Scroll through social media long enough and you’ll be fed memes, charming animal videos, eye-catching oddities and even doomscroll content. But within the vast space of the Internet lies another popular section of the digital space – food.
From restaurant reviews to trying the latest trendy snacks, food-related videos online are popular with social media users – including cooking videos.
Knowledge in the kitchen is more accessible now since recipes are posted online. Long gone are the days of relying solely on cookbooks or waiting for cooking channel heavy hitters’ shows for instruction. With social media, recipes for virtually anything are available with a swift search, and many times, they’re available with videos walking novice cooks through it.
Cooking content creators
Such videos are made by Fontana-based content creator Karina Valladares and Los Angeles-based content creator Jon Dillanes. The two have amassed a dedicated following on their respective TikTok, Instagram and YouTube accounts, where they teach others step-by-step how to make different recipes.
For Valladares, who has more than 1 million followers on TikTok as lov.kari, cooking is a means to nourish her loved ones and is a source of joy for her. Valladares’ passion beams out of her in her videos as she guides followers on how to perfect her recipes with straightforward, simple-to-follow instructions. A wife and mother of two young boys, Valladares’ social media channels boast a colorful collection of meals that range from enchiladas to agua frescas and even to homemade queso fresco.
“I feel joy making the food,” Valladares said. “It brings me joy when I hear, ‘Mama, it was so delicious, I really liked it.’ Or when my boys go, ‘I’d rather stay home and eat because I prefer my mom’s food.’”
Dillanes’ accounts as hrnaeatz, which boast nearly 300,000 followers on Instagram alone, include an array of videos that act as a digital cookbook paired with quick, witty quips and his signature invitation that begins each video – “c’mon, babe.” His recipes include cultural dishes from his childhood, such as chicken tinga, shrimp tostadas and aguachile. He said the meals he posts online are recipes he learned how to make after moving out of his family’s home.
“For me, it kind of meant staying in touch with my culture because it’s such a big part of me,” he said. “I feel like once I moved out of my house, you feel like you kind of have this space you have to fill… Moving away to go experience life on your own can leave you missing that aspect of being around your family. So for me, being able to make cultural dishes and make them for friends or people I care about was my way of creating these own memories with my new chosen family.”
Guiding the next generation
Both got their start in the kitchen at a young age with the help of their mothers and have since shared their passion with the world, helping younger Latinos learn traditional recipes. Since both Valladares and Dillanes’ recipes heavily center on cultural dishes from their upbringing, they’re teaching the next generation of cooks to carry on those meals.
“I think it’s so cool to show our culture because there’s so many different ways people cook a certain dish and I’ve always liked the fact of sharing what I know,” Valladares said.
“I think it’s an act of service for people you care about, so being able to pass that onto other people and get them excited … makes me feel so grateful,” Dillanes said. “If I get one person to want to get to cook, it just makes my day.”
A large percentage of younger Internet users prefer to digest information visually, which includes watching content creators cook different meals in order to learn a recipe.
According to NBC News, roughly 40% of the Gen Z population preferred TikTok and Instagram over Google as their search engine. With younger audiences turning to social media for information, chef content creators are given the perfect opportunity to showcase their skills and help others learn the ropes of the kitchen.
Viewers’ gratitude
Amateur cooks who’ve used Valladares and Dillanes’ instructions have expressed their thanks to them in comments. Privately, some have sent them messages sharing details of their lives and how the content creators’ videos truly helped them.
“A woman reached out and she told me her husband had just passed away and she hadn’t stepped foot in the kitchen since, and it had been almost half a year,” Dillanes said, emotional as he recalled the touching message. “She was like, ‘I just want to let you know today I got in the kitchen … and I made something beautiful and it felt good to create something like that.’ I remember sitting here and it brought me to tears because the fact that I got someone after that long, after losing a loved one and going through grief, to get in the kitchen and be like, ‘OK, I can do this, I can make something beautiful for myself,’ was honestly so heartwarming. And I honestly still think about that message to this day so much.
Valladares said she received a similar, sentimental message from a woman who was reminded of her late mother.
“This girl was like, ‘Oh my god, I haven’t seen this dish being made the way that my mom did it and my mom passed a couple of years, so now I’m going to save it because it looks exactly how my mom used to make it,’” Valladares said. “… It’s so crazy because as a young person, you don’t really value those things but then when you’re getting older, you realize them. So that message really impacted me just because her mom passed away and at least I was able to give her that video so that she can maybe try to recreate the recipe and it brings her back memories from when her mom was alive and she was young.”
Some words of encouragement
For people who are apprehensive about getting their start in the kitchen, both Valladares and Dillanes have some advice – just go for it.
“Keep going, just keep trying,” Valladares said. “Even though if you mess it up, even if you burn stuff, it’s just trial and error, you’ll figure it out. Just be patient. Keep trying and eventually you’ll get it.”
“You’re going to mess up, but if you can chase that spark that will keep you wanting to get in the kitchen, I feel that no matter if the recipe doesn’t turn out right or if it turns out perfect, you’re going to want to get back into the kitchen the next day,” Dillanes said.
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Source: NBC Los Angeles
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