erewhon hauls, ozempic, and chefluencers

(gentle music)

- Oh, hot.

(bird chirping)

(cat purring)

Hi, my name is Mina Le.

And on this channel I talk about fashion, food.

No, that's not right.

Fashion, media, and culture.

But today I am gonna be talking about food.

(gentle music)

- Is Ozempic right for me?

- Hmm.

- I wanted to know if you'd like to go out

to dinner with me Saturday.

- I'm like super distracted at this moment

because I just got my nails done the other day.

I had previously gotten my nails done recently,

but then I was at this shoot and it was very high production

because there was a manicurist on set.

I have never been to a shoot with a manicurist on set.

And they wanted a different look for my nails

so they gave me these talons.

I don't think there were any photographs

that actually showed my hands

because they were all portraits.

So that was kind of like sad 'cause they look sickening.

But the downside is

I don't really ever keep my nails this long.

Like this is like really, this is really long for me

because I grew up playing piano and you know,

you just like can't play piano with long nails.

But I can't do anything.

I feel like I'm Edward Scissorhands right now.

Okay, so yeah, today I am talking about food,

but I will be talking also about like

wellness and fashion and beauty because it's all connected.

I don't know, I was like inspired to do this

because I don't know if I'm just at the age

where food becomes more topical

because I perpetually feel like my body can't bounce back

from a diet of instant ramen and iced coffee anymore

or if something specifically has shifted

in the cultural zeitgeist.

But whatever it is, I'm not alone,

because apparently zoomers care a lot about food.

Vogue Business reported last year,

coming out of the pandemic and into a recession,

food has remained a status symbol

for some price sensitive Gen Zs,

much like a luxury item or piece of music merch,

experts agree.

Out of 166 16 to 24-year-old

Teen Vogue, Glamour, and Allure readers in the US,

more than half have bought

what they consider to be luxury food or drink.

in the last year.

Probably no other luxury food business has gotten

as much hype online as Erewhon,

an expensive supermarket chain in LA.

Last year, The Cut published a viral piece

on zoomers reportedly working two jobs

to afford daily Erewhon,

spending upwards of $200 a week.

I think the rise in luxury food purchases is in part

the lipstick effect at work.

The lipstick effect is this economic phenomenon

where people stop spending money on big ticket items

like a fancy car or luxury vacation

and instead treat themselves to small things

that make them feel good like lipstick,

hence the name.

It's this idea that basically

no matter what the economic circumstances are,

people still want to engage in

some kind of frivolous consumption to make them feel better.

- There's so many beautiful things out there to buy,

how can you possibly resist them?

- So today I wanna talk about food trends,

the Gen Z and millennial focus on wellness and organics,

the luxury coating of food itself,

and the rise of the chefluencer.

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(keyboard clacking)

In her 2016 book

"Feast for the Eyes: The Story of Food in Photography,"

Susan Bright wrote,

"Ultimately, food is not only about literal taste,

but also about Taste with a capital T,

both the lifestyles we aspire to

and the building blocks of culture itself.

- People's idea of luxury right now isn't even luxury.

It's somebody being able to go to the grocery store

and get a full cart and call it a grocery hall.

- Even though it feels dystopian to say

that food is a luxury,

this has always been the case.

The rich have always had a different diet

from the middle class and the poor.

For example, the food served at Louis XIV's banquets

in the 17th century were more lavish

than any of the food eaten in the rest of France.

His chefs would request exotic foods from other countries

or ingredients that were rare and expensive.

Louis XIV stomach was allegedly

three times the size of an average adult.

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And even the manner of eating was vastly different.

One practice that was formalized during his reign

but was actually popular during the Middle Ages,

so he didn't invent this,

it's the service a la francaise,

which is a system by which the dishes for each course are

laid out all on the table all at once,

emphasizing the aesthetic importance of presenting the food

and making sure that the dishes

all like go together aesthetically.

Louis' banquets also featured musicians and dancers

for additional entertainment

and there was this idea that

each banquet had to outdo the last.

Louis put a high value on aesthetics during his reign

and his court invested heavily

in France's art's, fashion and cuisine.

And the impact can be felt still today

with the way that people romanticize France.

According to fashion historian Valerie Steele,

"The theater of power was very important.

