Have you ever scrolled through Tik Tok or Instagram and can’t seem to escape the endless food content? Popular content creators like Zach Choi and Tzuyang have amassed followings of millions by doing mukbangs (when one eats large quantities of food in front of the camera) while YouTuber Nick Digiovanni and Buzzfeed’s channel, Tasty, have developed food-related product lines through sharing recipes online. Meanwhile, beyond social media, beloved and steadfast food competitions like “MasterChef,” “Beat Bobby Flay” and “The Great British Bake Off” have brought the presence of food into our televisions. Food has found its way into comedy as well; take Nigel Ng for example— Ng created a viral character called Uncle Roger, a cranky Asian uncle who wears an orange polo while comedically reviewing egg fried rice and other food videos. In addition to going on a standup tour, Ng has used his Uncle Roger character to launch a restaurant in his home country of Malaysia. Wherever I look, it seems like every corner of the internet has food.
Recently, most of the food content I see online has one thing in common— an obsession with luxury food items. For instance, Digiovanni’s videos include “Only Eating Wagyu for 24 Hours,” “$300 Japanese A5 Drunken Wagyu.” And he’s not alone in the Wagyu craze; Max the Meat Guy has a video called “7 Day Honey Cured A5 Wagyu” while Iron Chef Dad has one called “Iron Chef Dad Turns $200 Wagyu Gourmet,” which each has 23 and 57 million views respectively. The same could be said about caviar; Albert_cancook created a video called “3 levels of Caviar” while Flavor Hive filmed one called “He brought $200 caviar” which has 20 and 163 million views respectively. On average, A5 Wagyu costs anywhere from $85 to $250+ per pound while sturgeon caviar costs from $45 to $595+ per ounce, meaning that most viewers can only dream of having a taste.
Buzzfeed’s Worth it series takes a food item and compares a cheap version to its uber-rich counterpart i.e. “$3 Mac n Cheese vs. $195 Mac n Cheese”. Similar to the Wagyu videos, the Worth it series showcases extremely luxurious food items while asking the question, “is it worth it?” when most people cannot afford to eat a $1,593 bento box or drink a $914 cup of coffee.
With an over-saturation of luxury food items online, I often wonder what message it conveys to audiences, including younger children, who might start to believe that the most enjoyable and delicious foods are the ones that cost the most. Since food content creators often use the eye-dropping price of the food as a way of following a trend and capturing clicks, the truth is, most of the influencers we see can only afford to buy the Wagyu or caviar because it’s a business expense for them to generate views. Moreover, this FoodTok obsession focused on the price of the food for its value might lead the viewer to believe that their homemade meal pales in comparison to an expensive Michelin star dish that is only one bite.
I’ve found that the best food is not made of the most expensive ingredients, but rather who we eat the meal with and if the food is made with love. It sounds cliche, but it’s the smiles and laughter shared over food that makes food so special. It’s stories like ones seen in Netflix’s “Chef’s Table” where the audience follows a chef on their journey to success or “Street Food” where the viewer learns more about a street food stall from a different part of the world. Most people can remember eating instant ramen in college as a convenient and cheap option, which is what makes food content creator Lisa Nguyen’s “30 day instant ramen challenge” so relatable and accessible. Nguyen also had a short-form video series where she would cook for her community called “feeding my neighbors,” which is the kind of food content that the internet should aspire towards.
Ultimately, food is universal— no matter who you are or where you are from, we all have to eat. Instead of the endless stream of luxury food content, my hope is that there can be a corner of the internet where food is not merely for gathering views and clicks, but can also remind us how food brings people together.
