Photo: Courtesy TikTok
TikTokhas become a mecca fortrendy recipe videos, and now it’s about to serve up some of those creations to hungry customers looking to try the food without actually stepping foot in the kitchen.
The menu will be made up of TikTok’s top viral dishes, like the smash burger, pasta chips, corn ribs, and the famous baked feta pasta —the most searched dish of the year, according to Google. Some of those items might stay around permanently while others will come and go as they trend, with the menu and locations amended quarterly.
The goal is to take advantage of TikTok’s user base, and quickly cash in on the trends popping on the food scene.
“Look, you have a platform with a billion viewers monthly who are constantly engaged, as the numbers show,” restauranteur and Virtual Dining Concepts co-founder Robert Earl toldBloomberg News, who was first to report on the pursuit. “It’s the first time there’s a brand like this out there—an audience of hundreds of millions of people.”
Shay Spence
Virtual Dining Concepts has found success with this model before, partnering with celebrities like Mariah Carey (Mariah’s Cookies) and even brands like Barstool Sports (Barstool Bites) on promotional delivery options.
They also partnered with YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson — a top creator on the site who publishes elaborate stunts under the screen name MrBeast — to create the delivery-only fast-food restaurant chainMrBeast Burgerlast November. In three months, the eatery sold 1 million burgers. The concept has since spread with over 1,000 locations in North America and Europe alone, and more on the way.
Earl toldBloomberghe foresees the TikTok spot will have success on par with MrBeast.
He plans to take advantage of the national chains he already owns, allowing the TikTok Kitchen to operate out of Buca di Beppo and Bertucci’s as well.
And Grubhub has signed on on TikTok Kitchen’s official delivery partner.
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As for the original creators of these recipes, TikTok said in a release that a cut of its profits will be going to them and other up-and-coming food creators on their platform.
“Proceeds from TikTok Kitchen sales will go to both support the creators who inspired the menu item, and to encourage and assist other creators to express themselves on the platform in keeping with TikTok’s mission to inspire creativity and bring joy to its users,” TikTok said in a statement to Tech Crunch.
“I’m doing it as a business,” Earl toldBloomberg. “TikTok are doing it for development of that category. It’s an investment in their business.”
The names of the dish creators will be on the TikTok Kitchen menus,TikTok told PEOPLE in a statement, and said those creators “will be featured prominently throughout promotion.”
source: people.com
