Food News
The world’s top-ranked competitive eater will battle Massachusetts native Geoff Esper and other competitors over Kowloon’s signature chicken wings.
Joey Chestnut. Photos courtesy of The Brook
Joey Chestnut has eaten hundreds of hot dogs, pizza slices, and wings during his 21-year competitive eating career. Now, he’s taking on one of New England’s favorite bar foods: Kowloon’s famous Saugus Wings.
On July 11, the 42-year-old champion eater will participate in the first-ever Saugus Wing eating competition at The Brook Casino in Seabrook, New Hampshire.
“I’m nervous and excited, very excited,” Chestnut said in an interview with Boston.com. “I actually have never done any contests in New Hampshire.”
The competition comes just a week after Chestnut won his 18th Mustard Belt, the first place title, at the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4. Chestnut set the Guinness World Record for most hot dogs eaten in 10 minutes — 76 — at the contest in 2021.
For chicken wings, Chestnut’s personal record is 242 wings in 10 minutes, which is roughly 2.5 wings per second.
The all-time chicken wing eating record is held by Geoffrey Esper, a teacher from Oxford, Mass. and the third-highest ranked competition eater in the world. He ate 281 wings in 10 minutes, beating Chestnut by 25 wings, at the Hooters World Wing Eating Championship in 2019.
Chestnut and Esper will go head to head at The Brook this weekend.
Saugus Wings from Kowloon. – Photos courtesy of The Brook:
What are Saugus Wings?
Saugus Wings are chicken wings coated in the Kowloon’s signature sticky, garlicky Asian-style barbecue sauce.
The famous wings were named after the city where the Kowloon resides during a dinner shared between the Wong family, which owns the restaurant, and the late Boston sports radio legend and Kowloon-mega fan Eddie Andelman and his wife, Judith.
The wings are also served at Kowloon’s sister restaurant, 9 Dragons, which opened at The Brook in September 2024.
“Naming this championship after the Saugus Wing is an homage to the Wong family and to what Kowloon means to New England,” The Brook CEO Andre Carrier said in a press release. “We expect [the championship] to become a summer tradition.”
Originally a 40-seat restaurant called The Mandarin House, the Wong family expanded the restaurant to its current 1,200-seat capacity in 1958. Since then, the Kowloon has been a pillar of Massachusetts’s North Shore, serving approximately 20,000 customers every week. In June, the Wong family opened a smaller location, Kowloon Tiki Bar, on Revere Beach.
Geoffrey Esper, a teacher from Oxford, Mass., is the No. 3 top competitive eater in the world. – Photos courtesy of The Brook
How do you win a wing eating contest?
Unlike most food competitions, the winner of a wing competition is not determined by who ate the highest number of wings, but who ate the most weight in wings. Each competitor receives a 20-pound tray of wings and at the end of 10 minutes, it’s weighed to see who most effectively cleaned the meat off the bones.
Compared to drums, the flat wings are “a lot faster because … if you pick them up correctly, … you can strip all the meat off the bone in just one motion,” Esper said in an interview with Boston.com.
How the wings are cooked impacts speed as well. “If they’re overcooked, the bones start breaking in your mouth and … it slows you down,” Chestnut said. “If they’re cooked perfectly, you can be a little bit aggressive and try to get the meat off the bone a little bit harder.”
Chicken wing contests are a competition of technique so Chestnut’s “huge capacity” for food “doesn’t really matter in a wing contest,” Esper said.
“It’s going to be a real contest,” Chestnut said. “It’s not going to be like [with] hot dogs where I can run away with” the lead.
Although Chestnut has “done a lot of wing contests, and he is very good at doing wings,” Esper believes “James Webb actually has the best chance of winning.” Webb is a 37-year-old competitive eater from Australia whose personal wing-eating record is 224 in 10 minutes.
The competition will be the first time Chestnut has Saugus Wings. “Esper might have a little bit of an advantage. He’s definitely going to be more familiar” with the wings, Chestnut said.
Overall, “it should be a fun day,” he added. With the weather predicted to be 79 degrees, “it’s going to be so great.”
The Saugus Wing Eating Contest will be held Saturday, July 11 at 5:30 p.m. at The Secret Garden, 319 New Zealand Rd., Seabrook, New Hampshire. The 18+ event is free.
Sign up for The Dish
Stay up to date on the latest food and drink news from Boston.com.
