Rochester has everything, but where are the championship eaters?

As a Rochester journalist, I’ve been trained to find the Rochester connection, some person who links the area to national news. If a tree falls in a forest anywhere, it may not make a sound, but, odds are, it’s a Rochester tree.

Consequently, I’ve hoped to encounter a man or woman from here who can put away 20 or so hot dogs in 10 minutes on July 4 as a competitor in the annual Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest.

You’d think that some young adult from here, the sort of person who can put away six or seven Garbage Plates without inhaling, would be able to down a couple dozen hot dogs. But no.

A list of competitors in this year’s contest reveals no one from Rochester or the Rochester area.

Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti of Chicago took the men’s crown this time, downing 58 hot dogs in 10 minutes. (Joey Chestnut, the reigning champ, didn’t compete because he’s signed with a vegetarian hot dog supplier.)

Miki Sudo of New York City won the women’s competition for the 10 ^th time. She consumed 51 hot dogs, a new world record.

I also looked and found that no one from Rochester is on Major League Eating’s list of the top 50 eaters.

(OK, I know some of you are surprised there can be a Major League Eating group, much less a top 50 ranking. But, hey, there are professional pickle ball players, and they’re ranked. Why not eaters?)

So what’s going on? Why isn’t there a great eater, more specifically a great hot dog eater, from Rochester?

My working theory is that it has something to do with brand loyalty.

Kids growing up in the greater Rochester area are served Zweigle’s hot dogs from birth. As they grow older, their only choices are between a Zweigle’s red hot or a Zweigle’s white hot.

Under no circumstances can they betray Zweigle’s for a Hoffmann’s (that’s for people in Syracuse) or a Sahlen’s (that’s for Buffalonians).

And, for sure, Rochester kids can’t go near a Nathan’s, which was founded in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Indeed, my sense is that competitive eaters from the 19 ^th Ward, Gates or Irondequoit might get physically sick after a mere 10 or 12 Nathan’s dogs. They would undergo toxic shock, their bodies rejecting a foreign substance.

I suppose local parents who wanted their children to grow up to take on Joey Chestnut, et. al., could gradually introduce Nathan’s into their kids’ diets, thereby creating immunity.

But force-feeding Nathan’s would be cruel and inhuman, depriving youngsters from Rochester of their birthright: Zweigle’s.

The kinder course of action is to just throw in the towel and let the non-Rochesterian competitive eaters go with Nathan’s every Fourth of July.

They won’t know what they’re missing, but we will.

Remarkable Rochesterians

As suggested by Cynthia Howk, let’s add the name of this stage, radio and television producer to the list of Remarkable Rochesterians .

George H. Kondolf (1900-1985): A theater producer in Rochester and New York City, he was the grandson of Matthias Kondolf, founder of Genesee Brewing. A graduate of West High School, he studied at the University of Rochester and Harvard College and went on to manage a theater in New York City and then form a partnership with George Cukor, who later found fame in Hollywood, producing plays in Rochester during the 1920s. In the late 1930s, he ran the Federal Theater Project in Chicago and then in New York City, employing actors and others during the Depression. Later, he mounted several plays in New York City, as well as radio programs, and, in 1958, he produced the “U.S. Steel Hour” on Television.

From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott, writes Remarkable Rochester, who we were, who we are. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Rochester has everything, but where are the championship eaters?