Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Seconds in it: Randy first to beat steak challenge
AN American YouTuber is the first person to complete a Tayside restaurant’s steakeating challenge – with three seconds to spare.
Randy Santel, 36, who calls himself a “professional eater”, has nearly 1.5 million followers, who tune in to watch him beat eating challenges across the globe.
Randy and partner Katina travelled to Perth to take on Nicoll’s Steakhouse’s 60oz rump steak challenge.
Those taking part in the challenge have one hour to eat the steak, four portions of chips, four corn on the cobs, four portions of mushrooms, tomatoes and a stack of onion rings – Randy completed the challenge in 59 minutes and 57 seconds.
Although starting off confidently, the huge meal started to take its toll, and he had to stand up to aid the food going down, and even requested a bucket towards the end as a precaution.
But with multiple refills of Diet Coke and bowls of peppercorn sauce brought out by the steakhouse’s owner Colin Nicoll, Randy swallowed the last batch of chips just before the one-hour mark struck.
Speaking after the challenge, he told The Courier: “Steak challenges can always depend on how the meat is cooked. Thankfully this one was cooked to perfection and I was able to get it down.
“The problem was the sides, there were far too many.
“It was a very tough challenge, but thankfully I had a full hour to complete it and now I’m done.”
Randy started participating in food challenges after winning $500 by eating a 28in pizza in St Louis.
He said: “A lot of the challenges are loosely based on what you see in America, as far as size is concerned.
“We’ve just spent over a month in Ireland where I did a lot of challenges that were just too big.
“You can’t do well having a big challenge, because not a lot of people are going to be able to complete them.
“It’s not good when I take the whole time to do a challenge, because no one will want to do it after me.
“My goal is to sell the challenge and make it look doable, and tonight I did the exact opposite. But I did my best and got the win, so I’m happy.”
Randy and Katina will take part in challenges in Glenrothes, Glasgow and Inverness during their time here, his sixth and possibly his last visit to the country.
He added: “I am not the young stallion I used to be.
“We do three or four challenges a week which is a lot.
“We digest our food and keep it all down and it’s hard on the body. We’re finishing this trip in the middle of September and the plan is to have a long break.”
A total of 11 people have tried and failed to complete the Nicoll’s challenge before Randy.
Restaurant boss Colin Nicoll said: “We were watching on from the bar and he looked so confident throughout it.
“There was a stage around the 40-minute mark where he had to compose himself but I thought he did brilliantly to become the first person to defeat our challenge.
“We’ve actually got two challenges booked in tonight.
“We set it up hoping to have people visit the restaurant and we look forward to welcoming more people who feel like they can complete the challenge.”