Competitive eater Zermatt Neo says it's an achievement to be blacklisted at buffets

Because of the sheer volume of food that competitive eaters can consume in one sitting, one would assume that they get blacklisted by all-you-can-eat restaurants pretty often. 

However, that isn't actually the case. In a YouTube video posted on May 13 by You Got Watch, Singapore's top competitive eater Zerrmatt Neo debunked some of the assumptions people have of him and other competitive eaters. And no, he hasn't been banned from a buffet — not yet anyway. 

The 35-year-old got into the world of competitive eating back when he and his friends joined a random food challenge and that was when he realised he had the stomach for such events. 

"Not only did I finish, I beat the house record by a huge margin," he said with a laugh. 

From getting sick of food after 10 minutes to being fine eating a tarantula, here are some tidbits about Zermatt. 

He thinks it's an achievement to be blacklisted by buffet restaurants 

Few people would be proud of themselves if they were to be blacklisted by a restaurant but not Zermatt. 

"I would say that is an achievement," he shared with a grin. 

He explained that it's actually very hard to receive a ban because of over-eating and if an individual ever manages to achieve such a feat, they're "really something". 

"It's very difficult for a normal human to try and beat the buffet," he said, elaborating that buffets are usually structured in a way where it's hard to beat the system. 

"Hopefully, there will be a day that I eat so much and they chase me out," he said cheekily. 

And while some may assume Zermatt goes absolutely ham during a buffet, he surprisingly does otherwise.

"Usually when I go to a buffet, I don't go for the food challenge kind of volume, unless I'm doing a video and specifically, I want to destroy this buffet." 

He usually gets sick of what he's eating after 10 minutes

Zermatt shared that some people have told him they feel "sick" after watching him down food and funnily enough, he gets a little tired of the food himself after a while. 

"Usually, I only enjoy the food for the first 10 minutes. After a while, you get sick of it very quickly," he admitted. 

There are some exceptions, such as hawker food, and he explained that it's because there is plenty more variety and he gets to "switch around the flavours". 

However, for actual eating challenges, Zermatt usually has to "go fast" before he stops enjoying the food. 

"There's something called flavour fatigue or taste fatigue, this thing will kick in. It's very repetitive and it'll hit you," he explained. 

He needs a few days to recover after a huge meal

There is the assumption that Zermatt has a much bigger appetite than most people, considering how much he eats. However, he clarified that this isn't the case and in fact, it is the "complete opposite". 

"I can eat but my appetite is not bigger than a normal human," he said, adding that he typically eats about 1kg to 2kg of food for dinner, which consists mostly of steamed vegetables. 

He attributes his abilities to his stomach, which he said is more elastic than the usual person's. 

Zermatt also debunked the myth that he eats high volumes of food every single day.

"I need days to diet and burn off all the excess calories and then take some time to rest before I can film another video," he explained. 

He wouldn't mind eating insects and tarantulas

Zermatt isn't just enthusiastic about eating a lot of food in one sitting; he is also "pretty adventurous" when it comes to trying different kinds of food. 

In fact, he is even keen on the idea of eating critters like tarantulas and grasshoppers and would gladly do so if there was the opportunity in Singapore. 

However, he admitted that chowing down on such creatures comes with its risks and said that a while back, some people died while participating in a cockroach-eating contest. 

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melissateo@asiaone.com