Meet Gideon General, a Fil-Am chef who shares Pinoy food recipes on Tiktok – Manila Bulletin
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‘Filipino food will always be special’
In the past years, we have seen Filipino cuisine make its way to the international food scene. We are not just talking about the ube (purple yam) craze or the exotic balut and the classics like adobo and lechon. More and more Pinoy eats, from the humble street food or turo-turos and favorites like sinigang and lumpiang shanghai to locally grown cacaos, are becoming famous in different parts of the world. And to be honest, there is still more to discover.
While our local dishes have the ability to wow diners everywhere, the recognition it is gaining today is all thanks to the Filipinos that continue to champion their home cuisine abroad and even online. As we celebrate Filipino Food Month this April, Manila Bulletin Lifestyle chats with Filipinos overseas who honor their food heritage one plate at a time.
In this feature, we chat with online content creator Gideon General, 25, from Daytona, Ohio, who uses his Tiktok account to share recipes and meals he grew up loving. He started doing food content on Tiktok during the onset of the pandemic, featuring both Filipino and international dishes. Today, he now has a million followers with over 1.6 million likes. Check out our conversation with Gideon below.
Hello, Gideon. First off, what kept you busy these past few years during the pandemic?
Exactly this. I was a full-time chef before creating content, but I stopped working during the beginning of the pandemic because I live with my parents. They’re obviously older and they didn’t feel safe with me working at a restaurant when it was very bad. I told my boss and they understood. I was gone for a month. I was so bored and I told myself, “Okay, I need to do something.” My friend who’s also a chef, we went to culinary school together, mentioned Tiktok. I’ve always wanted to make videos, more on YouTube, but no one really pushed me to do it until the pandemic. So instead of starting on YouTube, my friend and I began doing Tiktok content. Luckily, my second video went viral. I got 10,000 followers after like two weeks of starting. I would say it was very overwhelming at first, but you get used to it. Later in the pandemic, I quit my job and went full-time as a content creator.
How is it growing up there in Ohio?
So my grandma has been here for 40 years. She was a gym teacher for almost 30 years. Back then when my dad was looking for work, she said to him to just come here to the US. We already have a few family members here already, so it’s easier to move. After he moved, he eventually got us. I came here when I was 12 or 13. I grew up there in the Philippines and I can speak Tagalog and Bicolano.
@gidsgids I made this for you 😉
Where did this passion for cooking come from? Did you inherit it from someone in the family or did you just figure it out for yourself?
I always loved eating. I grew up eating grandma’s cooking and my dad’s and mom’s cooking. Luckily, they’re very good cooks, in my opinion. I have like a strong idea of what good Filipino food tastes like. If I eat somewhere else, I would always compare it to home-cooked meals. I would just have an opinion. I realized I had that passion for cooking when my other family members would call me and ask me to taste their food and tell them what’s missing. I started cooking when I was in middle school at age 14. Since I was a kid and I didn’t have money, I couldn’t go anywhere. Every time I would see a food that I wanted to eat, I would just cook it myself. I would just go online and look at recipes and sometimes when I can’t even find a recipe I would just imagine how would they make it. I started experimenting and that’s where I actually fell in love with cooking.
On your Tiktok and Instagram pages, you cook other cuisines as well. For you, what do you love about Filipino food and how is it compared to the other dishes that you are preparing?
Filipino food will always be home. I love trying out different cuisines, but it’s just like traveling. You can go to other countries and see the cultures tasting the food, but you will always go back home. For me, it brings me memories of eating with my grandma, my other family members, and my classmates. Filipino food will always be special.
@gidsgids Its stew season baby
Where did you study culinary arts?
I went to Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. I was originally in the nursing program, typical Filipino culture. Growing up I wanted to be a chef. But in middle school, they tasked us to research our dream job. While I was researching about becoming a chef, I wasn’t too happy with the salary and I compared it to like a nurse and that’s almost double the salary. That made me change my major to nursing but somewhere along the way, I felt unhappy. I thought about it a lot. I thought about if I’d be happy just working as a nurse for the money or pursuing my passion as a chef and just see what happens. I don’t want to wake up when I’m like 70 years old and realize that I just wasted my life not doing what I wanted to do. That made me decide to switch majors from nursing to culinary, and luckily my parents are very supportive all the time.
When it comes to your content, do you shoot by yourself? And how do you come up with the dishes you are featuring?
I do it all by myself. I would love to have a cameraman and an editor but, obviously, that costs money. Somewhere in the future, hopefully, I can afford to hire staff and have a team. My manager helps me out with negotiating and stuff like that so I’ll be focused on creating content.
With deciding on the recipes, I write down things I want to make for the week or for the month. It also changes all the time depending on what I crave. If you look at my Tiktok page, I wrote in my bio, “I crave, I make.” I like the freedom of doing whatever I want to make.
I love it when people do my recipes and tag me on Instagram. It means that I’m doing my job right, like when people are inspired when making food. It reminds me why I’m doing this and it just makes everything worth it whenever I see people enjoy it. That, I think, is the best part of being a content creator.
@gidsgids Reply to @deemer73 Easy – Mac Ayres
Apart from doing content, what are the other things that keep you busy?
I’m trying to collaborate with my friend that I mentioned earlier. He stopped making videos because he started his own food truck business. We’re talking about a partnership, making special dishes, and advertising them on Tiktok and Instagram. I’m going to be working with him with the food truck and maybe pop-up restaurants in the future. I’m also thinking of designing merchandise.
What do you think is the key to becoming a success on Tiktok?
I think it’s just knowing where your strength lies. I learned early that people like fried chicken videos. So I make sure I will have fried chicken videos at least once a month. And then most of the time it goes viral. I don’t want to be known just for being a fried chicken person, but sometimes you got to give people what they want. For the rest of the month, I will do whatever I want.
Also, you should be professional as much as you can. I started off by using my phone for recording my videos. Eventually, I bought a camera and then I upgraded to a better camera. You had to invest in yourself and keep the quality high.
Lastly, consistency and not losing who you are as a creative. Don’t be someone you’re not just because that’s what the people will like. Make sure to show your personality in your videos. Show your face because, at the end of the day, you’re the one that people will follow and not your content. People like the food but they want to know who’s behind the camera, who’s cooking the food. Just have fun with it.
Hello, readers! Do you have a story you want us to feature? Send us a message on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and Twitter and let’s talk about it.
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