Salva Mubarak Senior Features Writer

Over the years, we’ve seen some bizarre Guinness World Records, like that time a man jumped from nearly 200 ft to dunk a doughnut in a cup of coffee. If you thought you can start the new year without hearing about another strange record-breaking/making attempt, then you would be wrong.

Eric Finkelstein decided to set a new world record by eating at the most Michelin-starred restaurants in New York City. Why? Because he could, we guess.

Finkelstein told Guinness that he realised the value of the number of fine dining hotspots in NYC after relocating to another city during the pandemic. This renewed his interest in food opportunities around the city, leading him to a Discord group where he discovered the possibility of setting such a record.

“I loved the idea,” he said, “It combined my loves of eating interesting food, working towards a checklist, and working toward something silly.”

Breaking a record like this requires intense preparation and research. Finkelstein spent several months reaching out to Michelin-starred restaurants across the city to snag as many reservations as possible for a single day. The progress was slow and disappointing as he, initially, only heard back from 10 of them out of which four became ineligible after losing their Michelin stars.

Ultimately, he managed to get reservations at 18 restaurants for October 26, 2022, including Le Pavillion, Noda, Jungsik, Momofuku Ko, The Modern, Casa Mono, Francie, and Red Paper Clip.

The man spent nearly $500 (INR 42,000 approx) in his quest to set a new record and ate an 18-course meal over 11 hours.

This is, however, not his first time setting a Guinness World Record. Finkelstein is a competitive table tennis player and holds two world records: Longest table tennis serve and largest table tennis ball mosaic.

What do you think of this expensive (and delicious) new record?