For decades, television has enabled chefs to measure their notoriety through ratings. It is now by number of views, likes or subscriptions on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or TikTok that professionals and cooking enthusiasts gauge their popularity. Because what we now call the “food” has also invaded the screens of smartphones and computers. The confinements linked to the Covid-19 epidemic have reinforced the phenomenon.
“Over the past two years, we have noted an even stronger enthusiasm from users for hashtags allowing them to find content on the subject food, notes Priscilla Jeambeaux, client manager at the agency Le Public Système, in charge of communication for TikTok in France. Food is in the top 5 most searched topics on the app. » The trend is the same on Instagram.
It is carried by a public in search of visual stimuli and recipes that break the monotony of everyday life and by chefs who see it as a new means of communicating, in particular about their creations or the sale to take away. To the point that the most greasy and dripping aspects of culinary anxiolytics sometimes spread to the point of indecency. Aren’t we talking about food porn in front of the orgy of shots shared on social networks?
“Since the mid-2010s, the food is part of pop culture, just like fashion or music”, analyzes Victor Habchy, founder of the site The Ultimate Guide to Paris, whose Instagram accounts (500,000 subscribers on @leguideultime) and TikTok (1.7 million subscribers to @vito.video) have made him one of the influencers stars of the Parisian scene. He is sure, “a good address or a sexy recipe can make you cool”. His trick: finding the best cheap plans in the capital.
And the subscribers rush
Photographer-director just thirty years old, Victor Habchy was first passionate about street food on a bike tour of Asia. “Stuck in Paris during confinement, I devoted myself to local street food, listing the best addresses”he recalls. About to publish The Ultimate Guide to Paris (Hachette, 2021), available with tenfold success on social networks. Thousands of high school students, students and young professionals watch the videos that Victor Habchy devotes each week to the ultimate in ramens, falafels, bentos, kebabs, ice creams, brunches or donuts. Concentrated in about thirty seconds, his praise filmed on a smartphone can trigger long queues in front of a restaurant or shop.
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