Singapore — Local competitive eater Zermatt Neo has won the Monster Curry Level 100 10-Minute Monster Spicy Challenge in a staggering 52 seconds.
The challenge was to eat an entire plate of either chicken or pork katsu with a spice level of 100 in the shortest time.
The fastest time challenger also had the chance to win a 13-inch MacBook Pro.
On Tuesday (Aug 4), Monster Curry announced on its Facebook post that Mr Neo, 32, who finished his plate at the Jurong Point outlet in less than a minute, had won the overall challenge.
A report in Mothership shared that Mr Neo’s impressive 52-second round was not his first attempt to finish the plate. He had tried a total of 6 times, with results at 59.15 seconds at the Jem outlet, and 1 minute 42.50 seconds at the Suntec City outlet. These two records were also part of the restaurant’s Top 10 times so far.
Mr Neo said that his six different attempts were all made within four weeks because he did not want to lose as he “hates losing”.
He is a nutritionist, trainer and competitive eater, having competed in a number of eating competitions in Singapore and abroad.
According to Mr Neo, spice is his “kryptonite when it comes to competitive eating”. The only reason he decided to join the Monster Curry house challenge was because many people had asked him to do so. He had this to say about eating the Level 100 curry: “It’s like my entire esophagus was on fire, and I can literally feel like these needles in my belly.”
He also said: “It’s pretty brutal, can’t lie.”
However, as he is a competitive eater, at least one person felt that he “should not be given the prize as he is a professional speed/volume eater”.
Monster Curry explained that, since Mr Neo had said he “can’t really take spicy food”, his participation in the challenge was fair.
See the full video of Mr Neo’s Monster Curry challenge here. / TISG