Joey Chestnut details how he will break his ‘intense’ popcorn-eating record on Memorial Day

Joey Chestnut is ready to make history on Memorial Day as he will attempt to break his popcorn-eating record. On3 recently spoke to the competitive eating legend, and he revealed what he needs to do tobreak the world record at the Rural King store in South Terre Haute, Indiana.

“It’s going to be a pretty intense world record attempt,” Chestnut told On3. “The record is pretty high, 32 servings in eight minutes. I’m going to have to stay in my rhythm and not let the kernels of popcorn affect me. The last time I did it, I almost broke a tooth. So I think the little things they’re doing, I think I’m confident they’re going to do a good job not giving me any unpopped kernels.”

In 2022, Joey Chestnut broke the popcorn-eating record by devouring 32 servings in eight minutes. Each serving weighed 24 ounces, and Chestnut surpassed the previous mark of 28.5 servings set in Las Vegas in 2021.

Chesnut told On3 he would love to hit 36 servings if everything goes his way. “It would be pretty awesome if it was an amazing record,” he said. “Oh my god, 36 would be pretty rad, if it was clear. Popcorn, it falls all over the place a little bit. So I want to make sure I break the record by a sizable amount just so that nobody can say, ‘Oh, he dropped some.'”

Joey Chestnut says drinking water is key to breaking the popcorn-eating record

Most people know Chestnut for his work in hot dog-eating contests. The 41-year-old said that preparing for a popcorn-eating contest is “similar but different” when comparing it to hot dogs.

“All competitive eating, there’s the same elements,” Chestnut explained. “You’ve got the size of your bite, the swallowing and the breathing, and then drinking water. And every contest, you need to have some sort of water to help food settle. So every food, those elements, sometimes you can swallow more in between your breaths. Sometimes you have to drink more water.

“This one I have to drink water almost every time I’m swallowing. After every handful, I’m going to have a little bit of water to help that popcorn go down. So I put a lot of work into finding that rhythm and then pushing my body to the limit. So it’s a completely different rhythm than hot dogs. But yeah, it’s going to be fun. I love it.”