment with politics. During their slow walks through his San Fernando neighborhood, Nahmias had lots of time to notice all the unpicked fruit on people’s trees, and consider how he could best proceed in helping the world.
The year before, Nahmias had worked hard on two political campaigns, to elect Barack Obama as the nation’s first Black president and to defeat Proposition 8, a state ballot initiative to ban gay marriage. Obama won, as did Proposition 8. Although the measure was later overturned, in January 2009 Nahmias was still aching. He and his husband had married just three years earlier, and the vote to ban their marriage “was pretty brutal,” he said.
“It felt like total whiplash, and I was so discouraged, I decided, ‘I can’t deal with politics anymore. I’ve got to go do something positive.’ And Food Forward was my way to turn the other cheek.”
It was also the height of the nation’s economic downturn, he said. “We were seeing long lines at food pantries, who didn’t have the storage to handle fresh fruit. These people were being forced to eat Cup of Noodles when just a mile away there were all these beautiful oranges and grapefruits hanging on trees … and I was thinking, ‘What’s wrong with this picture?’”
At the Food Forward warehouse, founder and CEO Rick Nahmias poses in front of a sculptural light display created from old fruit harvesting tools, which the organization still uses to glean unwanted fruit from residential trees.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Warehouse manager Leo Paz, right, says it’s rewarding to help the community and to get paid for it as a job. On left is Amir Zambrano, managing director of wholesale recovery.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Addressing that imbalance was all Nahmias had in mind when he put an ad on Craigslist that January, asking for volunteers to help him pick unwanted fruit for donation. Six people responded, he said, but only one showed up at the first event. He persisted , and slowly, a group formed that picked 800 pounds of fruit off his neighbor’s tangerine and orange trees, and identified many more that needed picking.
That initial core group — Nahmias, Carl Buratti, Marie Boswell and Erica Kopmar — were all strangers who became close friends, “like a little tribe,” he said. For the next nine months they’d gather on weekends, picking fruit and delivering it to local food pantries. They did it to help people and build community, Nahmias said, but also because it was fun.
A community newspaper wrote a small article about their gleaning events, and in October 2009, while he was shopping for a Halloween costume, Nahmias got a call “out of the blue” from Evan Schlesinger of the Jewish Venture Philanthrophy Fund, offering him a $25,000 grant to see if his weekend “fun” could become a sustainable organization.
Nahmias thought the call was a prank at first, but after confirming it was real, the foursome hired consultants to review its viability. The verdict was yes, if they got nonprofit status and a strong leader, Nahmias said. His “tribe” sat him down and said, “‘This could go somewhere. We should do it,’ but when it came to leadership, they all took a step back.”
Thus Nahmias became the founder and CEO of Food Forward, a gleaning operation that distributed unwanted residential fruit to community organizations feeding needy people. But it didn’t take long for its scope to grow.
By 2012, farmers markets were reaching out to Food Forward, asking if its volunteers could help find a home for the produce left unsold. Farmers didn’t want to take it back, but no one wanted to see it thrown away. What began with the Santa Monica Farmers Market has grown to 16 farmers markets in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
The biggest jump came in 2014, when Food Forward started working with wholesale produce sellers. “We set 300,000 pounds as our first goal, and ended up collecting 4.1 million pounds,” despite working with borrowed trucks and loading docks, and having to coax vendors to trust the food wouldn’t be resold, Nahmias said.
Rick Nahmias stands in front of a new trailer that the organization purchased to help with produce pickups.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Driver Lupe Rodriguez brings in a pallet of produce he picked up during his early morning route.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Now, a decade later, Food Forward’s warehouse and its new giant truck trailer, pulled by an electric Volvo-made cab, features a mural by Brian Peterson depicting its three-pronged attack on hunger: gleaning, farmers markets and its Pit Stop warehouse in Bell, which in 2023 distributed 87 million pounds of free, unwanted produce primarily in Los Angeles County, on a budget of $6.3 million, or at a cost of 7 cents a pound.
The organization has about 50 employees and 2,000 volunteers. Its new goal — recognized by the White House — is to collect and donate 90 million pounds of produce this year, and 100 million pounds by 2025. Funding comes from grants and individual donations, “ranging from $5 to more than $1 million,” Nahmias said.
