The chefs using TikTok to reinvent their careers

Image source, Liam Frank

Thousands of restaurants were temporarily or permanently closed due to the Covid crisis.

Thara Moise decided to go back to being a private chef after she was laid off from her job.

She became her own boss and was available to hire for private events.

Ms Moise says she came up with a plan to make herself known to potential customers.

The 29-year-old from Philadelphia started uploading videos of her cooking to TikTok. She began to build up a large following. Her videos have gained more than 13 million likes, and her account has more than 558,000 followers.

Ms Moise, who is now highly sought after as a private caterer, says that she reached 500,000 followers as fast as she did.

She says that as a queer black woman she had to put up with a lot of sexism, and that she doesn't miss the restaurant world one bit.

Image source, Thara Moise

Thanks to TikTok raising her profile, Ms Moise now does 12 to 14 private catering jobs per month. She makes about $100 per four weeks as a registered TikTok creator. The amount of money per month is determined by the number of views their videos have received.

Brandon Skier, a Los Angeles-based chef, has 1.9 million followers and 34.5 million likes on his TikTok account, from people who watch his cooking videos.

He left the restaurant world when the Pandemic hit, and uploaded videos of himself on social media. He spent 10 years working hard in fine-dining establishments, and he doesn't miss that.

I drank the restaurant's drink and wanted to be a line cook and then a sous chef, but I didn't want to be the head chef.

As a result of Covid, I took a step back from the restaurant industry. If you want to work in fine dining, you have to come early.

If you get there at nine in the morning, you will work until 2.30 a.m. when the last table goes out. You are making $1,000 a week.

Image source, Brandon Skier

Mr Skier says he makes more money by making and uploading videos. He says that the app pays him $300 a month. He makes a few hundred dollars from the videos he puts on the internet.

Mr Skier makes more money through product placement deals with food and cooking firms than he did in his restaurant career. He is making videos for these companies.

The hours are still long, but the freedom is great.

There are other ways to make money that don't involve being in a restaurant.

A video of a chef making a very posh cheese and ham sandwich has been viewed 4.5 million times on Tiktok.

Image source, Emma Kazaryan

She has worked in professional kitchens before. Ms Moise used her Tiktok account to promote her work as a private chef, and Ms Rosenbloom has used her account to promote her work as a private chef. She has over 124,000 followers and 3.8 million likes.

She says that the restaurant industry is very male-dominated and that a lot of female chefs turn to private chef work.

I knew that people would be interested in my career as a private chef if they were interested in the recipes I was developing on TikTok. I started documenting days in my life.

She says she now gets up to 20 requests a month from across the US to cater for private events because of the success of her videos. Ms Rosenbloom splits her time between New York and Miami and is getting an additional income from product placement deals.

She says that just being a TikTok-er is not a viable career path and that you can make money by supporting businesses outside of TikTok.

Image source, Karen Rosenbloom

Ms Moise, Mr Skier, and Ms Rosenbloom have all said that they want to be private chefs or full-time makers of food videos because they don't like working in restaurant kitchens.

The director of the women's leadership program at James Beard Foundation is familiar with this story, because she campaigns to improve working conditions for kitchen and waiting staff.

She says that the restaurant sector has to confront stress, poor benefits, and the exclusion of women and people of colour.

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Good staff are needed in order for restaurants to stay open. What do you have in neighbourhoods without restaurants?

Ms Moise says she has no regrets about giving up a career in restaurant kitchens.

For the first time, I can choose the clientele. I can control my prices. I get to say that this is what I am worth, this is what you will pay me.