Detroit chef Jonathan Kung goes viral with TikTok cooking series
To get a taste of chef Jonathan Kung’s Asian-influenced culinary creations prior to the pandemic, you needed to get a spot at one of his private dinners or dumpling classes.
The events took place at the Kung’s Kung Food Market Studio space in Detroit’s Eastern Market.
Once the pandemic hit and more people cooked at home, Kung garnered a new following, though not in person. The self-taught chef took to TikTok with 60-second daily cooking demos that have gone viral and garnered more than 900,000 followers and 11 million likes on his videos. On TikTok, Kung calls himself a “third culture cook.”
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Now he’s teamed up with Funimation, an anime distribution company, to pair cooking classes with videos and movies.
The second series of several cooking demos based on the release of anime film “Demon Slayer.” The new series will launch Friday on Kung’s TikTok account. The first series, “Naruto’s Ramen Chowdown!” ran in March.
Kung creates dishes based on anime character profiles in a how-to approach with easy-to-follow steps.
“The reaction has been very good,” Kung said. “It’s been pretty successful with something like 2 million on Instagram. Being approached was an affirmation for what I was doing in the city. The responses that we’ve had that something coming out of Detroit has this mass appeal.”
Kung started the cooking videos last May as a way to inspire those at home to cook. Since then gained has more than 900,000 followers and 11 million likes on TikTok. You will also find many of those 60-second recipes on Kung’s YouTube channel.
“It’s whatever inspires me at the moment. It’s kind of like a serotonin hit or when you have two songs that you like together,” he said. “It’s not something that you completely expected but you are happy that it’s worked.”
Much of his recipe inspiration comes from being reactionary and coming up with things in the spur of the moment.
“As a person who tries to set a mood or narrative into the movie, I try to encourage people to cook creatively for themselves.”
Being reactionary comes with the help of a fully stocked pantry and kitchen.
“Cook creatively, take a chance,” Kung said. “When you make a mistake in food … if you try something and you like, it that’s something you can fall in love with the rest of your life. “
One of Kung’s most popular viewed videos, he said, is for a Chinese potato dish. The video has more than 4 million views. Another is a dish of spicy Szechuan feta pasta with more than one million views.
“It (the Tiktok videos) gave people something fun to do in a way that they wouldn’t have initially expected,” he said. “Luckily for me, they’ve been going well on the Funimation page, too. ”
Kung grew up in Hong Kong and Toronto but has spent most of his time in Detroit. He’s worked for several chefs around town and done pop-ups. Kung said he has plans to eventually open his own restaurant.
Contact Detroit Free Press food writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news to: 313-222-6872 or [email protected]. Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter.
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