Meet the best chefs on TikTok from Emily English to Ben Lippett
The signs are all there: the number of food and drink programmes commissioned has plummeted, with only 12 shows having been ordered over the first seven months of this year, down from 100 just six years ago, and shows from such cookery stalwarts as the Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain left on the cutting room floor.
Add a serving of allegations against celebrities such as Gregg Wallace, John Torode and Gino D'Acampo, who made their names on the screen, and producers have been left wondering: is there still an appetite for food shows? Or, as one veteran producer said: 'Do we need any more Mary Berrys or Nigellas doing pieces to camera?'
• Cooking shows get the chop as controversies leave a bitter taste
The reality is, to a lot of people like me (31, child-free, healthy-ish), watching a cookery show for midweek dinner inspiration is becoming as old-school as opening a cookbook, which are also suffering from Gen Z's change in food habits.
Last year a report by Waitrose found that 18 to 34-year-olds prefer online recipes and viral videos to cookbooks. My WhatsApp messages with friends are a constant exchange of screenshots and video links of our favourite online cooks that can be watched anywhere, anytime, no TV licence required. No wonder one producer said, 'Traditional recipe shows have been 'eaten' by TikTok.'
If you want to know who people my age listen to in the kitchen, you don't need to switch on the BBC or see what's trending on Netflix. For us there's a new breed of food gurus: they're charming, look great in an apron and they all started their careers on social media. We refer to the new generation of cooks simply by their social media handles: @dinnerbyben, @natsnourishment, @condimentclaire or @thegreedymodel.
These chefs have reinvented the 'series'. On social media these are a collection of videos themed around ingredients and dishes, such as the viral 'butter' series by Thomas Straker (2.6 million followers on Instagram) and the 'big summer salads' by Natalia Rudin (1.5 million followers). They pack all the mouth-watering b-roll and method into seconds, rather than an hour-long episode, and you can watch them on your phone, then screenshot the ingredients list to take to the supermarket.
Leading the way is Emily English, a 30-year-old blonde nutritionist who grew up on a council estate in Bedfordshire and now cooks in front of a camera in her southwest London kitchen for herself and her husband — watched by her 2.8 million followers.
While Yotam Ottolenghi has a monopoly on the dinner party, English is the reigning queen of the midweek healthy meal. If you're over the age of 35, you might never have heard of her. She doesn't have a Michelin star but she does have an air fryer, is big on protein and cottage cheese (which, thanks to TikTok, has been rebranded from a Seventies diet snack to a superfood), shares ideas for nourishing lunches that can be made in advance and publishes 'what I eat in a day' videos explaining her breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Midweek, my social media feed is a showreel of pictures of English's recipes that my friends have cooked, like high-protein bagels you can make in the air fryer and her 'detox me' chicken, ginger and lime broth, which has become a regular in my flat. Her recipes mainly serve two, which suits me and my friends. ('My husband loves them, which is good. They're filling enough for men,' one friend explains.)
I like English because she knows what she's talking about: she has a BSc in nutrition from King's College London and lists the calories and how many grams of protein are in each portion alongside her recipes. But she also has a background in food: she grew up helping in her grandma's restaurant. You can hear her reel off her credentials when she appeared on an episode of Topjaw, the viral social media show where chefs share recommendations, thus cementing her true foodie status.
• How the Topjaw team became Britain's most influential foodies
I'm not saying I won't get hooked on a cookery show again. Reruns of Nigella: At My Table on the BBC provide fuzzy nostalgia, The Great British Bake Off provides comfort and cravings, MasterChef and Great British Menu provide the thrills, and Sunday Brunch provides the laughs for hangover cures. But as for recipe ideas, there is just one screen I look at. And it's not the telly.
Instagram followers 1.8 millionTikTok followers 807,000Follow Emily English for quick, nutritious midweek meals for 1-4 people, plus lunch ideas you can prepare for the week, including delicious jacket potato and sandwich fillings.
Instagram 1.5 millionTikTok 765,000Natalia Rudin quit her job as a private chef to become a food blogger. The video for her 20-minute lemongrass, coconut and noodle bowl with salmon has been salivated over by more than 1 million people.
Instagram 131,000TikTok 1 millionBesides her signature condiments (the clue is in the name), American-French Claire Dinhut has recipes for delicious toppings — her candied jalapeños are to die for.
Instagram 606,000TikTok 1.3 millionSeema Pankhania serves up recipes from around the world as well as travel tips. I love her recipe for ghee and turka roast potatoes, the video for which has been watched nearly half a million times.
Instagram 296,000TikTok 528,000Hari Beavis's debut recipe book, Country Comfort, was a Sunday Times bestseller last year, but her social media followers have been making her mouth-watering comfort classics for years.
Instagram 230,000TikTok 480Caramelised crumpets, homemade Hobnobs, burnt honey ice cream — Benjamina Ebuehi's pudding recipe videos will give you the baking bug. Or buy one of her three books; the latest is I'll Bring Dessert.
Instagram 248,000TikTok 3,500Model and mum Emma Louise Connolly is the wife of reality TV star Oliver Proudlock. Her recipes include comforting classics like pork and cavolo nero pasta.
Instagram 138,000TikTok 8,600Sophie Wyburd started as a recipe developer for Mob, the digital recipe platform loved by Gen Z. Now she's published her first book, Tucking In, and shares comforting recipes online.
Instagram 173,000TikTok 26,600Alexandra Dudley is my go-to for dinner party ideas, crockery (she has a gorgeous selection) and clothes, even when she posts about how exhausting motherhood is (she had her first baby in December).
Instagram 76,000TikTok 4,100Gen Z's supper-club queen, Xanthe Ross has hosted more than 70 ticketed dinner parties for her followers. If you can't make it, follow her online or buy her debut book, Stay for Supper.
Instagram 606,000TikTok 118,000Ben Lippett is a chef for the Mob food platform, co-founder of Dr Sting's Hot Honey (a Gen Z store cupboard staple) and author of How I Cook. Follow for dinner party ideas.
Instagram 231,000TikTok 7,700There are lots of reasons to follow Jordon Ezra King, from travel tips to fashion advice, but if you love pasta dishes and Mediterranean-inspired recipes, he is your man.
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