My dude, that’s a paladin! You’re thinking of the first name of that hobbit from Lord of the Rings.

I think your example is actually correct. Eating CAN be a noun, but in your example it is a present participle, a type of verb. It would be a noun if eating was the subject, ie: “eating is fun,” where it would be a gerund. https://teacherblog.ef.com/grammar-recap-intro-to-gerunds-and-infinitives/