Some call him a hero. A national treasure. A true champion. The king of competitive eating. The most decorated eater in history.
You’ve surely seen clips of Joey Chestnut shattering world records—maybe by gulping down hot dogs or St. Elmo’s famous shrimp cocktail. And you’ve probably seen him around the greater Indianapolis area, especially Westfield. Chestnut moved to Westfield in 2021, making the city his home base while he spends the rest of his time—almost 140 days a year—on the road reigning over various eating competitions.
Over the last 15 years, Chestnut has traveled the world eating his way into record books with foods like shrimp cocktail, lobster, tamales, ramen noodles, and of course—hot dogs. He’s an anomaly—someone who had a day job in construction management until 2011 when he won his fourth hot dog title and decided to spin his professional career into a professional eater full time.
In recent competitions, Chestnut beat Takeru Kobayashi in Netflix’s “Unfinished Beef” Labor Day showdown at the Hyper X Arena in Las Vegas. Chestnut ate 83 hot dogs, which beats his own world record of 76 that he set at the 2021 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. Kobayashi ate 67 hot dogs.
Downtown Indianapolis set the backdrop in December 2024 as he set a new world record at the St. Elmo Shrimp Cocktail Eating Championship at Lucas Oil Stadium, throwing back 21 pounds of the hot, tear-inducing shrimp cocktail in just eight minutes.
Why Westfield? With stunning neighborhoods and exceptional schools, over 61,000 people call the idyllic suburb home. It’s also consistently the fastest-growing city in Indiana—with a 30% increase in population since 2020. Nearly 4,000 people moved to the suburb in 2024. But Chestnut doesn’t have a complicated answer. “I mean, I have been coming to Indianapolis for years and just really love it here,” Chestnut says. “There’s no big specific reason why I moved from California to here. I just really liked it in general. The people are friendly, there are great restaurants, and I have friends here.”
Living in Westfield provides Chestnut with a level of peace and balance that he doesn’t often get on the road. It offers a perfect blend of a small-town feel and close proximity to the greater Indianapolis area. The competitive eater loves coming home to a quiet neighborhood that’s clean and safe, calling it the perfect location for someone who travels as much as he does.
But he never saw himself living in Indiana—or becoming a competitive eater had you asked him about his personal and career goals in the early 2000s. Now 41, Chestnut started competitive eating in 2005 while studying engineering at San Jose State University. He entered a lobster eating contest, where he tied for third.
Eating, Chestnut says, is only one piece of his training. He likes to do a liquid cleanse before a training session and includes a full day of stretching and breathing exercises.
About once a week through spring and early summer, Chestnut goes down to his basement in Westfield and mimics an actual hot dog eating contest, occasionally with his fiancée, Brie, and their dogs watching.
Chestnut and his fiancée first met at a bar in San Francisco. A quick encounter just after his elimination from The Amazing Race in 2017. A year later, they came across each other on a dating app. “It was perfect,” Chestnut says. Now, the couple live in a Westfield home with a big garden and plenty of room to train.
Where can Chestnut find good tacos in Westfield? “I love all the restaurants here but where are people going for tacos? I’m still searching,” he says.
