Catfish Out of Water

I resisted TikTok. During the throes of the pandemic when everyone was on Cat TikTok or Culinary TikTok? I wasn't really paying all that much attention. I'm not really a social media kind of person. I don't like the practices of the companies who control them and there's a growing number of studies that link correlate mental health levels and social media use. Not to mention the lackluster compensation creators frequently lament. Now, I'm not going to get into these because we have all heard of them and either do or don't still prescribe to particular social media sites.

Other than my food blog here? Which largely serves on a gateway into my own organization style in preserving recipes, references, and inspirations for my own meals. I really don't frequent that much social media. However, this food blog is something that I'm quite fond of doing. If there's one thing that irks me about my own cooking! It's that I'm poor at writing things down and will absolutely spend years attempting to recreate a recipe that I was just winging at the time and didn't realize would be so delicious and absolutely pivotal to be able to recreate.

What Started This All? A Blast from the Past

A prime example of this was one day after a double shift at work (starting at 6:30am and ending around 9pm), I cracked open a bottle of wine or maybe it was tequila... Either way, I tossed a bunch of coconut into a food processor with some avocados, chocolate powder, and who knows what else from my pantry! This ended up being The. Single. Best. Dessert. That. I. Have. Ever. Had. In. My. Entire. Life.

Now, it might have been the delirious state that I was in talking! But, I have still spent the last decade trying to recreate this Vegan Chocolate Mousse. And I have gotten close. Last year I even made a fun Vegan Chocolate Mousse w/ Calabaza Squash. However, I've been haunted by the ever-elusive hodge podge of a recipe that started it all. I am constantly thinking, "If only I'd managed to write any of it down!" Hence, why I've inevitably ended up creating a blog.

Although that doesn't quite explain how I made the leap from Food Blog to Culinary TikTok creator.

Down the Culinary TikTok Rabbit Hole

I must admit that my initial resistance to TikTok was quelled when I discovered Cat Tok. A keen perusal of my blog would show the sheer number of pets that appear in my photos. I even have an entire article on my Top 5 Tips for Cooking w/ Pets & Other Distractions. I don't know why there hasn't been an entire platform dedicated to cats doing adorable things before? But I'm all for that.

TikTok is also not a social media platform in the way that most of them expect you to interact with your friends, family, and/or followers. And that's the part of social media that I'm not all that into. Quite frankly, I don't care what someone I haven't thought about since high school had for breakfast. I really don't want to be exposed to every passing thought of everyone I've ever come into contact with. And I doubt that most people out there want that out of me!

Once I got onto Cat TikTok, the algorithm actually isn't all that bad. I quickly ended up on Chicken Tok and Knitting Tok and just a little bit of Cowboy Tok.

There are a good number of cooking shows that I like on the usual Networks and I've definitely been down the culinary rabbit hole of YouTube content. But I have to say that it's about the time that Gordon Ramsay started ending up on the TikTok radar that I started to take notice of Culinary TikTok. If he can make a TikTok that's responded to on a YouTube channel and then ends up again in a TikTok reference about... honestly, I have no idea what This Food is supposed to be?? But now I'm on Food Tok.

My Thoughts on Culinary TikTok

I don't always like cooking shows. They're largely unrealistic and played up for the cameras. I'm a cook by trade and wouldn't work any job where I was routinely berated at high volumes. The "Yes Chef!" kind of mentality where you jump when they say jump absolutely exists out there. It's not my style of cooking, though. It's not how I like to manage my staff when I am in positions of power. And it's not how I like to be treated in my professional life. Those types of shows are largely theatrical and played up for the cameras. And some of it is incredibly entertaining to watch! I also rather like the Mystery Box format where contestants are provided unusual and disparate ingredients that they then have to figure out how to make delicious!

When I first ended up on TikTok, I couldn't quite understand the types of food content that I was getting, though. As fun as making nachos on the countertop and is that string cheese in that pasta might be There isn't a chance that I'm going to make them! For starters, the best part of nachos is when the cheese cooks into them. And, if you ever want to get me to make a pasta? It had better involve a cheese grater.

The thing with TikTok, though, is that it's actually not that bad of an algorithm. The more that you watch something, the more that you're going to get videos like that. Unlike a lot of other platforms as well, it's easier to find smaller and larger creators alike. I like the idea that you don't already have to be watching someone to come across their content. I also enjoy the Culinary ASMR or Comedy Process TikTok.

So, Here I Am! On Culinary TikTok

Long story short, I've now ended up on Culinary TikTok! You don't have to like it. You don't have to watch it. But it's there now.

I've had a Pinterest Page for quite a while because it's a site that I personally like to use. If I don't know what to make? I'll oftentimes just start typing ingredients into Pinterest until inspiration strikes. I don't necessarily follow many of the recipes. But it is a good place to start thinking about what ingredients other people are using in what types of recipes.

I like to pick up random things that I don't ordinarily cook with at the grocery store and then start perusing what can actually be made out of them! A good example of this is Curry w/ Bengali Squash, Tofu, & Garden Peppers. Before picking up a Bengali squash at one of my local grocery stores? I'd never heard of them before, let alone cooked with it! So, I started searching Pinterest and Googling recipes trying to figure out what it was and how it was more conventionally cooked with in order to figure out what I wanted to do with it.

The Bengali Squash Curry recipe that I ended up making isn't any of the recipes that I came across. But this certainly is part of my cooking process sometimes! I might go rogue and do my own thing, anyway. Although seeing what else particular produce is used in can help inspire fun and new dishes.

Cooking Ought to Be Accessible to Anyone & Everyone

I also like making home cooking more accessible. I know so many people who look at something and go, "That looks delicious, but I could never make that!"

Cooking is a skill, just like anything else. The more that you figure out what you like and experiment with different ingredients, the less that culinary escapades look like magic.

So, I'm on board for anything that gets other people cooking at home and thinking that yes, yes they can make this. And, if I can do that on TikTok and inspire anyone else to dig into the depths of their pantry to cook something delicious? Then, I'm up for trying it.

I also kind of like voyeuristically seeing into the personal lives of creators. I enjoyed people giving us a peak behind the curtain and making content out of their living rooms during the height of the pandemic. This isn't the most curated blog ever. I put some effort into making sure that the lighting is true to the dish. But I don't like to alter or curate things to appease an audience. Everything that I post on this site is actually food that I make and do eat moments after snapping the photos! I have an entire article on Food Styling & Unrealistic Expectations of Recipes.