A BETTER WAY TO EAT
The story of Takeru Kobayashi
Takeru Kobayashi doesn’t like to think about hot dogs much right now because he is preparing to eat a very large pile of them
not for pleasure this is what he does for a living in the world of competitive eating as the sport is known
Kobi is the biggest star that has ever been.
it began in japan it began backback in japan he was a college student he was a college student a friend signed up for a televised eating contest a friend signed him him up for a televised eating contest he gave a try $5,000 grand prize he gave it a ittry for for the the $5,000 grand prize it was a four–stage eating contest it was a four–stage eating contest
starting boiled potatoes starting withwith boiled potatoes
a seafood bowl thenthen a seafood bowl
mongolian mutton barbeque mongolian mutton barbeque
finishing up with noodles thenthen finishing up with noodles
studied earlier contests kobikobi studied earlier contests likelike thisthis oneone qualifying stages onesones withwith qualifying stages he saw people went so hard in the early rounds he saw thatthat mostmost people went so hard in the early rounds if they did advance thatthat eveneven if they did advance didn’t energy theythey didn’t havehave the the energy or stomach capacity or stomach capacity to finish strong to finish strong sodecided he decided to eat enough at each stage so he to eat justjust enough at each stage enough to qualify justjust enough to qualify for for the the nextnext when it came down to the final round andand when it came down to the final round he blasted others he blasted pastpast the the others andand wonwon
having tasted victory asamateur an amateur having tasted victory as an immediately thought about turning kobikobi immediately thought about turning propro
I really was shocked because at that time I really didn’t think I could eat that much more than the normal person.
AT HOME IN JAPAN, KOBI BEGAN TO TRAIN FOR CONEY ISLANd – the world cup of competitive eating American–stylehot hotdogs dogsweren’t weren’tavailable availablewhere wherehehelived lived American–style usedsausages sausagesmade madeofofminced mincedfish fish sosoheheused hot–dogbuns bunseither either NoNohot–dog cutbread breaddown downtotosize size sosohehecut beganaalong longseries seriesofofexperiments experiments HeHebegan Forinstance: instance:ripping rippingthe thehot hotdog dogand andbun bunininhalf half For beforeeating eatingitit before knownasasthe thesolomon solomonmethod method known foundanother anotherway waytotospeed speedthings thingsupup hehefound
separatingthe thesausage sausagefrom fromthe thebun bun separating
andeating eatingtwo twohalves halvesofofthe thehot hotdog dogatatthe thesame sametime time and
thesausage sausageitself itself the beingslick slickand anddense dense being actuallywent wentdown downpretty prettyeasy easy actually buteating eatingaahot hotdog dogbun bunononits itsown own but withoutthe themeat meat without is harder than you’d think
soto tofight fightthe thedry– dry–bun bunproblem problem so kobicame cameup upwith withaanovel novelsolution solution kobi
dunking fedhimself himselfthe the asashehefed bunless bunless broken broken hotdogs dogswith withone onehand hand hot usedthe theother otherhand hand heheused dunkthe thebun bunininwater water totodunk thenhe’d he’dsqueeze squeezeout outthe theexcess excesswater water then andsmush smushthe thebun buninto intohis hismouth mouth and
kindofoflike likeaabun bunball ball kind
notonly onlydid didthis thismake makeeating eatingfaster faster not butnow nowhehedidn’t didn’thave havetototake taketime time but betweeneating eatingand anddrinking drinking between
i simply wanted to be number one in the world at this
Takeru Kobayashi
takeru kobayashi dreamed a dream of eating more hot dogs than any human being in history nathan’s annual hot dog eating contest is an international event champions from all over the world converging on coney island the contest had been going on for roughly four decades the world record – 25 1/8 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes
i showed thetime firsttotime to compete when iwhen showed up theup first compete i did notabout think about the other competitors i did not think the other competitors i wasoffull the feeling i was full the of feeling of of
i havehere cometohere i have come winto win
therings bell rings and theand bell and i to start and i start eat to eat 12 minutes and forand 12 for minutes i eat i eat and i break and i break and i separate and i separate and i slurp and i slurp and i dunk and i dunk and i smush and i smush and i swallow and i swallow and i shake and i shake all that and i doand alli do that andthe then therings bell rings and then bell andi see thenmyi see my number and then number i onlyitsaw it at i only saw at the endthe end i wasn’t the number i wasn’t lookinglooking at all at all the at number hot dogs i ate 50i ate hot50 dogs
The americans just dropped their dogs in awe. the clear cut wiener: kobayashi, who inhaled 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes. shattering the world record.
the kid is incredible. he was like a conveyor belt, putting them in two at a time
somtimes you win I always change my mentality very quickly because someone issimply havingsaid a bad day somtimes youyou win and sometimes someone beats because someone because you are having a bad day is having a bad day and sometimes someone even winning or losing doesn’t really meanbeats you you are the best because you are having a bad day even so when you look at thewinning long runor losing doesn’t really mean youcompeting are the best you can’t think about against a rival so when you look theare long that doesn’t even tell you 100% thatatyou therun best thinkyourself about competing against a rival what you can onlyyou do iscan’t compare to yourself
that doesn’t even tell you 100% that you are the best
youcan canactually only do isgocompare yourself and try to see howwhat far you to yourself and try to see how far you can actually go
How do you handle defeat?
thekey keytotome mewas wasthat that the hadtotochange changethe thementality mentalitythat thatititwas wasaasport sport i ihad wasn’thaving havingaameal meal ititwasn’t wasjust justaaphysical physicalaction action ititwas
Kobayashi redefined the problem he was trying to solve
This book was created by Michael Tarazi, a senior at Washington University in St. Louis. The text is taken from the Freakonomics podcast A Better Way to Eat. The typefaces used are Bebas Neue and Univers.