TikTok Offers Foodies A New Career

Take a look and you might be surprised what you can even learn.

The Los Angeles Times offers a look into the plight of Brandon Skier, a 28 year old line-cook who lost his job a year ago when the much celebrated restaurant where he worked, Auburn, was forced to close due to the pandemic and the loss of business. “All the restaurants that I would’ve applied to were closing,” Skier told the Times. “I was just bored at that point. I missed being productive, I wanted to work with my hands and create stuff, I wanted to keep cooking. “So, I went on TikTok like, ‘Hey, I cook. If I post a video, would anyone want to watch?’” A year later, Skier has more than 1 million TikTok followers, brand deals with Hedley & Bennett aprons and Made In cookware, and a new vision for his career.

Skier shows viewers how to operate like a professional cook at home, whether he’s making a banana cream pie or properly caring for carbon-steel pans. The insight he shares is one worth noting for us all. “I just stood behind a stove for the last 10 years and nobody cared,” he says. His dream before the pandemic was to become a sous chef at a fine-dining restaurant. “I didn’t know that there was a living to be made doing this kind of stuff. I never thought I would be in the position where people would look up at me as a cook.” He is not alone. As we have reported here before the relationship between food and TikTok is a strong one that just keeps on getting more important. Many of the new food TikTok celebrities are also serving a very important purpose that goes well beyond just being funny or entertaining or as in Skier’s case – educational. Take a look and you might be surprised what you can even learn. Many of these chefs who found themselves jobless are promoting food culture –its chefs and their foods from all over the world. They are introducing new foods to the over 100 million users of TikTok and expanding their palates and understanding of their culture. A valuable lesson we all need especially these days.

Celebrity chefs no longer have to raise millions of dollars from investors, work 15-hour days, just to take the chance to becoming successful – all they need these days is an iPhone, a great story and great food. They can reach many more people. It’s also a great opportunity for those extraordinary supermarket culinary members who should be showing off their prepared food offerings in an era where shoppers are yearning for more exotic and tasty foods to bring home.