An American YouTuber has become the first person to complete a Perth restaurant’s mammoth steak-eating challenge – with three seconds to spare.
Randy Santel, 36, who calls himself a “professional eater”, has nearly 1.5 million followers on the social media site.
Fans tune in to watch him conquer a variety of eating challenges from across the globe, including an 8kg burger and the “world’s biggest breakfast”.
Randy – accompanied by partner Katina, who also participates in food challenges – has now travelled to Perth to take on Nicoll’s Steakhouse’s 60oz rump steak challenge, as part of a tour of the country.
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.
With guests of the restaurant cheering him on, Randy managed to complete the challenge in 59 minutes and 57 seconds.
Although starting off confidently, the huge meal started to take its toll on Randy, from Missouri.
‘There were too many sides’
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, Randy 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 almost seemed like there was an equal amount of weight in the sides as there was with the steak.
“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 28” pizza in St Louis.
But he says venues on this side of the Atlantic often go even bigger than their US counterparts.
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 are set to take part in challenges in Glenrothes, Glasgow and Inverness during their time in Scotland.
But he says his sixth visit to the country may be his last.
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.”
11 failed attempts at Nicoll’s steak challenge
A total of 11 people have tried and failed to complete the Nicoll’s challenge before Randy.
Restaurant boss Colin 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.”
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