Some competitive eaters came to Finchley last week to eat loads of roast lamb, Luc Gauci Green went along to find out more

Three met sitting at a table eating a large amount of roast lamb. — The Youtubers tuck in – (Credit – Luc Gauci Green)

Have you ever watched three blokes eat a whole roast lamb in an hour? Me neither before last week.

The life of a journalist is never boring. One week I am interviewing members of Finchley’s Iranian diaspora as they celebrate the death of Ayatollah Khamenei, the next I am watching feats of athletic prowess that I never imagined possible or even imagined full stop.

On Wednesday 11^th March, Goda Restaurant on Ballards Lane hosted something truly impressive: three competitive eaters versus a whole roast lamb plus sides. This is around 15 kilograms of food, usually served for groups of ten-twelve people and, not just that; they must eat it in one hour.

Goda is a place I’ve been to once – it was fantastic – and ever since then I have dreamed of going back, all the more so as they tantalise me with their daily array of spit-roasted meats every time I walk past.

Apprehensive and a little bit peckish, I walk into Goda and I’m hit with two things: the aroma of a whole roasted lamb that has been turned over for 5 hours on a spit and, two YouTubers, Max of Max vs. Food and Nick of Lifting Weights Cleaning Plates, running around manically, filming about ten versions of their intro. This is it; I am stepping behind the curtain of competitive eating YouTube.

In truth they are very welcoming and ask me if I need anything. Then they quickly scurry off to film some content outside and across the road. I sit down and look around the restaurant which is empty for the purposes of this momentous occasion, except, of course, the tripods and cameras set up pointing at the table numbering into the tens.

The third YouTuber, Franco, of Franco’s Feasts, arrives in a much more relaxed fashion (he does have a videographer to help him). He laughs and shakes his head as he watches the others shoot their videos outside, almost as if he can’t believe that this is their life as relatively successful YouTubers with sizeable followings.

In all the hubbub and preparation for the main event, I managed to get a few minutes with each to ask them some questions. Max is currently the number one competitive eater in the UK and number eight globally. He has over 88,000 subscribers on YouTube as well as having Instagram and Facebook accounts under the name Max vs Food. While Franco and Nick have been competitive eaters for about 2 years, running social media channels with around nine thousand subscribers each.

All three are big on maintaining a healthy relationship to food and their body, despite the size of the meals they eat. They all go to the gym almost daily (Nick used to be a competitive bodybuilder) and food challenges are coupled with low calorie meals on either side of it.

Max puts it simply, “It’s all about calories in and calories out.” He acknowledges, “The easy part is the eating but to be honest the work that goes into it, before and afterwards, is pretty insane”, usually eating 1,000-1,500 calories a day outside of his one to two weekly challenges; walking about 20,000 steps a day; going to the gym for one or two hours a day and, in the case of this challenge, fasting for the past 34 hours.

Franco spoke a little of his preparation for the challenge, such as “eating large quantities of low-calorie food, like a copious amount of vegetables”.

He added: “We do that in the 48 hours before the challenge and the night before we drink large quantities of water and so that also helps expand the stomach. There are various techniques, but we don’t necessarily recommend people to do that if they don’t have the experience.”

Nick also provided some sage advice “You’ve got to get hungry. You’ve got to come hungry and the rest will take care of itself.”

The reasons why they eat competitively were similar: they all have big appetites, love food and just seemed to fall into it, watching their popularity and channels grow. The key thing is entertainment and connection.

They don’t shy away from the weirdness of eating huge amounts of food on camera and the loyal followers who watch it. When asked why people keep coming back, Nick joked, “I don’t know, I think there’s something equally as wrong with them as there probably is with us. But luckily people do want to watch us so we’re going to keep making it.”

Franco said, “It gives people the opportunity to not only see what the human body can do but also people want to go to the restaurants… In some ways it’s a bit of a food review and a food challenge all in one.”

Max: “I love watching it as well, I’m massively into the community. I think it showcases pretty crazy food. It’s really lovely to see the different types of food. I think it just brings people together.”

I also asked them about the wider impact and issues with doing challenges involving huge amounts of food and usually meat. It’s fair to say the responses were mixed.

Max told me about the charity work he does and the donations he gives to charities and food banks if he wins anything. He also wants to raise awareness about having a healthy relationship with food: “You can have a cheat meal. You can eat quite crazy food – maybe not as crazy as me – but kind of crazy food and you can do it within a healthy lifestyle.” He also sees it as a break for people “from the monotony and the crazy things going on in the world”.

Franco said: “I think we are conscious of what’s happening in the wider environment. We do get individuals who comment about people in certain countries. We appreciate there are wider implications but that’s for a different time and we could potentially have a wider discussion.”

The initial start time was 4pm, delayed to 4:45pm as the YouTubers took close up shot after close up shot and thumbnail after thumbnail. After watching this for 45 minutes, I started to worry that I’d never get out of there and that the lamb after all the hours of preparation would be cold.

Eventually they began, shovelling mouthfuls of meat cave-man style into their mouths. It was like a factory line production as their hands kept a steady stream of lamb to the mouth area regardless of whether the previous mouthful had been finished. They were so intently focused on the lamb that they had to be reminded of the sauces to go with it.

The thing I didn’t expect was the silence – quite obvious when you think about it – of watching people eat. The real-life experience doesn’t come with their customary voiceovers, which I have to say does add a lot. Despite this, the event actually flew by. The speed at which they could eat was truly impressive and hard to fathom.

On the whole they are kind and likeable. Just normal blokes who like to keep fit and happen to have huge appetites. They were polite and complimentary of the food and staff throughout the occasion, not just when the cameras were on. They truly appreciate good food and get really excited about trying new things and I think that’s a big part of the appeal. They like how it brings them to try and showcase new restaurants while bringing people together.

“Did they finish it?” I hear you ask. Well, that remains to be seen. Keep an eye out for their videos.

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