TikTok Chef Nick DiGiovanni Tells All About His Fast Food World Record - Exclusive
For the foodies of TikTok, Nick DiGiovanni is basically royalty. He's racked up more than 9 million followers on the platform, not to mention nearly 6.5 million YouTube subscribers and 1.4 million Instagram followers. The former "MasterChef" finalist keeps fans coming back for more with entertaining videos sharing his creative and snap-worthy recipes, trendy snack mashups, celebrity collaborations, and the other unique adventures DiGiovanni embarks on for the sake of good eats and great content.
DiGiovanni's most recent adventure was breaking a Guinness World Record with pal and fellow content creator, Cooking with Lynja — and it's not even their first. After securing the titles for the world's largest cake pop and the world's largest chicken nugget earlier this year, the duo decided to break the record for the most fast food restaurants visited in a single day. And according to DiGiovanni's Twitter, they managed to pull it off. But the better question is how did they do it?
Speaking exclusively with Tasting Table, DiGiovanni shared all the details behind the pair's epic fast food world record, including the mishap along the way that almost derailed their victory.
DiGiovanni visited dozens of fast food chains to break the record
In order to break the record, DiGiovanni and Lynja needed to visit at least 50 fast food locations in just one day. They decided to attempt the challenge in New York City to maximize their chance of success. "It was the only place we could really do it ... where you have that much congestion of fast food places all in one place." And their strategy worked: The two managed not only to break the record but knock it out of the park. "We ended up going to 69 [restaurants]. So it was a whole day. It was a lot of work," DiGiovanni explained.
Considering that not all of those restaurants are open 24 hours, that means the two really had to hustle. On top of that, they weren't allowed to use a car to help them. "Part of the rules, basically, is using public transit or getting around on foot," DiGiovanni shared. So by the end of it all, he said they "walked probably eight and a half miles or so," admitting that the entire process "turned out to be very physically demanding," but all in all, "so worth it."
It's not a world record attempt without a little adventure, says DiGiovanni
Of course, there's no way to tackle a challenge like this without something going wrong along the way. And DiGiovanni says there were definitely some moments where he worried they might not be able to reach their goal.
The TikToker recounted at some point during the day, "when [we were] feeling the best, because we had just hit five or six in the matter of a few minutes in this big shopping mall, and then [we were] going down to another floor that had even more and we're like, 'Oh, we got this in the bag. We're great.'" That is until they got stuck in a packed elevator. "All of a sudden this elevator stops and we were like, 'You gotta be kidding me. This is really, really bad."' As if that claustrophobic situation wasn't unpleasant enough, DiGiovanni says it got worse when "it got really hot in there and people started taking their clothes off. It was getting a little weird." Thankfully, DiGiovanni says they weren't stuck in there too long before the elevator started moving and they were able to carry on.
But he admits that it was a good lesson for them, sharing "I think we started getting too confident and then that was our wake-up call." You can see highlights from the day on DiGiovanni's YouTube channel, and keep your eyes peeled for the duo's next record attempt, which could be just around the corner. "We have so much fun doing them. People love watching them," DiGiovanni stated.
Catch Nick DiGiovanni on the fourth season of "Selena + Chef," now streaming on HBO Max.