The popular content creator shares with KrisWorld about his day jobs, his favourite foods, and what he likes most about Singapore.

Singaporeans love to eat. Singapore is, after all, known for her food — her diverse cuisines, affordable but tasty hawker fare, and plentiful restaurants and cafes. What if we could take this passion one step further and parlay it into a career? That’s exactly what Zermatt Neo, a prolific competitive eater and popular local YouTuber, has done. KrisWorld speaks to him about his unconventional career and the things he loves most about our island nation.

Hi Zermatt. Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do for a living. I am a competitive eater as well as a content creator. My work revolves around a lot of travel videos and food challenges. I do food challenges related to local food/street food/hawker food because those are the foods that people are able to relate to [most].

How did you get into competitive eating? My entire eating career started off from a dare. A gym buddy of mine dared me to take part in this eating contest and I came in first in the country, and that’s how I continued [competitive eating].

What’s the most you’ve eaten in a day? Just a couple of weeks ago, I did a ‘cheat day’ video in collaboration with GrabFood and that was pretty crazy. I gained close to 11kg from that day itself and I think that’s the most I have ever eaten in a day.

How do you stay in shape despite having to eat so much? People always assume that I eat like this every single day, but I don’t. After every video shoot I will take a couple of days off, and during those off days, I do a lot of cardio and heavy dieting to burn off the excess calories.

What are your favourite cuisines? Definitely hawker food, but cuisine-wise, it would be Korean, followed by Chinese and Indian cuisine. I don’t have a favourite in particular, but I do enjoy street food because there’s a rich story behind every street food.

You have a popular YouTube channel with thousands of views. What does it take to be a successful content creator in Singapore? It’s being relatable to your audience, and for me, it’s creating content with food that people can relate to. The videos that I take of food that people cannot relate to don’t usually do well. For example, pizza challenges or challenges that I do overseas, like in Japan. Challenges I do that relate to hawker food tend to resonate more with Singaporeans, and I get more views.

How did you end up collaborating with Annette Lee, another popular content creator, for the Adventure of the Day series? Annette and I met at the YouTube Fanfest. We chatted for a bit and decided to come up with a show together. Adventure of the Day is a series in which you see both of us getting out of our comfort zones and doing things that we don’t usually do. Annette doesn’t do much food content, and I focus a lot on food, but I don’t do much content that requires me to talk a lot or be adventurous.

Favourite local movie? I enjoy most of Jack Neo’s movies also because they are films that are relatable. I did enjoy Money No Enough 3, and so did my parents.

Watch Adventure of the Day with Annette Lee and Zermatt Neo on KrisWorld.