When union organizers began celebrating Labor Day in the late 19th century, surely this is what they were hoping would happen in the future. Competitive eaters Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi duked it out glizzy-for-glizzy in Las Vegas, as part of Netflix’s Unfinished Beef special. The titular beef refers to both the ongoing rivalry between Chestnut and Kobayashi, as well as their shared enmity for Major League Eating. The company barred Chestnut from competing after he got an endorsement from Impossible Meats, and Kobayashi endured years of racism before leaving MLE. Today, the boys were back and eating hot dogs like they’ve never done before. Literally, they ate them dry this time. According to the nation’s leading hot dogologist, Jamie Loftus, the Netflix eating competition didn’t allow for contestants to dunk their buns in water, a technique “Kobayashi all but perfected.”
Dry buns be damned, both Chestnut and Kobayashi beat their personal bests Monday. Chestnut ate 83 hot dogs in 10 minutes, and Kobayashi downed a respectable 66. “This is amazing. I’ve been trying to hit 80 hot dogs for years, and without Kobayashi, I was never able to do it,” Chestnut told NBC. “He drives me. We weren’t always nice to each other, but I love [that] we push each other to be our best.”
- [Today]
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