Leeds-born competitive eater Adam Moran, better known to his six million YouTube subscribers as BeardMeatsFood, has demolished a decade-old restaurant record in Milan, finishing a brutal rib and beer challenge in a little over half the allotted time.
Moran, the UK’s top-ranked competitive eater and a former banker turned full-time YouTuber, travelled to Ribs and Beer, reportedly Milan’s first barbecue restaurant, to take on a challenge that has stood on the venue’s menu for 12 years.
Before starting, he clocked the restaurant’s Wall of Fame and the standing record holder, joking on camera that the previous champion sounded like he ought to be an intimidating sumo wrestler — small, like him, smaller than him, even.
The challenge itself is no small undertaking: two full racks of ribs, 24 in total, a portion each of coleslaw, chips and baked beans, and a litre of beer, all to be finished inside 24 minutes or face an €80 bill. Moran worked through the ribs at pace early on, before turning to the sides, where he found the baked beans the toughest part of the plate.
He powered through the beer as the clock ran down, crossing the finish line in 13 minutes and 1 second — comfortably inside the time limit, and enough to set a new restaurant record, beating a time that had stood for ten years.
Afterwards, Moran said the ribs had started out stiff but grew genuinely tender the further into the rack he went, rating them among the best he’d had on the trip. He treated himself to a slice of cheesecake off the dessert menu to celebrate — a great cheesecake, by his account — before the restaurant presented him with a winner’s prize: a hot pink T-shirt, a colour he said was a personal favourite, comparing it to a pair of football boots he once owned and ranking it among the best pieces of merchandise he’s picked up from a challenge.
The video, titled “I Went To Milan To Try Break A 10 Year Rib Eating Record!”, had racked up more than 5.4 million views within days of going live on Moran’s channel — part of a back catalogue that’s made him the most recognised competitive eater in the UK and, by some rankings, across Europe.
