OXFORD, Mass. — Americans will consume roughly 150 million hot dogs on the Fourth of July, but an Oxford man hopes to devour around 50 in just ten minutes.
Geoff Esper is hungry to win the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island. The 44-year-old electronics teacher at Bay Path Vocational Technical High School has competed three times before.
Esper started out as a competitive eater after entering Man vs. Food challenges at local restaurants. He's got an appetite for winning, including ice cream, pancakes, hamburger, pork roll, and chili dog competitions.
"Sometimes I don't like the contest food so I'll go buy 50 hamburgers from McDonald's or I'll go buy some burritos and practice with that," said Esper.
In June, was crowned the Hooters World Wing Eating Champion, defending 11-time Nathan's champ Joey Chestnut by eating 281 wings in ten minutes.
Gordon Cook has fed a lot of people in his 27 years in the kitchen, but he's never seen anyone eat like Geoff Esper.
"People next to him look at him like wow he’s nuts as fast as we’re making the pancakes he’s eating them," said Cook.
When Esper is in training, he'll often go to Carl's Oxford Diner where he holds the record of eating 33 pancakes in one sitting.
Esper says he practices all year for Coney Island.
"You take two hot dogs out of buns you eat em two at a time take a bun and dunk it and you take other bun, dunk it and repeat that over and over and over again," he said.
Geoff Esper also holds the world record of eating 72 McDonald's hamburgers at one time.
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