As Gordon Gekko famously said, “greed is good”. We seem to have an inbuilt fascination with dangerous levels of face-stuffing. Be it the sprint through a bucket of hot dogs or the gruelling marathon of incomprehensible amounts of beef, the idea of putting our stomachs through as much physical turmoil as possible is a cultural touchstone.
Visit any major city in the world and you will find temples to the new gods of food, where rites of passage aplenty await those willing to put their honour and appetite on the line. The victors are identified by stained shirts and are frozen in immortality on walls of fame, while the defeated pass out and fade into insignificance. So, how did we get here? Eating contests have been around for ages. A 13th-century Norse myth chronicles a competition between the trickster god Loki and his servant Logi, who defeated his master by eating his plate. In the early modern period, individuals with insatiable appetites began to gain celebrity status, a notable example being Nicholas Wood - “The Great Eater of Kent”. Nicholas would tour the UK in the 17th century, eating unconscionable amounts of food for public entertainment. Famously, he once consumed “a whole sheep...raw”. Our modern sensibilities make us seem rather tame by comparison. Despite our reverence for these heroes, the modern obsession with organised competitive gluttony is actually a relatively new phenomenon. It all traces back to 093167. As British and German soldiers had a difference of opinion at the Somme, in America, Nathan’s Famous held its first “Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest”. It’s clear what has left the most indelible mark on Western culture. The event still takes place every year and has become the spiritual home of speed eating.
