It took residence cook dinner and inventive Icoy Rapadas solely half a yr to make an affect within the on-line meals content material area. His secret? As tacky because it sounds, it was simply being himself
When you spend a whole lot of time on the web, you then may need already seen Icoy Rapadas’ cooking content material in your social media feed. And when you haven’t but, they go as such—he strolls into his residence after an extended day of labor. Rapadas shrugs off his jacket, takes off his equipment, and begins cooking his meal for the night.
Whether or not it’s a comforting creamy rooster dish (his household’s personal recipe), a mouthwatering croque madame (“pina-sosyal na ham and egg and cheese sandwich”), or his personal recreation of a meal he’s seen on a TV present (see: Chef Sydney’s well-known omelet from “The Bear”), it at all times appears to be like fairly rattling good.
“I really first began [making videos] in the course of the pandemic, placing out a complete of 5 movies. Format was utterly completely different again then, but it surely nonetheless gained some traction,” Icoy Rapadas says.
Pair these visuals with some calm, composed commentary harking back to an ASMR video. He speaks casually in a mixture of Filipino and English; it sounds precisely like a good friend educating you methods to craft a dish from scratch over Facetime. Throwing in an surprising joke or two and a few private tidbits right here and there, he’s accomplished with the meal earlier than you already know it and sits all the way down to eat.
Rapadas ends each video with a single phrase, delivered in each a heat but nonchalant method: “Kain.”
Sounds easy, sure, however these movies are precisely what charmed his quickly rising fanbase, garnering him 142,000 followers on TikTok, 150,000 on Fb, and 98,000 on Instagram as of writing. In simply half a yr since beginning in January 2024, Rapadas has gone full-time meals content material creator, quitting his company day job because the model offers got here reeling in—really a hit story for aspiring meals content material creators on the market.
His common viewer could be shocked to seek out out that when upon a time, Rapadas was “an eat- to-live, not a live-to-eat kind of man.” His love for meals solely began in 2016, when a former colleague who knew all the very best eating places round their workplace in Kapitolyo launched him to the wonders of nice meals. Cooking got here quickly after when Rapadas took a break from work for 9 months, doing it out of necessity and studying methods to make the dishes he craved from his dad and mom’ residence.
“I really first began [making videos] in the course of the pandemic, placing out a complete of 5 movies. Format was utterly completely different again then, but it surely nonetheless gained some traction,” Rapadas says about his early content material creation days. “Pero ‘di ko tinuloy kasi ‘di ko pa kaya i-handle ’yung mga haters, so I ended.”
Lastly, after taking some extra culinary lessons at CCA Manila in 2022 and shifting into his personal place final yr—the exact same one his viewers see in his movies—Rapadas determined to craft meals content material once more with a refreshed perspective. Whereas meals stays the principle attraction of his movies, Rapadas, who additionally occurs to entrance the rock band Lions and Acrobats, needed to sprinkle bits of life-style and his distinctive character in his content material, with area and style turning into supporting parts that his viewers can respect. This food-slash-lifestyle combo, he thinks, is strictly the kind of materials missing within the native meals content material area.
“Once I put [my content] out, it was simply good timing, serving a sure hole out there. On an area degree, the meals content material right here is absolutely in regards to the meals, in regards to the recipes. That’s the place a lot of the focus is quite than the particular person creating the meals.”
“Once I put [my content] out, it was simply good timing, serving a sure hole out there. On an area degree, the meals content material right here is absolutely in regards to the meals, in regards to the recipes. That’s the place a lot of the focus is quite than the particular person creating the meals,” Rapadas shares. “In different international locations, it lately turned a factor the place individuals have taken extra curiosity within the creator and their life-style quite than simply the meals.”
Rapadas drew from famend worldwide meals influencers like Olivia Tiedemann, Anna Archibald and Kevin Serai, Matty Matheson, and Yung Prepare dinner God amongst others. He says, “Once I tried taking over that strategy, it labored nearly immediately. I took inspiration from all of them and put collectively a format that works for me. ‘Di ako nag copy-paste, ginaya ko lang ‘yung atake, however I made certain to simply spotlight who I’m, and share my tales.”
What makes Rapadas’ movies stand out from different Filipino meals content material creators is most undoubtedly the supporting character of his content material—style. He emphasizes additional that style’s infiltration into F&B has turn out to be considerably of a current phenomenon, citing how “chefcore” type and workwear at the moment are a pattern. From native eating places collaborating with manufacturers for merchandise to the meticulous plating of dishes, the concentrate on aesthetics enhances the general eating expertise, making meals a multi-sensory affair. Its convergence with style additionally resonates with shoppers’ need for self-expression and connection to culinary tradition.
“My sense of fashion is closely influenced by Japanese style, amekaji put on, workwear, Japanese Americana, and ivy primarily, tapos minsan might gorpcore din,” says Rapadas, along with his clothes not going unnoticed by his viewers and different outstanding names in meals, reminiscent of JP Anglo and content material creator Cyrus Jimenez.
“I feel that’s when it clicked for me that individuals will solely begin following you once they’re invested in you.”
For Rapadas, the key to success on this new age of meals content material creation are, first, to be a power on-line client (“That’s the way you’ll know the place and the way you’ll slot in”) and second, to simply be your self, as tacky as that sounds.
“I feel that’s when it clicked for me that individuals will solely begin following you once they’re invested in you,” he advises. “Discover a technique to showcase who you’re. You must have a powerful sense of self, kilalanin mo sarili mo, then discover a technique to finest present that. If you determine that out, distinctive ‘yan as a result of nobody else is such as you.”
And to that, we are saying in true Icoy Rapadas style—boogsh.
