How viral cooking TikTok creator Sad Papi got his job
Did you go to culinary school or college? Would you recommend it?
I kind of did it backwards. I started working in the restaurant industry, for about three years, and then I went to culinary school at the Art Institute in Hollywood. I was already working in restaurants and I grew up with cooks, so I felt like I didn’t get as much out of [culinary school] as I thought I was going to. And I got a mountain of student debt.
If you don’t know the fundamentals, like terminology and basic cooking techniques, then culinary school is going to be worth it. If you already have fair cooking chops, then I would say it’s probably not worth it. It’s very expensive for the salary you’re going to get afterward.The first time I felt successful was the first time I got a dish on the menu at Redbird. Chef Neal was super cool and if you thought you had something good, you could make it [for the staff].
I had downloaded TikTok just to pass the time and I kept seeing food videos. I was like, “I can do that.” So I just posted a video and said, “Hey, I’m a cook. If I started posting food videos, would anybody be interested in watching?” And I think that video got over a million views in a day, so I just started posting short little videos of recipes and cooking hacks from a restaurant worker and it blew up. It was just for fun and I was doing it until I found another restaurant job.