Patrick Bertoletti eats 58 hot dogs to win Nathan’s Coney Island contest in Joey Chestnut’s absence
NEW YORK — Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest has a new champion.
Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti of Chicago won the men’s event Thursday, capturing the prized Mustard Yellow Belt by chowing down 58 wieners as reigning champ Joey Chestnut didn’t compete.
Prior to that showdown, the women’s record was shattered by 10-time winner Miki Sudo, a New York City native living in Florida, who ate 51 wieners en route to winning the pink Ketchup Belt.
The rules for the annual dog fight, which began in 1972, state that whoever eats the most hot dogs in 10 minutes takes home the $10,000 prize. Every Fourth of July, roughly 20 professional eaters show up at the corner of Surf and Stillwell avenues to flex their stomachs.
While Bertoletti was a first-time winner at Coney Island, he has a nearly 20-year history of dominating competitive eating, including at the 2008 Battle at the Big Apple World Pizza Eating Championship where he beat Joey Chestnut by downing 47 slices in 10 minutes.
The 39-year-old has gone against Chestnut in countless competitions, including in the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest between 2007 and 2012.
After 10 years of retirement from Coney Island, he returned in 2022 and finished fifth.
Sudo, 38, a veteran gorger who has never been defeated in the Nathan’s contest since she began competing in 2014, showed no signs of slowing down Thursday. She became the first female to eat 50 hot dogs during the Independence Day frankfurter feast.
“I finally did it,” she said of her historic performance.
Notably missing from the men’s competition was Chestnut, the 16-time reigning champ who won last year by downing 62 dogs. He sat out this year’s match due to a contract dispute resulting from a deal with Impossible Foods, which makes plant-based wieners.
He instead competed against Army troops at the Fort Bliss July 4 Celebration in Texas.
In 2007, Chestnut ended the reign of Takeru “The Tsunami” Kobayashi in a Nathan’s showdown regarded as a classic in the competitive eating world.
Kobayashi held the title from 2001 to 2006, but stepped away from Nathan’s after 2009 amid a falling out with organizers at Major League Eating.
Despite announcing his retirement from competitive eating in May, Kobayashi will once again renew his rivalry with Chestnut when the two face off in a hot dog eating contest streaming live on Netflix on Labor Day.
“Retiring for me will only happen after I take him down one last time,” Kobayashi said in June. “This rivalry has been brewing for a long time. Competing against Joey live on Netflix means fans all over the world can watch me knock him out.”
Chestnut currently holds the world record with 76 hot dogs, which he downed on Coney Island in 2021.
