Competitive Eater Takes on Cool Hand Luke-esque 50 Hard-Boiled Eggs Challenge

A competitive eater based in New Zealand chomped down 50 hard-boiled eggs in just over 35 minutes, footage shared to YouTube on January 10 shows.

Auckland-based Nela Zisser can often be found making her way through outrageous food challenges.

This particular feat will be familiar to anyone who has seen the Paul Newman classic Cool Hand Luke, when the legendary actor played a prison inmate who wins a bet that he can eat 50 hard-boiled eggs in an hour.

Zisser does however have some dip and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Vanilla to help her tackle the protein-filled challenge, finishing up in an impressive time of 35 minutes and 34 seconds.

During the challenge, she describes the feat as “torturous” adding that the difficulty involved cemented her opinion that competitive eating is “an extreme sport”.

Zisser’s YouTube account chronicles such food feats as wolfing down 10 Burger King Whoppers in 17 minutes, devouring a 1-kg burrito in just under 100 seconds, and consuming a 2.2-pound jar of Nutella in under four minutes. Credit: Nela Zisser via Storyful

Video Transcript

NELLY: Hey, guys. It's Nelly here today. I've got an epic challenge in front of me. I'm going to be taking on 50 hard-boiled eggs. Now, each of these eggs are a size 8, and they've got about, I think, 80 calories per egg. So that's a total of 4,000 calories, and also 300 grams of protein, which is a lot of protein.

And then I've also got some sauces and stuff to dip them. So I've got some truffle mayo right here just to keep things a bit interesting because I don't want to get flavor fatigue because that is a lot of eggs. And I've also got some vinegar right here, some salt as well, and some pepper, and then also a little bit of balsamic glaze as well.

So I'm just going to be using that to dip the eggs into just so they don't get a bit gross. I feel like eating 50 hard-boiled eggs, like, it's going to get gross at some point. So yeah, I've got my timer over there. I'm going to be doing this as quickly as I can, and I've got my trusty Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Vanilla right here. So yeah, I'm very excited. So let's get into the challenge.

All right, so I'm going to tie my hair back because I don't want to get my hair in the eggs or any of the sauces. OK. Well, before we start as well. Whoo. Are be ready for this? All right, cheers, guys. And 3, 2, 1, and go. Mmm. A little bit of salt.

Oh, these are dense. Oh my God. I can feel the 300 grams of protein in all this. It's so dense.

[BURPING]

Pardon me. Put a little bit of pepper on this one. A little bit of salt. Mmm. That's good. Try some of the dip here. Oh yeah, that is good. Bring this around here. Try the mayo. Oh, the yolk is just so thick. Oh my God. I love truffle mayo. Mmm. 10 out of 10, truffle mayo.

[LAUGHTER] Oopsy-daisy. I can just go on the other eggs. That would have been very peppery. Try the balsamic vinegar. Oh my God, that's sweet. I think my favorite was either the vinegar or the truffle mayo. But there's something quite nice about just an egg with salt and pepper as well. I'm already at 3 minutes. This is way harder than I thought it'd be. Oh my God.

I'm very glad that I grabbed other stuff to dip it into. Because, otherwise, I would definitely have flavor fatigue by now.

[SIRENS]

There's so many sirens living in the city.

[SIRENS]

Oh God. Oh my God. I'm already so full. This is crazy because I don't really feel like I've even eaten that many. I should have counted them as I was eating them. Oh my God. My stomach was already just feeling like insanely full. Woo.

[BURPING]

Oh, pardon me.

[SIRENS]

This one's really jelly-like. I think some got cooked more than the others. Typically, I'm not a huge fan of hard-boiled eggs. I prefer a soft-boiled egg, but soft-boiled is definitely easier to eat. Hard-boiled is very difficult. Oh my God. Little bit of stuff on the membrane. The real challenge was peeling all of these.

Oh man. This challenge is so much harder than it looks, man. So much harder. I've seen other people do it before. I was like, eh, how hard can eggs be? Apparently quite hard. Oh man. All right, 10 minutes now. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

[COUNTING]

I've just gotten through about half of them. I think I counted 25. Oh my God. How is this so difficult? Trying not to drink too much Coke so I won't full myself up. I'm already feeling so full. Oh my God. Finding so many pieces of membrane. Mmm. Oh man.

[BURPING]

Pardon me. Oh, this one's got membrane on it. Too hard to peel off. I'll just eat it.

[BURPING]

Oh, this is insane. Comment down below and tell me the most hard-boiled eggs you've ever eaten, or any kind of egg. Also, if you want me to-- if you want to see me do 50 fried eggs, I reckon that could be a fun challenge. I bet it would taste better. I very much like fried eggs.

I think poached would be a bit disgusting. Even 50 poached eggs. I'd probably get sick of them by the end. Not that I'm not getting sick of these, but I think fried eggs would definitely be the tastiest. We already did the 50 scrambled egg challenge. If you haven't seen that already, check it out. I'll check the link down the description. That was a good challenge. I remember it tasting real nice in the beginning. So that made it really good with chives and stuff. So good.

Then by the end of it, I was like I'm never eating the egg again. But here we are. I'm eating more eggs. This one's got a hall membrane on it. Oh my God. Oh, do we get it? Do we get it? Yeah, we got it. That one's open. Yolk. It's like it's glued on. It's nuts. Well, we're just going to eat it.

