Vertical Microdramas Are Taking Over the Internet. Hollywood Is Ready to Cash In
The video that started Tineke "Tini" Younger's career as an online food personality wasn't a shot at virality -- it was the young chef's attempt to make dinner and practice her skills at the same time. She had just gotten home from a long day of culinary school and she and her boyfriend, Antoine Wright Jr., needed to eat. Since she had just finished a module on steak techniques, she fired up the grill. And then an idea hit her -- she should film it.
"I don't why I was like, 'I'm gonna record," Younger tells Rolling Stone. 'I didn't have a set up. I didn't have a tripod, lights, anything. But for some reason it blew up. And I realized, 'Oh, this is fun. People actually like watching me cook."
That might be a bit of an understatement. Since the 24-year-old creator posted her first popular cooking video in 2021, Younger has become one of the most popular food creators online. She shares easy, flavorful comfort dishes to her 11.9 million followers on TikTok, showing them helpful tips to successful meals and snacks. This isn't Michelin fare from a restaurant where you're afraid to use the wrong fork, or a culinary pop up that's all aesthetic vibes and no real bites of food. Younger specializes in weeknight dinner recipes like steak tacos, chicken alfredo, and barbecue salmon -- all filmed with ingredients, measurements, and helpful POV shots to show exactly what your pan should look like at each step. Her account got a huge boost from her appearance on Season Two of Fox's Next Level Chef, which came with several key endorsements from host Gordon Ramsay. But it's Younger's viral mac and cheese recipe -- one that requires pounds of cheese and a slightly finicky roux -- that turned the cooking creator from a constant on people's for-you-pages to a household (and pantry) name. Throughout her success, Younger remained a vocal advocate for food insecurity awareness in the U.S. -- something she's is a top priority for her. But most of all, Younger tells Rolling Stone that with every video, she wants to make cooking just a little less scary for the average person.
"It's normal to be a little intimidated by certain things, because you want to get it right. You don't want to burn anything. You want it all to turn out good," Younger says. "But in the kitchen, you're going to mess up, and that's okay. I mess up too. Sometimes."
Younger's first brush with cooking as a career path came during high school, when she had the option to enroll in a trade school class at 16. "I picked culinary because I heard you can eat food and [miss] two hours of school," she tells Rolling Stone. "So it was kind of a win-win for me." But to her surprise, Younger fell in love with the speed and hands-on nature of her catering course, taking it again for two more years. When she graduated during the Covid-19 pandemic, she immediately enrolled in culinary school, working at local restaurants as a line cook to earn money while attending classes. This grueling schedule, which included recording, editing, and posting nightly videos was a hustle that many of Younger's first followers tuned in to watch, a drive she believes gained her a fanbase willing to stick along even when she got more popular.
"I think people have stayed with me, because they see that I actually worked really hard," she says. "Nothing was really handed to me on a silver platter. People see how hard I've worked."
Younger's appeal also comes from the air of approachability that permeates her videos. At the time Younger first began posting, TikTok's food ecosystem had already exploded as creators took the app amid the pandemic. The space was in an elevated, emotional phase, where aesthetics were almost more important than taste, which meant you were most likely to hear a tender recollection about a cook's emotional tie to a family recipe or an almost professionally shot breakdown of a James Beard-eque meal with elaborate ingredients. This type of food content still exists, but Younger managed to tap into a small but growing side of food TikTok who were fatigued by the constant suggestion of cooking as an elaborate production. In a Chef Tini video, viewers could be sure of what they were getting -- a smiling Younger, a staple dish, an easy to follow guide on what to cook for dinner, and always, a very happy Wright Jr. -- now her husband -- as the parting shot. Many of those early clips were filmed in an average kitchen, and even plated on paper plates, adding to Younger's assertion that "This could easily be you."
"What started my videos was the question, 'Hey, what do you want to eat today?'" Younger explains. "I would ask Antoine, and it would be whatever would comfort him, too. So just became a team effort of 'What are we craving?'"
For Younger, comfort isn't just about finding the perfect seasoning for a dish. It's also about affordability. This year, as the U.S. government announced it would halt SNAP benefits on Nov.1, a suspension that the ended government shutdown still delayed for thousands of families across the states, Younger used her TikTok account to urge her followers and fellow food content creators to get serious about donating to local food banks and programs that target food insecurity. She tells Rolling Stone she cares deeply about the issue, because she knows what it's like to worry about going hungry.
"When I first started Tiktok, Antoine and I were both really broke. We could not make our rent, we were selling our furniture, we just couldn't afford certain things, basic necessities," she says. "And food is a basic necessity. Food should not be a privilege. It should be a right. So that's very important to me -- that kids should not be going hungry. They should not have to worry about when their next meal is."
Undoubtedly, Younger's biggest claim to culinary fame -- one that pops up every year around Thanksgiving -- is her famous mac and cheese recipe. Her version of the famed Thanksgiving dish uses cavatappi (corkscrew) pasta and a 2.5 pounds mixture of mozzarella, Colby Jack, and sharp cheddar cheese that she suggests you shred by hand. But the key is starting the process by making a roux, a French mixture of equal parts butter and flour that's typically used to thicken soups, sauces, and stews. Because the roux can burn easily, it requires low heat, constant stirring, and a watchful eye, traits the average TikTok user -- and their waning attention spans -- aren't known for. (The original video has been taken down due to copyright issues with the music, she says, but the recipe is still on her Substack.)
As Thanksgiving approaches, hundreds of followers have already flooded Younger's mentions to ask for advice on how to get the perfect mac and cheese. If that sounds familiar, it's because Younger's mac and cheese isn't just popular for its rich taste -- it's TikTok famous for how many people manage to absolutely fail at making it. In 2024, the turkey-forward holiday was absolutely dominated by a viral debate on whether or not Younger's recipe was worth it. Some people burned it so thoroughly the noodles turned grey, others added extraneous ingredients and then blamed Younger when they didn't make the dish taste better, while still others accused Younger of repackaging techniques and recipes made popular by the Black community. (Many of these complaints also insinuated that Wright Jr., who is Black, was responsible for Younger's signature cooking style -- a claim she brushes off. "[Antoine] wasn't even seasoning his chicken before he met me," she laughs.)
While Younger responded to the discourse in years past, and made a video a few weeks ago encouraging people to get their shelf stable ingredients early. She's not too pressed if you mess up this year, though as she's focused on her pregnancy with twins. ("It's definitely taking a big toll on my body right now," she says. "I'm out of breath just talking.") Burn it, break it, or deliver a perfect Thanksgiving offering -- Younger just doesn't want to hear about it. "It's my recipe. If you don't like it, it's fine. No one's forcing you to make it," Younger says. "But don't bring me into the mix. I'm literally growing two human beings -- I don't have time for this." But once she gives birth, and has plenty of time to bask in the joy of first-time motherhood, Younger says she's excited to get back to making and posting recipes.
"I want to teach everyone that wants to learn how to cook, even if they don't want to do it professionally," Younger says. "Even if it's just a simple mac and cheese recipe, that's a win in my books."