Revenge is a dish best served cold, or sometimes, not at all.
Back in 2012, our reporter Mr Sato took the Internet by storm when he attempted to devour a Whopper containing 1,000 slices that he specially ordered from Burger King.
Now, over a decade later, his past triumph is still making news, with Mr Sato having recently discovered a photo of himself with the epic burger had been used in a French photo book without his permission.
While he couldn’t forgive the maker of the book for using his image without consent, there was another person he couldn’t forgive.
▼ Himself.
Looking at the photo again reminded him of how young and careless he’d been, not only with his food choices, but with the presentation, because now what annoyed him most about the image was…
▼ …the sloppy looking tilt in that tower of cheese.
The combination of non-consensual image use, and the image itself, left him mad with a desire for vengeance, so the last time we saw him, he’d run out of the office to seek his revenge.
As is often the case with Mr Sato’s escapades, what he had planned remained a mystery until he finally returned a few days later, peeking from behind the office door to check the coast was clear.
Bounding in, we saw he had a bag from Burger King in his right hand, and a large cooler bag slung over his left shoulder.
▼ “I bought a burger and cheese! I’m gonna make a Whopper with 1,0006 slices of cheeeeeeeeese!”
This was six slices more than his previous Whopper with Cheese challenge, and the weight of it was so heavy he felt like a sumo wrestler in the ring. Keen to begin the battle, he doled out a couple of sumo moves while calling out “dosukoi!” as wrestlers tend to do.
▼ “Dosukoi! Dosukoi!”
▼ “Dosukoi! Dosukoi!”
▼ “Dosukoi! Dosukoi! Dosukoi! Dosukooooiiiiii!”
Mr Sato was a man on a mission, so we ducked out of the way just before he had a chance to bowl us over with his fists…and his bag of cheese.
After he unpacked his bag, we gawped in amazement at just how much dairy he’d been carrying. These days, an extra slice of cheese at Burger King costs 50 yen (US$0.34) so 1,000 slices would cost 50,000 yen (US$340), which is way more than we can afford in the current financial climate, so he’d purchased cheese from three different retailers to save money.
The breakdown was as follows: 23 x 20-slice cheese packs (460 slices in total) from cheap wholesale supermarket chain Gyomu Super, 26 x 14-slice packs (504 slices total) from Amazon Japan, and 6 x 7-slice packs (42 slices total) from Seiyu.
▼ The total amount came to 22,601 yen ($152.81) for 1,006 slices of cheddar cheese.
What was once a mad and vengeful countenance was now a happy and smiley one, given Mr Sato had saved 27,399 yen.
As for weight, this collection of cheese weighed in at 14,483 grams (511 ounces), or approximately 1.45 kilos. It had already been an effort to procure the cheese and carry it all in, but now it was time for the biggest challenge of all — stacking 1,005 slices of cheese into the burger.
1,005 slices of his own plus the one already inside the burger amounts to 1,006 slices, a goal that would beat a number of his past food challenges (yes, he did once order a Whopper with 105 bacon strips).
▼ Look at this face of determination!
Having thought this challenge through over several days, Mr Sato was ready to implement what he’d envisioned, starting with the bottom bun as the foundation upon which all slices would stand upon.
Keen to make the tower as straight as possible, he prepared a corner of the room, covering the walls with plastic sheeting so he could use them as support, and placing the bun on a clean chopping board for good hygiene.
▼ Placing one slice of cheese on the bun, Mr Sato was off to a good start.
Unwrapping each slice of cheese would prove to be an arduous task, but after making his way through the largest pack, from Gyomu Super, he’d discovered an important technique.
Rather than laying each slice directly on top of each other, it was better to alternate their positions for more stability.
He also realised he’d be here all day if he didn’t ask for some help, so he enlisted colleague Mai, who at first tried to suggest someone else might be better suited to the job before resigning herself to the task.
She kindly gave in to his pleas for her to remove the film from the cheese and place them on a plate, although we could almost hear her whispering…
▼ …“Why me?”
She soon brightened up after seeing the smile on this cheeky chappy’s face when he finished stacking two packs, or 40 slices of cheese.
Stacking cheese this perfectly requires Zen-like concentration, and so the two of them worked in silence until…
▼…he reached 100 slices.
