A top competitive eater has smashed one of the UK's biggest breakfast challenges - eating 8,000 calories in just eight minutes. Leah Shutkever - who claims to hold a staggering 27 Guinness World Records - took on the task made up of five eggs, five sausages, five rashers of bacon, five tomatoes, five hash browns and five black puddings.
And it is also served with five pieces of toast, five portions of beans and five portions of mushrooms. Leah, a professional competitive eater, ate the breakfast in just eight minutes and two seconds. This beat the café's previous record of 12 minutes and 50 seconds, which was set just two weeks prior.
Leah, who is also a YouTuber, said: "The previous record was so good it made me nervous! I really wanted to beat it. It was a difficult challenge for the time scale that I had to eat it in - it was a huge bowl and there were a lot of beans."
But this epic breakfast was no match for Leah, who admitted: "It certainly wasn't the biggest I've done - but it was challenging. I once did a 41 piece mega breakfast that was absolutely enormous - but it's all part of the job."
Aly Clifton, owner of the Bicester Bean, said: "I'm still in shock! I was absolutely blown away with how slim she is, how she made it look so easy and how lovely she is. I only said a few weeks ago that Jack's time would take some beating and I can’t see anyone doing it myself. But here we are. Talk about girl power.
"She the only girl to ever attempt our beast of a breakfast challenge and totally smashed it becoming top of the leader board. I don’t think anyone could ever beat Leah’s time of 8 minutes and 2 seconds. Amazing is an understatement."
Leah claims she already holds an impressive 27 Guinness World Records. These range from the most chicken nuggets consumed in one minute to most marshmallows eaten in one minute - without using hands.
Surprisingly, Leah says she still exercises everyday and has been working full-time as a professional competitive eater for two years. espite the niche profession, Leah says she "lives a very normal life", having studied architecture at university and worked as a commercial interior designer.
She says she fell into this line of work unexpectedly back in 2013. "I've always been into fitness", she said. "There was a time when my brother and I were working out a lot, and we would have a cheat meal once a week.
"My brother would be doing these crazy eating challenges every week, and he would come back home all glum saying he had failed - every time. I just remember being absolutely baffled - we are known for being big eaters in our family.
"So, I decided to try one of the challenges he couldn't complete - a massive dessert challenge - and I set a ridiculous record of six minutes. The challenge had been undefeated until I did it and I can assure you I was as surprised as everyone else."
Leah explained that as soon as she got the taste for the eating challenges, she felt herself drawn to the lifestyle. She said: "It's been a long old while since my first challenge of me trying to avoid this becoming my job.
"It was actually the Covid-19 lockdowns that gave me the perfect opportunity to quit everything else and focus on social media and eating challenges - and see if it floats. It worked out for the better I can say, I love it."
The Bicester Bean breakfast costs £25, including £5 donated to a local cancer charity, but if the challenger can finish the meal within 45 minutes they eat for free.
You can follow Leah's crazy eating challenges here: https://www.youtube.com/c/LeahShutkever
