Christopher Thomas is the national burger-eating champion. A Form Six Languages student at St Mary’s College, Thomas broke the burger-eating record of five minutes, 32 seconds by an almost 90-seconds margin when he consumed a “Mampee” hamburger at Irie Dawgz, Cross Crossing, San Fernando, on Wednesday night at the premier edition of Cravings, a new production of CNC3.
Thomas, who turned 17 yesterday, is a self-described Scrabble expert, is the son of Christopher, a teacher, and Sally Elliot-Thomas, a news editor at CNC3, of Diego Martin. His younger sister is Shamika Thomas, a student at St Joseph’s Convent in Port-of-Spain.
As a child growing up, young Thomas would eat his food without drinking anything. His mother quipped, “And he would eat his food very quickly.” Thomas chimed in, “Eating quickly wasn’t about the taste of the food. It’s just that everything I do I do quickly.”
According to his mother, “as a child, he loved playing so anything he did he did quickly to get back to playing.”
When CNC3 was about to begin the Cravings series and producers Nicholas Sabga and Khamal Georges were discussing the food-tasting trips they did nationwide and spoke about the Mampee burger, the biggest burger they had ever seen, they were bemused as to why a person would want to eat a hamburger that is so large. They were told that someone had actually eaten the 20-ounce monster of a burger in five and half minutes.
“I told them I am sure my son can break that record,” said Elliot-Thomas. “They told me to bring him to put him to the test. The rest is history.”
Young Thomas was taken to Irie Dawgz by Stacey Wyke and was introduced to the proprietors. He was challenged by three other competitors and then they got down to the serious business of eating a 20-ounce burger in less than five minutes.
So, what is Thomas’ secret in consuming a large bun and four stacked beef patties in record time? “The first thing I did was eat the top and bottom of the bun, all of it at the same time. Then I began eating the patties. My aim was to just get rid of those patties. The burger also had tortillas, lettuce, cheese and other stuff, but it tasted quite nice.”
Thomas was game to enter his next eating competition, a 24-slice pizza competition that was scheduled for last Thursday night at Pizza Boys, Maraval. But he added, “It’s all up to my mom.”
Thomas said he will not learn to cook although he enjoys eating. “Cooking takes too much time,” he said. “I rate my mother’s cooking ten out of ten, although there is nothing perfect in this world, but my mother’s food is perfect.”
Eating aside, Thomas’ hobbies include Scrabble, listening to music (Jazz Rap), writing poetry, and “studying words of foreign languages.” He added: “I also enjoy reading the dictionary due to the fact that I am a Scrabble player, I am able to learn the spelling of as many words as possible.” Thomas prides himself in being an “expert” player of Scrabble and hopes one day to become a Grandmaster in the game.
At St Mary’s, Thomas is currently doing French, Spanish, Literature in English and Communication Studies. About his ambition, he said: “I would really like to achieve as much as I can in Languages in the home of becoming a polyglot.”
• Look out for Cravings 8 pm every Wednesday on CNC3. Show repeats at 10 pm on Fridays and 7.30 pm on Sundays.
ABOUT CRAVINGS
Trinbagonians love to eat, from street food to fine dining—we crave all things food. Cravings is an exploration of the T&T food culture, taking you on a culinary journey to the most popular food spots across the country.
CNC3 will whet the appetites of Trinbagonians every week with an entirely new platter of local dishes served in every corner of the country.
Our hosts, Sean and Marie, will travel the length and breadth of T&T discovering the people behind some of the most popular local foods in the country and engage the very people that make it popular. They will also be offering interesting facts along the way.