As the ruler above indicates, 100 slices came to around 21 centimetres (8.3 inches) in height, so ten times that would be over two metres. Felling a little nervous, and noticing the tower had begun to lean, he decided to change his technique, stacking them up on one side to stabilise them.
Now, two hours into the task, he had 200 slices stacked, and they were around 38 centimetres in height. At this rate, he was worried he might be here for another ten hours, by which time it would be night and everyone else would’ve gone home.
Taking a break to help increase his stamina and speed in the long run, he left the camera on record to keep an eye on the tower, so it ended up capturing the moment when…
▼ …the tower collapsed with nobody watching.
▼ “Aaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhhhh!!!!!”
With two hours of work gone to waste, Mr Sato was now at a crossroads, wondering whether to continue with this crazy task or pack it all in. However, the prospect of giving up made his blood boil and his desire for vengeance flare, so he vowed to see this task through until the bitter end.
There was nothing to do but keep going, so he gathered the fallen pieces together and put them in the fridge to harden into an easier-to-handle clump.
While he waited for the fallen cheese to harden, he stacked the unwrapped 20-piece packs of cheese into small blocks.
Creating mini towers on the side was a much more efficient way to work, and it didn’t take long before he’d piled up…
▼…an impressive looking stack on the burger bun.
However, being the perfectionist he is, he couldn’t overlook the kink in the middle of the tower, and seeing as the base section was paramount for stability, he went for a different tactic, putting all the cheese stacks in the fridge to harden.
With Burger King putting the burger together for him previously, Mr Sato had no idea this would be such an arduous task. It was no wonder the tower of cheese was on an angle all those years ago, and now Mr Sato wondered if a satisfyingly straight pile of cheese could even be accomplished.
Starting from scratch yet again, Mr Sato gave it his all, and lo and behold, his technique of hardening the cheese-slice blocks in the fridge worked a treat.
Wishing he’d started with this technique, Mr Sato was now under pressure to create the tower before the heat of the room had a chance to soften the cheese, so he asked Mai to hand him as much as she could.
The blocks were big, helping the tower to form at a much faster pace, giving Mr Sato the motivation he needed to keep going.
His mettle was tested at the 504th slice, when the distortion began to appear again. Given his intense efforts, he figured it must be the structure around the cheese, perhaps the floor or the walls, that was uneven, so he kept going, regardless.
The tower was now threatening to topple over, though, so Mr Sato sought out an extra pair of hands, which he found in colleague Go Hatori.
Now he didn’t care what the tower looked like — he just wanted to sandwich 1,0006 slices of cheese between two burger buns, so he threw caution to the wind and grabbed the final tower of cheese….
▼…and plonked it on!
For full disclosure, Mr Sato dropped one of the slices of cheese so he ended up discarding it, meaning there were now 1,005 slices of cheese in this burger. It was still five more slices than the 1,000-slice Whopper with Cheese he ate in 2012, though, so this was a win for Mr Sato, who grinned from ear to ear as our photographer captured the moment.
At 176 centimetres (five feet eight inches) in height, the burger was taller than Mr Sato, towering over the regular Whopper with Cheese next to it.
Now all that was left to do was eat the Whopper, and Mr Sato surprised us all when he picked up the regular Whopper, brought it to his mouth and said…
▼ …“Mmmmmm! A whopper eaten on an empty stomach is especially tasty!”
For some reason, we’d just assumed that when Mr Sato said he’d be making a Whopper with over 1,000 slices of cheese, he’d be eating it as well. However, it appears that prices aren’t the only thing that have changed in the past ten years, as Mr Sato is no longer the young whippersnapper he once was, with less of an appetite for fast food challenges and a healthier approach to life.
▼ He’s not one to waste food, though, so be on the lookout for cheesy recipes coming our way shortly.
▼ Check out this quick time-lapse of Mr Sato’s burger challenge below.
So in the end, Mr Sato’s desire for vengeance slowly fizzled out as his dream to create a Whopper with over 1,000 slices of cheese was fulfilled. Sure, he may not have eaten the entire thing in one sitting like he would’ve in his younger days, but he felt better for it, which just goes to show that revenge is not necessarily a dish best served cold — sometimes, it’s a dish best not served at all!
Photos ©SoraNews24
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