Back at the warehouse, Rodriguez disappears behind a forklift to unload his truck as warehouse manager Leo Paz congratulates Karlen Nurijanyan, founder and CEO of Student LunchBox, a nonprofit that provides food and other items to college students living in poverty. The group began in 2020, during the pandemic, and initially, Nurijanyan would pick up produce only from the warehouse’s smaller “Sprout” section, which provides boxes of fruits and veggies to groups too small to use big trucks.
This day, however, Nurijanyan has gotten funding to rent a truck big enough to use the Pit Stop loading dock, and he’s thrilled to be getting his first produce on pallets. During college, Nurijanyan was poor, with almost all his money going to rent. After college he got a corporate job but couldn’t shake the memory of his poverty and embarrassment.
When the pandemic forced him to stay at home, Nurijanyan knew it was time to pursue his dream of helping needy college students. Four years later, his group is serving around 4,000 students at 10 universities around L.A. County. The group distributes about 15,000 pounds of food every week, often in open-air “markets” where students can pick the produce they are most likely to eat. Food Forward’s support gave his little organization credibility with other donors, he said, and this year, his program is expanding to include donations of clothing, hygiene kits and other essentials.
This is why people want to work here, said Paz, watching Nurijanyan climb into his rented rig. Paz is all about relationships. He was already working with another hunger relief group when he learned about Food Forward’s growing to work with wholesale vendors. He knew he could have a bigger impact with Food Forward, and his expertise and warmth have helped it grow. Throughout the morning, Paz makes a point of greeting drivers and vendors by name, usually with handshakes that end in hugs.
These kinds of relationships are a large part of why Food Forward has been so successful, Nahmias said, and they must continue for the organization to get the staff and volunteers it needs to grow.
Driver Lupe Rodriguez unloads pallets of produce from his truck at Food Forward Produce Pit Stop.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Typically, volunteers from Food Forward harvest thousands of trees, including these navel oranges, picked from a Newbury Park backyard in 2020.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
They’re working hard to bring in more volunteers, said Ally Forest, senior manager of community programs, especially those willing to be trained to lead gleaning and farmers market volunteers. People who are curious can participate in the group’s so-called Zestfest on June 1 at Cal State Northridge’s orange grove, where Food Forward will celebrate 15 years of gleaning fruit by inviting volunteers to harvest hundreds of citrus trees.
And then, after working nonstop since he began, Nahmias is taking a three-month sabbatical to travel, rejuvenate and plan for the future, since visioning is one of his biggest jobs these days.
“‘Share the abundance’ is not just a slogan, it’s a way of life,” he said. “We need to get people out of their own selfish ways and realize how much they have that they can share. It doesn’t have to be fruit; it could be money, time, love. … We all have abundance; we just need to find out what it is, and give it.”
Harper Collins; Penguin Random House; Flatiron Books;
The mystery and suspense novels coming out this month are some of the best this crew of mostly well-established writers has written. So let’s get to them:
El Dorado Drive is Megan Abbott’s most doom-laden novel yet. It’s set in the year 2008, in Detroit, which happens to be Abbott’s hometown. The three middle-aged Bishop sisters — our main characters here — can recall their father driving them around town in a “sapphire-blue Caddy” when he was general counsel to GM; but those days are mere rusty memories. The trio is beset by money troubles, until middle sister, Pam, invites her sibs into an all-female financial club she’s joined called “the Wheel.” Here’s a brief description of the club’s Macbeth-like initiation rites:
There was a ritual to it: the women forming a circle around the coffee table, faces shiny, flyaway hair and lipstick smudged, heels off, … pedicured toes dancing in the carpet plush. …
“[A woman named Sue intoned the oath:] ‘We pledge to … commit to the secrecy of the Wheel, and trust in its promise. All together now: Women trust, women give, women protect.’
What these women think of as female empowerment, the Feds might consider a Ponzi scheme. The spell of this smart, socially-pointed suspense novel lingers long after the Wheel’s stash of cash — and one of its members — are no more.
The presence of the uncanny is even more potent in Dwyer Murphy’s new novel, The House on Buzzards Bay. Gothic chill wafts like ocean mist throughout this tale of college friends reuniting at an old house one them has inherited. The house was built by a band of 19th-century Spiritualists and, as the vacation gets underway, the friends are plagued by an uneasy sense that those Spiritualists may not have vacated the premises.
