Trained dietician-turned-competitive eater Zermatt Neo has completed more than 2,000 food challenges in his hungry 12-year-long career
8 kilograms of lobster fried rice, 23 plates of char kway teow, 100 egg tarts, 15 servings of fish & chips, 10 whole rotisserie chickens, 200 plates of sushi.
In one sitting, Singapore’s competitor eater Zermatt Neo has consumed meals only reserved for the most fanatical and hungry lovers of food or that of lustful dreams concocted in one’s sleep.
In videos uploaded onto Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, he sports a slim, muscular frame and smiles throughout, leaving online commenters baffled as he scoffs down plates of food spanning the size of dining tables from his hometown and travels across Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Japan. He has a combined follower-base of nearly 10 million across all platforms.
“This career [in competitive eating] began because of a dare,” tells Zermatt. Following graduation from his degree in nutrition and dietetics in Sydney in 2014, the Singaporean foodie returned to the Lion City “very broke. The idea for free food sounded very fun and enticing to me.”
“My friend dared me to compete in a burger eating challenge at a restaurant; if you finish the burger in 20 minutes, you could get it for free. Not only did I finish the challenge, but I beat the record time by a huge margin. That’s when I realised I can actually eat a lot and pretty quickly as well.”
From late 2014, Zermatt launched his YouTube channel, uploading his successful competition wins in Singapore, competing for time not endurance. In video, he documented his feasting of 2 kilograms of curry rice in three minutes, 100 gyoza in nine minutes, a 7 pounds beast burger in eight minutes, and even competed with world’s ranked no. 1 eater Joey Chestnut in a challenge eating 200 satay sticks – he finished the challenge 10 minutes after his competitor.
In the dawn of his content career, Zermatt was still working as a fitness professional. “I was a full-time personal trainer and part-time dietician, before I went into competitive eating full-time.”
Understandably, Zermatt virtually completed all the commercially available eating challenges in Singapore. He then ventured on to create his own signature style of food challenges familiar with viewers today: multiple-kilogram portions filling a table, beating buffets, and polishing off multiple bowls or plates of food.
As mukbang culture erupted online in the late 2010s, amplifying pervasive over-consumption and taking YouTube by chokehold, the Singaporean made content creation his full-time gig and professionalised his set-up. He hired a producer and a small team to build his long-form storytelling, rather than short clips and even faster eating.
“My producer forced me to speak up more and verbalise what I am eating and share tasting notes. That is when the channel began to really pick up a lot of steam. People were able to understand the food, rather than just me wolfing the food down!”
“Our global following grew when we began to travel abroad and explore more street food, of course with gigantic portions. I became relatable because there is this guy eating 30 plates of local food – that’s impressive.”
The street food in destinations like Penang, Malaysia, a tourist town known for its fusion of Indian, Malaysian, and Chinese cuisines, and the Asia’s night market capital Taiwan are favourites of Zermatt’s.
Yet, Zermatt prefers not to call himself a ‘mukbanger’. “Mukbangers don’t finish the food they’re eating, they just interact with the camera. I compete in competitions and train my body as a competitive eater.”
Having completed upwards of 2,000 food challenges in his career, Zermatt is not immune to the mental and physical toll exacted with the consumption of copious, and sometimes life-threatening, amounts of food.
This is real work. “Mentally there isn’t much preparation [before eating]. People always assume that eating like this is very enjoyable. It’s really not that easy most of the time. There will be points where I go beyond the point of enjoyment very quickly and easily. I just have to push past this and accomplish a mission.”
Beyond the eating itself, Zermatt fasts 24 hours before and after a challenge, trains cardio to burn off thousands of calories, and spaces out each shoot three to four days before the next one to allow his body ample rest.
The content creator does not and feels he could not “burnout” in his niche. “The food scene in Singapore – and in Asia – is so diverse with a melting pot of cuisine, I don’t get sick of food.”
“It just comes down to having the mental fortitude to push through on my shoots.”
As a gastronomical patriot of Singapore with videos covering Chinese, Cantonese, Malay, Indonesian, Indian, Pakistani, and Western dining, Zermatt is ready to expand his horizons and widen his belt for content covering Indonesia and The Philippines, where his audiences number in the hundreds of thousands.
“I have never been to Jakarta before and only visited the Philippines when I was young so I definitely want to explore these two countries’ very strong street food scene. These regions have not been tapped yet [by competitive eaters].”
For now, food challenges further afield in Europe or North America can wait. “I am not even done with Asia, or even the whole of Southeast Asia. I have only been to Hong Kong once so I definitely want to come back to eat there.”
In his visit to Hong Kong in late summer 2024, Zermatt feasted on 100 sourdough egg tarts from Bakehouse, a 12 kilogram BBQ meat platter from Smoke & Barrel, a 7 kilogram char siu rice platter at Sun Kwai Heung, and a HKD2,000 order of dim sum from Lin Heung Lau.
Zermatt’s hunger for the next food challenge and destinations to deliver his novel form of online food journalism remains insatiable.
“I want to explore many new countries and tap into different demographics using the food they’re familiar with to tell stories.”
Follow Zermatt Neo today on Instagram or subscribe on YouTube to witness his food challenge prowess.
