Why TikTok Creators Are Pretending to Be Personal Cooks

TikTok is an encyclopedia of recipes and food-focused tendencies, from the viral baked feta pasta to a cookie and croissant hybrid, the place odd treats are made much more scrumptious due to stunning components and revolutionary cooking strategies. One of many newest — and funniest — codecs driving meals content material on the platform? For the reason that summer season of 2023, a brand new wave of content material creators is taking on feeds by pretending to be non-public cooks. 

To take part within the pattern, influencers share a clip of themselves cooking a recipe for a “shopper,” who makes outrageous calls for and choices starting from requesting that the chef spends hundreds of {dollars} on the notoriously costly grocery chain Erewhon to nearly firing them for utilizing pre-minced garlic. However because the movies progress, it turns into clear from the creator’s sarcastic tone that the purported “shopper” is both themself or a member of the family.

This pattern has its roots in different fashionable content material on social media. Actual non-public cooks have been posting on TikTok for years, sharing the method of meal prepping or full days of cooking at their purchasers’ houses in lofty locations such because the Hamptons or Beverly Hills. 

Creators like “Chef Bae” (identified for customizing dairy- and gluten-free recipes for celebrities) and Jane Olivia (an Arizona-based non-public chef with a concentrate on holistic vitamin), amongst many others, have constructed up strong followings by revealing what their work appears to be like like — so it’s no shock that some customers wish to experiment with being a personal chef in their very own approach.

Particularly fashionable amongst way of life creators, the faux non-public chef pattern is now one thing that many have adopted as a daily bit of their TikTok content material schedule. Jess Linnea (@jess.billings) usually posts movies of the meals she cooks as a “non-public chef for a high-profile man in his thirties” — in actuality, the shopper is her fianceé, photographer Alex Stemplewski. 

Claudia Harrington (@claudia.harrington) has amassed 492,000 followers on TikTok, and her hottest movies are of her appearing as a personal chef for her dad and mom, whereas creator Maiya (@lifeasmaiya) has began a collection that depicts her pretending to be a personal chef day-after-day within the hopes she’s going to ultimately develop into an actual one.

One of the crucial fashionable influencers pretending to be a personal chef is Religion, a 25-year-old content material creator who posts underneath the deal with @faithsfresh. The avid residence cook dinner has amassed 2.5 million followers due to her artistic dairy-free recipes, starting from chocolate-dipped ice cream bars to vegetable soup with grilled cheese croutons. She first started posting final summer season after being impressed by content material from actual non-public cooks. 

“I had by no means seen somebody tackle the non-public chef position, however for themselves. Each non-public chef on social media had precise purchasers, so I believed twisting it in order that I’m the shopper can be humorous,” she explains. “I additionally take pleasure in making enjoyable of myself within the movies, as a result of I really feel prefer it permits extra of my persona and humor to indicate whereas I nonetheless get to do what I like, which is cooking.”

The movies have confirmed to be successful, with one specific clip of Religion cooking crispy tuna rice bites racking up 29.6 million views to-date, and prompting different TikTok customers to recreate the recipe. 

Nearly all of her viewers understands Religion’s tongue-in-cheek movies, however she does obtain the occasional hateful remark from accounts that don’t understand she’s joking. Playful remarks like “My shopper lets her cats stroll on the counters, it’s type of disgusting” or “I can’t keep in mind the final time my shopper ate a vegetable” are the type of lighthearted jabs that may be misunderstood. 

The content material creator notes that “the general public who don’t get it all the time really feel the necessity to [tear me apart] within the feedback for my ‘disrespect,’ which simply makes me snicker as a result of I’m actually speaking about myself.”

Discovering inspiration from social media and her favourite eating places, Religion says that she develops a recipe as she goes alongside, adapting it to her and her husband’s wants. 

“As soon as I determine what I wish to make, I simply begin going at it and hope it seems [well]. Fortunately 99% of the time it does. I additionally lately began doing a brand new collection on my web page the place I cook dinner meals for my husband [another of Faith’s clients] who’s tremendous choosy, which has allowed me to get extra artistic within the kitchen and make meals I usually wouldn’t on account of my intolerances.”

What do actual non-public cooks take into consideration this pattern?

Inquisitive about what skilled cooks consider individuals pretending to be like them, I consulted Atilla Çetiner, a personal chef at Kaya Palazzo Golf Resort Belek in Antalya, Türkiye. His duties range from day after day and are largely formed by his visitors’ requests, dietary preferences, allergic reactions, and dietary wants.

Working as a personal chef is rewarding for Çetiner, and he thinks posing as one can empower residence cooks, commenting that “loving what you do and bringing vitality into the kitchen is vital for any chef, and role-playing as a personal chef could be simply as helpful.”

Çetiner believes that the pattern can assist individuals additional develop their cooking skills, and that the content material would possibly encourage each creators and viewers to strive extra complicated recipes and new components. 

Religion is an ideal instance of this — she’d by no means made focaccia earlier than being challenged by associates to strive it for her channel, and he or she usually experiments with methods or processes that some residence cooks is perhaps intimidated by, like making cashew milk from scratch or leveraging starches so as to add crispiness.

Why ought to residence cooks fake to be their very own non-public chef?

Even if you happen to’re not a content material creator making the most of this pattern to get views, taking part in as your individual non-public chef can foster creativity at residence.

As somebody who lives alone in a small studio residence with restricted area and home equipment — to not point out a busy schedule — it may be tough to remain motivated to usually cook dinner a full meal. Consuming faux non-public chef content material has helped carry again my love of cooking, and I’ve discovered that these creators normally develop recipes that cater to quite a lot of completely different ability ranges, areas, and time constraints. This, in flip, has impressed me to check out their completely different dishes, even on the times after I don’t significantly really feel like making a meal from scratch. 

Cooking has been a good way to handle my very own psychological well being, and Dietitian Nutritionist and founding father of Wellness Intelligence Patricia Bannan confirms that the playfulness of the fake non-public chef pattern can have psychological and emotional advantages.

“By elevating the eating expertise, people can domesticate a deeper appreciation for his or her meals and the trouble that goes into making ready it,” she notes. “This aware method to consuming could improve the general enjoyment of meals, scale back stress, and foster a larger connection to the meals being consumed.”

Pretending to be your individual non-public chef makes meal occasions extra of an occasion and fewer of a chore, which in flip creates a way of pleasure and a eating expertise that’s targeted on taste, components, and presentation reasonably than comfort. After engaged on a fastidiously curated meal, you’ll really feel achieved and such as you did one thing for your self (AKA, your shopper).

 For Religion, the principle advantages of pretending to be a personal chef embody turning into more and more proficient within the kitchen and testing out dishes or methods that she won’t be aware of. It has helped her progress her kitchen abilities and create a profession out of one thing she is obsessed with — even with out formal culinary coaching. 

“Once I first began to cook dinner for myself in faculty, I might normally find yourself simply throwing a bunch of stuff within the oven after which slathering it in mustard. I want I used to be kidding, I’m obsessive about mustard,” she says. “However creating content material is enjoyable as a result of it forces me to aim to make new issues, and I really feel like aesthetically plating the meals is simply one other artistic avenue that I’ve enjoyable taking part in with.”

Finally, the faux non-public chef pattern is one thing that everybody can lean into, from skilled cooks to rookies, and individuals who have no real interest in cooking however benefit from the humor behind the movies. It’s an accessible type of content material that may be tailored to many ability ranges, with a “faux it ‘til you make it” mindset that may encourage us all to be just a little extra adventurous.