Dwyer’s restrained style heightens the ominous atmosphere. In this scene, a stranger, a woman named Camille, has turned up at the house. She says she was invited by one of the group who’s since disappeared. It’s nighttime and the friends invite her to stay. Here’s how Jim, the man who’s inherited the place, describes Camille’s reaction:
She said how kind we all were. Just as she’d known we would be. She must have repeated that three or four times, so that it sounded almost like she was making a joke.
Restraint is not a hallmark of S.A. Cosby’s crime fiction. His writing is rough, raw and violent. King of Ashes, Cosby’s latest novel, is set in the Virginia town of Jefferson Run which, like Abbott’s Detroit, has seen better days. Once a manufacturing hub where Mason jars were made, the town is now ruled by a gang called the Black Baron Boys.
Roman Carruthers, our antihero, left years ago for college and then moved to Atlanta to pursue a big career in money management. Roman knows his rise is thanks, in part, to his father, known as the “King of Ashes,” because his crematory made him one of the few prominent Black businessmen in town.
When the novel opens, Roman is summoned back home by his sister with the news their father lies near death after a suspicious hit and run. Turns out that Roman’s younger brother, Dante, has ripped off the Black Baron Boys in a drug deal and they don’t believe in repayment on the installment plan.
Cosby invests the classic noir plot of the ordinary man pulled into a nightmare with emotional depth. Roman scrambles to save his family by using his financial know-how to make the gang a fortune all the while plotting their annihilation. I warn you, that crematory gets put to use — a lot — but King of Ashes is so ingenious neither grit nor gore could make me stop reading it.
Laura Lippman’s latest novel resurrects a character from her beloved Baltimore-based Tess Monaghan series. Murder Takes a Vacation stars Tess’ former assistant, Muriel Blossom. The widowed Mrs. Blossom, as she’s known, has won the lottery and she’s treating herself to a river cruise, starting in Paris. But, when the handsome man who flirted with her on the plane is found dead, Mrs. Blossom’s vacation literally becomes a “getaway” as she tries to dodge both the police — who see her as a suspect — and the evildoers.
It would be easy to underestimate Murder Takes a Vacation — to assume it’s just a Miss Marple-type romp. That would be a mistake. Where Agatha Christie, through Marple, investigated the invisibility of older women, Lippman perceptively explores how older women often collaborate in their own invisibility — muting their appearance and their desires.
Whatever your desires for summer mystery reading, at least one of these novels should fulfill them.
Lifestyle
What to wear this summer and the best L.A. vintage finds, according to stylist Bin X. Nguyen
Bin X. Nguyen came of age in the mid-2000s at the height of celebrity paparazzi culture, watching MTV, poring over Teen Vogue, and following icons like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie from his bedroom in the suburbs of San Jose.
“Escaping the mundane life of suburbia was really what influenced my childhood,” Nguyen says. “When I was 8 or 9, watching ‘America’s Next Top Model’ with the icon that is Tyra Banks and watching ‘Project Runway,’ I was really inspired by fashion. You saw how glamorous and unglamorous fashion is, and somehow this world was so enticing to me.”
“The Devil Wears Prada” came out when Nguyen was a teen, which he describes as the “catalyst” for his time as a fashion and culture writer at his college newspaper, and later, Santa Barbara Magazine. While he was there, he met stylists on the cover shoots. Between witnessing their creativity in real time and consuming media like “The Rachel Zoe Project,” Nguyen decided to move to Los Angeles and begin his career as a professional wardrobe stylist.
Bin wears RTA faux fur coat, BoohooMan jacket, Bottega Veneta pants, Dora Teymur boots.
These days, Nguyen is known for styling everyone’s favorite musicians, from Katseye to Role Model to Phoebe Bridgers, with plenty of actors in between — think Lana Condor, Jonathan Davis, Laysla De Oliveira and Alexandra Shipp.
He stresses the importance of cultivating a sense of identity through style: “I just want to create beautiful work that inspires people. At the end of the day, I want to make lasting images that people will reference.” He often pulls from his Vietnamese heritage, drawing from the layering of an áo dài while working.