[BURPING]

But yeah, if you haven't checked out the scrambled video yet, do it. It's a good challenge. At least we're kind of on the bottom layer now almost. We got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. I feel like my pace has picked up a tiny bit. Another good one would be deviled eggs. I absolutely love a good deviled egg.

[BLOWING NOSE]

Oh, sorry about that. I'm not even sick. I don't know why it's running. Maybe it's the eggs. So close. I'm tired, man. I need a nap.

Make it a little bit more palatable. 19 minutes, 30. Oh my God.

[HUMMING]

Oh. Ew. All these membranes are stuck to this. It's insane. You think you get it, and it pulls up a little bit.

[BURPING]

Pardon me. It breaks.

[BURPING]

So close. This membrane is just so unfortunate. It ruins the texture of the egg. Just stuck on there. Like, it's so stuck. Oh, the thing stopped recording. Oh man. As I was saying, it ruins the texture of the egg. It makes it taste disgusting. So I have to put up with it. This is not coming off. If you need tips on how to cook eggs without getting them-- without having the membrane stick to them, let me know, please. Ew.

Oh, man. This is torturous. I wonder how weight this is. I didn't really work it out. How many grams is an egg? I just don't want to eat these membranes. They're so gross.

I never had eggs that were this difficult. Maybe they just weren't very fresh when I bought them. So strange. You can do it. You can do it. To anyone who thinks eating isn't an extreme sport, I reckon competitive eating is totally an extreme sport. It takes a lot of mental stamina. Oh man. Oh. My gut is just like, ugh. I'll show you guys afterwards, but it's atrocious right now.

It's weird because the ones on top definitely weren't this bad. The ones on the bottom are so much worse. That's good. That wasn't too terrible. 5 eggs left. God, this is an awful challenge. This is harder than the scrambled eggs from memory. I need to rewatch the video.

You got to finish, though. I will not quit. So close. Lost part of it. That one's been a bit hard. Down it goes. These are crap eggs. Typically, I buy eggs in cartons. These were in, like, trays. Maybe that's why they're so shit.

I don't want to lose anything. Oh man. 29 minutes. Ew. Shell. Ew. That was the first piece of shell that I got, though. Ew. Swallow it. I hate the way a shell feels against your teeth. It's like nails on a chalkboard. Why is it stuck so much? Ooh. A little bit off there.

I had the weirdest dream last night. I've been watching "Alice and Borderland" on Netflix. It's really good if you haven't seen it. Watch it. It's like a more ominous version of "Squid Game." It's really, really good. It's like a Japanese thriller drama-type show where they've got to, like, compete in games.

I had a dream I was in one of the games. It was so weird. But now I can't remember what the game was. I just remember waking up and being like, wow, that was a weird dream. I got to start writing my dreams down. But yeah. If you haven't seen "Alice and Borderland," I highly recommend it. It's one of my favorite shows I've watched lately.

[BURPING]

Oh, pardon me.

[BURPING]

Whoa. A little bit of shell. Got it, though.

[HUMMING]

32 minutes. I'm getting so low. Last two, baby. Last two. I wonder what the most eggs anyone's ever eaten in one sitting. They look so small and delicate. And like, oh yeah, that looks easy. But then actually, they're really dense and difficult. Ew. I don't know if I'll ever be able to eat a hard-boiled egg again after this. I'm just so-- they've given me ick, well and truly. Ugh.

Oh God. OK, last egg. Last eg. Give it a little bit of truffle may. Mmm. Oh my God. It's also putting me off truffle mayo, which is weird because I flipping love truffle mayo. OK, last bite. I'd wipe my hands, but they're covered in like egg membrane. So. Oh my God.

35 minutes and 34 seconds. 50 flipping hard-boiled eggs. Never again. Never get in my life am I going to eat a hard-boiled egg, let alone 50. That was absolutely disgusting. I need to go rewatch that scrambled egg video because I remember it tasting really nice, and then I think maybe towards the end I got really sick.

But yeah, even in the beginning this was kind of ugh. I don't like hard-boiled eggs. Like, one or two hard-boiled eggs? Delicious. Lovely little snack. Pair it with some chicken breast, you know? A little bit of broccoli, delicious. But this was ew. Ew. Ew. Ew.

[BURPING]

But yeah, I was eating 300 grams of protein. So I'm going to get huge after this. I'm going to be big and strong. Yeah, ew. I need to wash my hands. But yeah, I love you guys so, so much. Thank you for tuning in and watching the video. I hope you enjoyed the challenge. If you haven't already, please go check out my links. It'll be down below in the description. So go check that out.

I designed it all myself. It's on Champion clothing, so you know it's the best quality, and I've got some myself and it's lasted me so long, and it's so cozy and comfy. So yeah, go check that out. And yeah, I am going to go wash my hands and I am going to have a nap. And then I'm never going to eat another hard-boiled egg in my life. So yeah, love you guys so, so much and I'll see you next time. Oh my God.

[BURPING]

Oh, that's crazy. My stomach was flat before this. It was dead flat. Like, my stomach went like this. And now it's like this. Oh my God. Oh, I'm dead.