Who the Hell Is TikTok’s Restaurant Actually For?
viral recipes, delivered to your door.
Hello!
Happy Sunday! I am experimenting with expanding the formats and the frequency of this newsletter and the days that I send it on, so thank you for your patience, and more to come! I spent Thursday afternoon at Luna Luna, the forgotten art carnival/amusement park that Drake’s production company recently spent $100 million to restore (staff told me and my friend Julia that Drake has not been to see it yet, which is wild given how much money he has invested in it!) It was very cool to be up close to works by Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Dali and it was a nice reminder that I often feel inspired by whimsy and bold acts of creativity (especially creativity within a set of constraints).
I heard a lot of complaints from friends and other people that visited the exhibition that they were frustrated and disappointed that they could not ride the rides or physically interact with the art, given that it was an art carnival. My disappointment with the exhibit was that they placed no value to a crucial part of the carnival/amusement park experience: concessions. Truly what is the point of going to an amusement park like Disneyland if you aren’t getting churro or a Mickey-shaped pretzel?
There was a small stand for drinks and snacks outside but there as no real thought put into it, which to me was a huge missed opportunity. Doing specialized cookies, sculptural candy or Rice Krispies treats, a special flavor of ice cream, or fun boxes/buckets of popcorn with thoughtful art/branding from Luna Luna would have only added to the experience (and would have been another way to monetize the show, beyond tickets and merch). Food is also a great medium for art and for whimsy — especially in this incredibly visual Instagram and TikTok driven era that we live in. If anyone from Luna Luna reads this, call me! Happy to consult!
Now on to today’s newsletter, which is a look at TikTok’s ghost kitchen concept, where you can have viral recipes delivered to your door.
Does TikTok Really Need a Virtual Restaurant?
I find myself thinking a lot about viral dishes, and what makes a dish go viral — especially on TikTok — all the time. (Is it my Roman Empire?) It seems like every other week, there is a different dish that the internet decides to collectively making together like Emily Mariko’s salmon and rice bowl, the upside-down puff pastry tarts, or dalgona coffee. The internet is obsessed for about two weeks until it moves on to the next thing.
TikTok is hoping to capitalize on these viral dishes and announced a massive expansion on their partnership this week with Virtual Dining concepts, a company that runs the cloud (or ghost) kitchens behind several celebrity concepts. It’s called Creators’ Kitchen As Seen On TikTok and according to a press release it’s offering a menu “inspired by the hottest viral food trends on TikTok, honoring the creators that created them.” There is a version that has been around since 2021, but now the concept is available in hundreds of markets across the country through the website for pick-up, or through delivery apps like Uber Eats and GrubHub.
The idea is that customers are able to pick from a rotating menu of “viral” dishes that will be made for them in a ghost kitchen and delivered to their door. I was recently hanging out at my parents house in Mid-Michigan, where the Creators’ Kitchen is available and they sent me one of everything available on the current menu, which is all Italian and unfortunately quite limited in scope: it’s mostly pasta (including the viral baked feta pasta), plus a handful of sandwiches, and a chicken dish.
Pasta Chips & Dips inspired by @bostonfoodgram
Baked Feta Pasta inspired by @feelgoodfoodie
Chopped Italian Sandwich inspired by @ninjacue
Crispy Lemon Chicken with Arugula inspired by @chefdonny
Creamy Shrimp Scampi Linguini inspired by @_jennadenise
Cajun Chicken Pasta inspired by @thewotondon
Italian Stuffed Bread Sandwich inspired by @justinpausutto
Best Pasta Ever inspired by @everything_delish
What’s interesting about Creators’ Kitchen is that it allows people on TikTok to actually monetize viral recipes. Often when a recipe goes viral, it’s great for account growth and brand recognition, but creators are rarely directly compensated for their recipes, unlike say a viral song, where artists are compensated for each time a song is used on a video.
While it is not super clear on the website, a representative for the company told me when I inquired that creators are compensated for their recipes, though it’s not clear how much each person makes. “We pay creators a upfront fee as well as an ongoing % of sales related to their dish,” says the representative. But there is also no guarantee that if a recipe goes viral that it will be picked up by Creators’ Kitchen. And while they do good job of attributing the recipes to a creator, there will no doubt be the day where more than one creator claims to have invented a viral recipe.
On the other hand, I still am not sure I really get the point of Creators’ Kitchen as it is currently set up and run. It ultimately misses the point of viral recipes — which is to be able to make them yourself. This is ultimately how a recipe goes viral in the first place: by people reposting TikToks (and Reels on Instagram) of them actually making the dish — or attempting to make the dish — or their riff on it. Essentially, you want to see if the recipe really works and it if actually tastes good. The ghost kitchen concept only really allows for the latter.
Also when you look at the recipes that do go viral, they all tend to follow a similar formula:
beloved/common ingredient + surprising use + easy = viral
Take the Feta Pasta for example:
Common Ingredient (Block of Feta) + Surprising Use (Baking it whole to make a pasta sauce) + Easy (dump ingredients into pan, put in oven, and combine when cooked) = Viral
I am not sure I need a ghost kitchen to deliver me feta pasta when the whole point of it is that it is incredibly easy to make in the first place.
The downside of the ghost kitchen model too is that creators have no control over the quality of the product that is being delivered, or how it is being delivered. Their dishes are not crafted with delivery in mind, and not all foods hold up well. So much of what was delivered to me was under seasoned, the chicken on both the pasta and the crispy lemon chicken both arrived soggy at best, and both the sandwiches had wet bread.
It’s also a deeply boring menu, that has littler consideration for novelty. For Creators’ Kitchen to be successful, it needs to lean into recipes that are not just viral, but also novel, and something that is not easily accessible elsewhere. Dishes like the Creamy Shrimp Scampi or the Best Pasta Ever (essentially a pasta all vodka) or crispy lemon chicken are not exactly novel or that different from what you might find on the standard menu of any Italian restaurant that does delivery. Arguably, those restaurants do it better.
Feels like a giant missed opportunity to not lean into the more creative dishes that are more out-of-the-box. The ones that maybe people would be hesitant to buy ingredients for and go through the effort of making because it’s not clear if it’s actually going to taste good. I would maybe order some carrot bacon, or ramen lasagna, or even an order of “corn ribs,” through Creators’ Kitchen out of sheer curiosity. The only item that makes sense on the current menu are the pasta chips, which require an air fryer to make quickly or an oven to make with a bit of patience — they are just novel enough and require equipment that everyone might not have — to justify ordering.
What I am most curious about is longevity. To base your business model on viral recipes, something that is ultimately a novelty and a trend with a short shelf life feels risky. Even the best viral recipes are rarely able to make the leap from something you might make once or twice into a recipe that is in regular rotation. (I made the feta pasta once, and while it was fine, I never felt the need to make it again.) There is an even larger hurdle to jump to get people to repeat order a viral recipe. I am just not sure who the audience really is.
Curious to know, would you order from TikTok Creators’ Kitchen? Have you ever made a viral recipe? Would love to know in the comments.