“Referencing old Vietnamese photos of the ’70s and ’60s is really important to bring my culture to the forefront of fashion,” Nguyen says. “Having little touches that speak to you, whether it be your jewelry or your hat or your scarves, all these things are important to you as a special, dynamic being.”
Nguyen jokes that his personal style doesn’t always give L.A.
“It’s L.A., we live in athleisure. Don’t get me wrong, when I do returns, I’m in athleisure. But when I go out, it’s important to serve a look,” Nguyen says. “You want to serve, as the girls say, c—. That’s a part of L.A. that’s very niche. L.A. people will go out in like jeans and a T-shirt, whereas I’m in vintage designer clothes and a 4-inch heel, you know?”
My most memorable shoot was with an NBA player named Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. We shot in a hotel room super quick. I love a pop girl and an athlete — I think my dream clients are both. I just want to show off body and skin, and I want them to look ultra-cool.
One shoot I’m most proud of is with Katseye for the cover of Teen Vogue. It’s so special to work with a group of diverse girls, and they’re so unique and talented. The aesthetic was the early 2000s, beachy, young, fresh, like Abercrombie. That’s something that I grew up seeing all the time, like the models on the Abercrombie bags and going to Hollister and seeing their design.
So they wanted to build that into this 2025 version of it, but diverse and cool. I think we definitely accomplished that. It was also a full circle moment for me because when I was 15 and 16, Teen Vogue was the magazine that I subscribed to. I would collect the copies every month and there’s still a stack of them in my closet, so it’s very exciting to have that moment now.
A moment where I felt like I made it was getting to go to Pharrell’s first runway show for Louis Vuitton. There was a choir that came out and sang this amazing song and Rihanna and ASAP Rocky were sitting across from me. Tears just started falling from my eyes, and I was like, this is part of the dream that I had of being a part of this life. Just to be welcomed into this space feels so crazy to me.
Bin wears Tom Ford suit jacket and pants, vintage Gucci by Tom Ford shirt and belt, Dora Teymur boots.
Some of my dream people to work with are photographers like Steven Meisel and Inez & Vinoodh. I would love to make beautiful images with Nick Knight. In terms of celebrities, Zoë Kravitz, Bella Hadid, Nicole Kidman — but at the same time, I want to work with new talent like Tyla and Chappell Roan. They all have a sense of identity. I think it’s so important to have your own style and your own personal creative ideas of what you want to look like.
Those girls have really honed in and cultivated their identity. And when you look at something, especially if you look at a dress or a piece of art, and you associate that art or that garment with that girl. I want to create that with my own client one day.
Three words to describe my own day-to-day style are sensuality, preppy and edgy. I love American sportswear. Ralph Lauren’s a huge influence of mine, but there’s always an edge to it. There’s like a little secret that’s elevated, and you are only going to know when they want to tell you. There’s a mystery.
Bin wears archival Roberto Cavalli for H&M vest, Levi’s pants, Stetson cowboy hat, Acne Studios boots. Bin wears archival Roberto Cavalli for H&M vest, Levi’s pants, Stetson cowboy hat, Acne Studios boots.
An ideal day in L.A. is taking an hour to do a yoga class or go walk in the park. I hike once a week for two hours. I love my job, but it’s also very important to take care of your mental health and be in nature and find gratitude. There’s one called the Vermont Canyon Tennis Courts hike and you go all the way to Dante’s Peak.
As an Aries, my personal style is ever-changing because my personality is so spontaneous. You just want to do things all the time. You never stop. If you meet an Aries, they’re like, “Let’s go here, let’s do this, let’s go there.” I think that plays into a lot of my work and my clothes. I’m always thinking, what can be different in terms of this image?
My emotional support clothing item is a 4-inch boot. I’m not the tallest person — and when I wear my boots I’m still not the tallest person — but it brings in a feeling of confidence where I can stomp somewhere. Sometimes that’s all you need, and it changes your posture, and you just feel like you can take anything down.
If I was a cocktail, I would be a St. Germain Spritz. It’s called a Hugo Spritz, but the core of it is St. Germain, Prosecco and club soda, and on a summer day with mint and lemon … It’s so yummy. I wish I had some in my fridge. It is the most refreshing drink. And I’m anti-Aperol. It’s all about Hugo, like you have to experience the Hugo Spritz. Your life will change.
