A food challenge YouTuber recently became the first to complete the French Creek Pub’s Party Boat Platter solo.
Scott Watkins, better known as “Scott Eats”, powered down the platter’s three pieces of cod, three pieces of halibut, popcorn shrimp, shrimp skewers, calamari, lobster rolls, coleslaw, onion rings and fries, served with tartar sauce and cocktail sauce.
“It was an undefeated challenge before I did that,” said Watkins, who has been doing challenges for six years and has a short-term goal to hit 100,000 subscribers.
Often the party boat platter is ordered by groups, so when it’s taken on solo, it’s known as the “Fisherman’s Challenge”, according to pub owners Marc Portman and Santanna Portman.
The challenge originally had a time limit of 30 minutes, but after numerous unsuccessful attempts, the pub raised the time limit to 40 minutes, with the meal free as a reward.
Watkins finished the platter in only 17 minutes, and decided to polish off a rather large dessert as well.
“Not only did he finish that, but we have a new menu item from our Ice Cream Parlour called “The Firework” and it features 10 scoops of ice cream, whipped cream, sprinkles, cherries, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, strawberry sauce and is topped with a rainbow slice of cake and a sparkling firework. He finished that for dessert,” the pub owners told the PQB News in an email.
This was the Kelowna-based Watkins’ second time in Parksville, and he previously defeated Extreme Eatery’s 12-pound Goliath Burger and poutine challenge in 2023.
Before creating his own channel, he finished some food challenges for a free meal and a T-shirt, before going down “a YouTube rabbit hole” watching others conquer mountains of food.
Watkins has done approximately 270 challenges over the past six years, and one of his biggest accomplishments so far was to chow down a 15-pound burrito in 30 minutes. He felt “rough” after that one and said he prefers to do his challenges earlier in the day so he has time to walk off that feeling and drink lots of liquid to recover as best he can.
His recalled his spiciest challenge was a taco contest in Las Vegas, after which he chugged more than a gallon of water and a milk shake.
“It wasn’t good. Let’s put it that way,” he added. “I wouldn’t do it again.”
His main method of training is to follow his regular lunch immediately with a gallon of electrolyte water.
“That’s how I train six days a week and then on day seven I’ll max out at a buffet, like an all you can eat,” Watkins said.
He also considers each challenge as training, and pushes himself to eat more and more at buffets to increase his capacity.
As for his tips for others to improve their ability to scarf down pounds and pounds of food on a timer?
“I would say don’t do it, that’s number one,” he said with a laugh, and then added to practise and keep safety in mind by having a second person present, just in case.
As of Sept. 8, his video at the French Creek Pub has not been released, but readers can check out his channel at youtube.com/@scotteats/videos.
Dining and Cooking