From ramen to chicken rice, Singaporean competitive eater Zermatt Neo holds his own

Zermatt Neo prepares to tuck in for a challenge involving jjimdak, a popular Korean braised chicken dish. Photo: courtesy of Zermatt Neo

Hong Kong's Bakehouse bakery might be famous for its super-flaky sourdough crust egg tarts, but could you eat 100 of them at once?

Singaporean Zermatt Neo did just that on a recent visit to the city. He also downed 7kg (15 pounds) of char siu (Cantonese-style barbecued pork) with rice, a popular dish from the Sun Kwai Heung restaurant in Chai Wan on Hong Kong Island.

Consuming large amounts of food is pretty normal for Neo.

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He is, after all, Singapore's "king of competitive eating", with his social media platforms - he has more than 517,000 YouTube subscribers and 582,000 followers on Instagram - proof that there is a huge appetite for what he does.

Neo's feats of eating include 10kg of noodles, 8kg of lobster fried rice that cost US$1,200, a 9.5kg bowl of laksa, and a butter chicken dish made up of 4kg of chicken, 3kg of white rice, and 1kg of naan and samosas.

For a recent shoot in Japan he ate 8kg of omurice, an omelette made with fried rice and thin, fried scrambled eggs. It went down in a record time of 23 minutes.

Another video shows him shovelling in 3kg of jajangmyeon, a Korean-Chinese black bean sauce noodle dish. He ate it in two minutes.

"Took me 11 minutes three years ago - this past year has been a roller coaster of progress I guess," he proudly declares in an Instagram post. The YouTube video of the feat has more than 1.3 million views.

Winning the Blanco Court Beef Noodle Challenge at Singapore Comic Con in 2022, where Neo set a world record - 7.4kg of beef noodles, or 21 bowls, in 15 minutes - is a highlight. That YouTube video racked up more than 1.5 million views.

While some might find Neo's videos hard to stomach, he has come a long way from his days of dabbling in eating competitions almost a decade ago, when he was egged on by friends who saw his gorging potential.

He recalls one of his first food challenges. "I had 11 bowls of ramen noodles," says Neo via Zoom from Singapore. "I finished them in about 15 minutes."

So popular are his videos that he ditched his job as a nutritionist and personal trainer to become a full-time content creator, spurred on after a few videos went viral in 2016, including one of him chowing down on 4kg of Hainanese chicken rice.

"In Singapore, chicken rice is the most iconic food," he says of the city state's unofficial national dish comprising poached chicken and fragrant oily rice served with condiments such as crushed ginger, soy sauce and chilli sauce.

"I had a giant plate that my parents used at parties and it was filled with about 12 servings of chicken rice ... it looked very cartoonish and went super viral," he says, adding he consumed the meal in just 29 minutes.

In the world of competitive eating, things can get, well, competitive.

In July, Neo was in Malaysia, where he set a record for eating the most nasi kandar, a popular dish from the island of Penang.

Weighing almost 9kg - and costing 300 ringgit (US$69) - it included chicken, squid, shrimps, fish eggs and a whole fish head.

A few weeks later, Neo's record was broken by Malaysian influencer Ashwad Fat Burger, who tipped the scales when he ate 350 ringgit worth of nasi kandar.

While local hawker and street food challenges are Neo's favourite - "it's more relatable" - fast food feats also feature on his platforms.

In one video, he scoffs down 40 McGriddles - the breakfast sandwich from McDonald's that launched recently in Hong Kong. In another, he polishes off an 8kg deep-dish Chicago-style pizza.

Such high-fat-and-salt binges might have some questioning how Neo balances his passion for nutrition with competitive eating. But he does not see them as odd bedfellows.

"My knowledge as a dietitian and personal trainer helps me deal with the aftermath very efficiently," he says.

"I know how to take care of my body, and while I no longer have time for personal training and online coaching, I still research nutrition and biohacking ... I'm still very big on health and healthy living."

The biggest misconception surrounding competitive eaters, he says, is that people assume they do it every day. Neo takes a three- or four-day break after each shoot.

"Before and after a shoot I will fast for about 20-24 hours," he says. "After a shoot, I'll eat loads of vegetables, a bunch of fibre, a bunch of probiotics just to get everything moving. I also drink lots of water and get lots of sleep. I really take care of myself."

It shows. The 37-year-old weighs just 64kg, is of average height and has a ripped frame shaped by six days a week in the gym.

"Each gym session is about one and a half hours, including one hour of cardio, whether it's clocking in 10,000 steps, the treadmill, cycling, walking, skipping."

His vital signs - blood pressure, blood sugar levels - are normal, as are his levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, a type of blood fat that is our main source of energy but, if too high, can cause problems with the heart, liver and pancreas.

"I have a health check every six months. My doctor says I'm healthier than 90 per cent of Singaporeans."

Choking is a risk for competitive eaters. If left unchecked, diabetes and obesity can also be problematic.

In July, 24-year-old Chinese influencer Pan Xiaoting died after attempting to eat 10kg of food. An autopsy found that her stomach was filled with undigested food, with the lower part deformed.

Pan, who weighed 300kg, was taking part in a mukbang - a live stream where the host binge eats while interacting with the audience. It differs from competitive eating where someone eats a certain amount of food in a certain amount of time, explains Neo.

Originating in South Korea, the mukbang trend has boomed globally, including in China, where the government recently cracked down on the practice under strict new food-waste laws.

Neo says those who binge daily, and do not have regular health checks, are more likely to find themselves in the danger zone.

"Some individuals have signs and symptoms of being unhealthy, such as shortage of breath, but they keep going and that can result in cardiac arrest," he says. "A cardiac arrest doesn't happen over a single day, or a single meal, but over a period of time, so if you go for regular health checks then problems can be detected."

While Neo has built a following in Singapore, some competitive eaters, such as Japan's Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi, have become world famous.

Known as "the godfather of competitive eating", Kobayashi is a six-time winner of the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest in the US state of New York.

In 2021, American Joey Chestnut set a world record when he chomped his way through 76 hot dogs and buns - that is about 22,800 calories - in 10 minutes. But just last week, Chestnut eclipsed that when Netflix dropped Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef, a live competitive-eating special, with Chestnut facing off against his rival Kobayashi.

Chestnut ate 83 hot dogs and buns, beating his own world record. Kobayashi downed 66 hot dogs.

Neo, who plans to compete in next year's Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest - "I hope to squeeze into the top six" - says his prime years are ahead of him.

"Most top eaters are aged in their 40s and 50s, so I don't intend to stop any time soon - definitely not in the next three years. I still enjoy competing, so I'll keep going."

When his gorging days are over, Neo wants to pivot into travel vlogging, "where I can sample different cuisines the world has to offer".

As for occupational hazards, Neo avoids raw foods - "it's like playing Russian roulette" - his lesson learned after a 400-oyster binge landed him in hospital.

While admitting to the occasional post-gorge vomit after "going beyond my threshold", inducing vomiting is not an option.

"When I was a dietitian, I dealt with people who are bulimic," he says of the potentially life-threatening eating disorder where people binge eat and then, often riddled with guilt, purge the food and extra calories by inducing vomiting. "It's very sad."

Today, Neo is proud of his "Singapore's top eater" title but admits he never thought eating would shape his career.

"I was a bit greedy growing up and always wanted that last slice of pizza, or the last slice of cake, but I never expected to become a professional eater.

"When I started my parents thought it was a phase, but now they are very supportive," he says. "But they worry that eating so much might damage the body, so my mum always buys me supplements."

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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