Bin wears Burberry coat, Bottega Veneta pants.
This summer, everyone will be wearing longer-length shorts. More people are wearing board shorts now, it’s not above the knee anymore. And baby tees and Havaianas flip-flops.
If last summer was brat summer, this summer is where I’m going to be really stupid for the last time. It’s from personal experience. This is the last summer of my 20s. I just feel like I can get away with certain things in my 20s before I turn 30, so this summer is going to be crazy and stupid for me. When I turn 30 in April, it’s going to be smart spring, like business savvy, strategically everything. But this summer is going to give, let’s puke. Let’s drink a s— ton of alcohol and puke, because I have one summer left to do that.
The best vintage finds are at the Long Beach Antique Market. On the third Sunday of the month, there’s this lady named Veronica. You will find the most incredible vintage. The look that I wore to the Vuitton show was from her vintage stall. And I love the Goodwill on San Fernando in Atwater Village where you buy by the pound. You literally have to come in with gloves and your headphones because it’s such an intense experience, but it’s so cheap and I have found gems from that Goodwill.
Bin wears Loewe coat and boots, Haikure jeans.
It’s so unserious for people to be like, “Fashion is everything, fashion is my life.” Fashion is a major cause of global warming, and it can create a lot of damage in the world. It’s not brain surgery, but you’ll meet people that make it feel like brain surgery and that’s when it’s not fun anymore. I just want to have fun and create beautiful images.
Something I wish people knew about the fashion and styling industry is that 75% is hard work and schlepping, you’re carrying things all day, every day. It’s a lot of logistics. But 25% is glamorous. There are moments where you’re like, “Wow, these spaces that I’m in are actually insane, and I’m so grateful to be here.” But the 75% is not fun or pretty. A lot of people don’t know that when they get in, and they run from it really quickly. I do it because I love it and I’m inspired by it. It’s something I’ve wanted to do my entire life, and I can attest to it with the amount of Teen Vogues in my closet in my childhood bedroom.
Sixteen-time champion Joey Chestnut poses after his 2021 Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest victory on Coney Island. He returns to the stage this summer after being banned last year.
Brittainy Newman/AP
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Brittainy Newman/AP
The top dog of competitive hot-dog eating is back.
Joey Chestnut, the 16-time champion of Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, will return to its Coney Island competition stage this summer, a year after being sidelined by a sponsorship conflict.
“This event means the world to me. It’s a cherished tradition, a celebration of American culture, and a huge part of my life,” Chestnut said in his social media announcement on Monday. “I’m excited to be back on the Coney Island stage, doing what I live to do, and celebrating the Fourth of July with hot dogs in my hands!”
Chestnut has been synonymous with the July 4th event since 2007, when he began his yearslong winning streak.
The 41-year-old boasts the 10 highest totals in the event and even earned a Guinness World Record for eating 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes at the 2021 competition. It’s one of 55 world records he holds in competitive eating, having conquered a wide range of delicacies from gumbo to boysenberry pie to a whole turkey.
“Joey Chestnut is the greatest eater in history. That is not empty editorializing or bloviating. That is empirical fact,” says Major League Eating (MLE), the organization that oversees professional competitive eating events (frankly, hot dogs are just the tip of the iceberg).
But in a shocking twist last year, with the storied Coney Island contest less than a month away, MLE banned Chestnut from the stage.
What was the beef?
Chestnut regularly competes in “unbranded” events, such as concessions-eating contests at ballparks in the summer. But in June 2024, MLE accused Chestnut of violating their “basic hot dog exclusivity provisions” by partnering with a “rival brand.”
Chestnut had signed an endorsement deal with Impossible Foods, a company that makes plant-based meat substitutes and had recently launched a marketing campaign targeting carnivorous consumers.
He said at the time that he did not have a contract with Nathan’s or MLE, accusing the organizers of “looking to change the rules from past years as it relates to other partners I can work with” and depriving “the great fans of the holiday’s usual joy and entertainment.”
