Joey Chestnut Sets New World Chicken Spiedie Record

Winning solves everything. Winning erases the dark past. Winning extends a pen and demands you write history on your terms. Winning is the only thing.

So it was great to see that smile return—that smile. Not the prettiest in the world, no, but one that beams from ear to ear. The smile of Joseph Chestnut. The smile of the greatest eater in the history of the world. The smile of the man who here, today, felt that winning feeling for the first time in too long. Joey Chestnut won the 2015 Tioga Downs World Chicken Spiedie Eating Championship Presented by Lupo’s. Joey Chestnut ate 14 Lupo's Chicken Spiedies in 10 minutes to set a new World Record, besting his previous record by one-quarter of one chicken spiedie. Joey Chestnut remains Joey Chestnut.

Before the event, Chestnut remarked through the magic of social media that he was looking to a) Win the event, and b) Get his year back on track. Now, let's talk turkey: the win marked his fifth Championship win of the calendar year to date. In anybody's language, that's a year worth remembering. A year that needs no righting. A year any eater worth their salt would sign up for on the stroke of midnight each and every December 31st. But Chestnut is not you or I or any one of a number of eaters. He is Chestnut and his successes and failures are judges by stricter measures. It hasn't been a perfect year. This year, he is the seven-year-old violin prodigy who nailed JS Bach’s Chaconne from Partita in D Minor at the recital but flubbed slightly when it came to Paganini’s Caprice No. 4 in C Minor, capiche?

Quick contest recap: Chestnut ate harder and faster than any of his challengers. He lead from the front and did not surrender an inch. If you were not there, simply imagine a classic Chestnut performance and you'd get 90 percent of what transpired.

What you would have missed, though, was the inspired surroundings of Tioga Downs, a picture-perfect harness racing facility in Nichols, NY, 30 miles to the west of Binghamton. (Those who would like to relive the four-legged efforts of the evening can do so HERE; Flash player required. MLE was confident of Bourbon Bay in the third and was duly compensated.)

All who came to eat, however, were winners: So delicious is the Lupo’s spiedie that even the salty tears of defeat could not dim its shine. Never heard of the chicken spiedie? Friend, you have not lived! The term "spiedie" comes from the Italian spiedini, and refers to cubes or balls of meat cooked on a skewer. This is what Wikipedia says. Lupo’s chicken spiedies are delicious—something they have been saying in Lupo's home town of Endicott, NY, for decades and will say for centuries. Many thanks go to Sam and Steve Lupo for their culinary mastery and warm hospitality.

Full results below.

FULL RESULTS! 1st - Joey Chestnut, 14 Lupo's Chicken Spiedies in 10 minutes 2nd - Juan Rodriguez, 11.75 3rd - Geoffrey Esper, 11 4th - Yasir Salem, 10 5th - Badlands Booker, 8 6th - Buffalo Jim Reeves, 7.75 7th - Daniella Gioia, 5.75 8th - Jeff Berish and Ryan Siciliano, 5.5 10th - Wild Bill Myers, 5.25 11th - Jeff Diamond, 5 12th - Mike Deitz and Larell Marie Mele, 4.5