‘I’M A COMPETITIVE EATING CHAMPION!’
MIMI MAKES MONEY OUT OF HER MONSTROUS APPETITE
Looking at Mimi Zhang’s svelte, sizeeight figure, you would never guess she can devour 15,000 calories in one sitting. It’s hard to believe she can polish off a 4kg bowl of Vietnamese pho in seven minutes or 32 pancakes, more than 4.5kg worth, in an hour.
But this is just small fodder for the 154cm-tall fitness instructor, who is the top-ranked female competitive eater in Australia.
Mimi, who calls herself ‘The Mini Monster’ on Instagram, says she was born with a mammoth appetite. But she never considered eating for Australia until she accidentally stumbled across a pancakeeating competition in 2019.
“I’d just finished lunch and was craving dessert when I saw a poster for a pancake-eating competition and thought, ‘Why not?’” the 34-year-old tells New Idea.
“I ate 18 comfortably in one
hour and won second place. The winner was a professional competitive eater, and he was quite shocked and encouraged me to start competing. Now, I’m the national record holder of that pancake competition.”
After that, Queenslander Mimi was hooked and, just two weeks later, she not only smashed the female record for hot dog eating in Australia, she doubled it – wolfing down 16 hot dogs in just 10 minutes!
She has since chewed her way through more than 100 eating competitions around the world, breaking dozens of records, and built a successful Instagram following in the process. But it’s Mimi’s tiny frame that makes her stand out from her fellow ‘Mouthletes’, especially when she is taking on men triple her size. “I’ve had a huge appetite since I was a child,” Mimi, who also works as a professional photographer and makeup artist, recalls. “I remember I’d often hear people say to my mum, ‘This girl doesn’t eat like a girl,’ but she always supported me to be myself. A lot of the competitors I come across cannot believe I can eat so much and always ask me where I put the food.” While Mimi, who moved to Australia from China 10 years ago, has never committed the ultimate sin of throwing up after a competition, she admits she did come close after drinking two 2.5-litre buckets of milkshake in less than 10 minutes.
When she does start feeling sick, lethargic and sweaty after a competition, Mimi says the secret to her success is a good sleep.
Although her appetite can get the better of her, Mimi says the secret to her slender frame is following a highprotein
‘I’VE HAD A HUGE APPETITE SINCE I WAS A CHILD’
diet and doing plenty of exercise.
“On my noncompetitive days I try to stick to a highprotein, healthy, wholefood diet,” she explains. “I also try my best to train six days a week and I do a lot of strength training.
“But not all the time because my boyfriend, Richard, is a big eater too and buffet restaurants are our absolute favourite.”
Mimi has no plans to slow down on the competitive eating scene and hopes to one day become the world number-one female mouthlete.
“I’ve always loved my food and I’ve always been a competitive person,” she adds. “Competitive eating combines the two perfectly! I think it should be an Olympic sport.”