MLE maintained it would welcome Chestnut back when he was not representing a rival company, and apparently rolled back its ban shortly before the contest. But Chestnut said he wouldn’t return without an apology, and went on to stage his own competition at the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas.
July 4th was ultimately a sausage split screen: Chicagoan Patrick Bertoletti put away 58 hot dogs in 10 minutes to win his first Nathan’s contest, while Chestnut downed 57 hot dogs in half the time — beating a team of four soldiers, who collectively consumed 49.
Chestnut stayed busy. In September, he faced off against his longtime archrival Takeru Kobayashi — “the Godfather of Competitive Eating” — in a highly anticipated Labor Day rematch streamed on Netflix. He guzzled 83 glizzies (and buns) in 10 minutes, beating Kobayashi as well as his own record.
How did Chestnut’s homecoming happen?
Chestnut acknowledged on social media that there had been “differences in interpretation,” but said he and organizers were able to “find common ground.”
“While I have and continue to partner with a variety of companies, including some in the plant-based space, those relationships were never a conflict with my love for hot dogs,” he wrote. “To be clear: Nathan’s is the only hot dog company I’ve ever worked with.”
MLE confirmed in a statement that Chestnut will once again grace its hallowed stage. Its cofounder and emcee George Shea told NPR that “we were able to come together and I think everybody was interested in that,” though declined to comment on details of the agreement.
“Major League Eating is extremely excited that Joey will be returning to the 4th of July event this year, and it literally will be the greatest sporting event in the history of sports,” Shea said. “We are excited, the fans are excited and it was sort of all systems go for the 4th.”
Chestnut told the Associated Press that while he never appeared in any commercials for Impossible Foods’ vegan hot dogs, he “should have made that more clear with Nathan’s.”
With the beef behind him, Chestnut now has his eyes on the prize. He told the AP he’s already started prepping for the competition.
In a 2021 Nathan’s video, Chestnut he usually starts training around the end of April, a process that involves multiple practice contests under increasingly real conditions.
“A lot of it’s psychological and mental,” he said. “Your body tells you you’re full, and being able to ignore that feeling of full, that makes it easier to train.”
Shea told NPR that he’s especially excited to see Chestnut face off against Bertoletti, the reigning hot dog (among other foods) champion — and underdog. He ate 58 hot dogs last year, while Chestnut usually averages over 70.
“But word on the street is that Pat has been working, upping his numbers, and that he’s gonna give Joey a run for it,” Shea said. “He does not want to relinquish his title.”
Patrick Bertoletti celebrates winning the men’s title with a score of 58 during the 2024 Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating competition.
Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images
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Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images
A quick ketchup on the hot dog-eating contest
Nathan’s Famous claims the hot dog eating contest was born when four immigrants gathered at its original Coney Island stand on July 4, 1916, in a stomach-churning display of patriotism. That myth has been debunked — a publicity agent confessed in 2010 that the company made it up.
Eating contests were a regular feature at July 4th celebrations for decades after the American Revolution, Jason Fagone, the author of Horsemen Of The Esophagus, told NPR in 2023. But Nathan’s changed the game when it held its first recorded contest in 1972, which for many years was seen as a joke even by its largely local contestants.
In the 1990s, brothers Richard and George Shea took over the company’s publicity efforts and grew the contest into a bona fide bonanza, referring to the competitors as athletes and giving them elaborate, hyperbolic introductions.
The real turning point for the contest came in 2001, when Kobayashi — who rose to fame eating 16 bowls of ramen in an hour on a TV show in his native Japan — first brought his talents to Coney Island.
Using the novel technique of snapping hot dogs in half and dunking buns in water cups, Kobayashi set a new world record of 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes — and putting the sport on the world stage.
“And then after that, everything changed because there started to be real money,” Fagone said.
ESPN started broadcasting the contest live, which it still does today. It attracts competitors from around the globe, started a women’s-only contest in 2011 and awards champions $10,000 each (as well as a yellow and pink mustard belt, respectively).
An estimated 40,000 people attend the event in person, while hundreds of thousands tune in to watch. Shea likens the atmosphere to “a cross between an illegal dog fight and the Super Bowl.”
According to ESPN, the contest drew about one million viewers in 2022 and 2023, but felt Chestnut’s absence last year with just 831,000 viewers, its lowest number in more than a decade.
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