TikTok, the Fastest Way on Earth to Become a Food Star

The app offers explosive growth for content creators. Gen Z cooks are taking advantage.

Eitan Bernath, a 19-year-old TikTok star with more than 1.6 million followers, began posting cooking content to the platform in 2019. Like many Generation Z TikTok chefs, he taught himself to cook by watching YouTube and the Food Network. He would share the things he made to Instagram, but never gained much traction. Within 24 hours of posting his first TikTok, however, he had accrued tens of thousands of followers. Mr. Bernath, whose demeanor is bright, upbeat and approachable, began sharing short, easy-to-make recipes that other beginner cooks and his teenage peers could make at home. The videos took off. “TikTok is the biggest thing that happened to me in my career, and honestly the reason why I am where I am today,” he said.