Louis XIV wanted to make sure that his appearance

and the appearance of his courtiers

were in accordance with his idea of being

a modern, powerful, civilized monarch,

no longer just a warrior king from the Middle Ages,

but a real kind of Sun King

with all the kinds of mythological connotations."

Yeah, if you didn't know,

Louis XIV was also called the Sun King.

The last French queen Marie Antoinette

continues to carry the legacy of French aristocracy

and I'd argue is actually more linked with extravagance

than Louis XIV,

at least in like popular culture.

The most famous pop culture example is of course

Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette,"

which features the iconic I want candy sequence

that takes absolutely no prisoners

in showing the level of excess afforded to her in real life.

As Elizabeth Way writes,

"Fashion and food may be

the most potent symbols of aristocratic extravagance

and these ideas persist in contemporary culture."

- Let them eat cake.

- For Moschino Fall Winter 2020 collection,

Jeremy Scott dressed his models in garments

that looks like cakes and pastries.

The collection intended to draw attention

to decadence and class inequality.

References to Marie Antoinette

were used to really drive home the theme.

According to the runway show notes,

"The confectionary cocktail dresses stand as a sly comment

on the denseness of certain people in power."

Even though you could say that critiquing class

by producing a luxury collection is

having your cake and eating it too.

No pun intended.

Scott has said about it,

"All I can do is offer respite.

Even if you continue to fight, you need that moment of joy.

We all need something uplifting.

My role on this Earth has only ever been

to spread joy and bring happiness."

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It seems like today, to the mainstream at least,

daily healthy groceries is probably considered

more luxurious than like elaborate, buttery, one-off meals

allied dining at a French restaurant.

Though I think just because of

how dominant the French are in high culture,

French food will probably

always be considered luxurious on some level,

so I'm like not worried about them.

Given the shift towards healthy eating,

I thought I'd give a brief overview about

why healthy food costs so much.

There's actually so much more than what I'm going to say,

so I highly suggest reading

"Food Power" by Brian L. McDonald

if you wanna learn more about his food system.

I like relied on it very heavily for all my discoveries.

But I'm going to start in the 1950s.

The 1950s is stereotyped as being like the casserole era

and also the era of those

really weird gross-looking savory gelatin dishes.

I love being Asian.

The '50s was also known for

bringing convenient foods into the American diet

such as frozen orange juice concentrate

and canned chicken breast,

which I don't even know if they still sell

because I don't think I've ever seen that on the shelves.

Packaged cake mixes were first introduced in 1947

and by 1957 accounted for

more than half of the homemade cakes in America.

People liked these pre-made or easy to prep food options

because it gave them more flexibility

to manage their schedules.

As Fortune described the trend in 1953,

"With babies to take care of,

jobs to hold down, and maids scarce,

housewives look to the food processors to perform

many of the services formally carried on

in the family kitchen."

Changing food preferences helped grow the food market

to a $60 billion industry in 1953.

$10 billion more than industry specialists had predicted.

And on the flip side,

home production of foods AKA foods grown in home gardens

continued to decline from at least

1/3 of America's food production before World War I

to 18% in 1942 to just 8% in 1955.

There were also all these technological breakthroughs

that made food production faster,

created more secure packaging,

and better preserved food texture and flavor.

What this also meant though was that

many produced products were roughly the same.

As a result, companies spent more

on advertising and promotional efforts

to make their products more appealing than competitors

with the hopes of building brand loyalty.

♪ Soup and sandwich ♪

♪ Soup and sandwich ♪

♪ Have your favorite Campbell's soup and sandwich ♪

- For example, one grocery store advertisement from 1955

urged shoppers to stockpile only quality IGA brand foods

to prepare for a nuclear attack.

By 1954, the USDA reported that the value added

by manufacturing and food processing had risen considerably

and Americans were paying $4 billion a year more,

adjusted for price changes,

than they did a 1939 for the convenience of products

that transferred some of the work of food preparation

from the home to the factory.

But then in the 1960s an organic movement grew traction

with principles focused on offering

a sustainable, healthy, fair, and safe alternative

to the corporate monster

that industrialized agriculture had become.

Organic agriculture sought to bring

food production systems back to the land

and operate within the limits of nature.

Nowadays the term organic is arguably greenwashing.

I'd recommend reading

Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma"

to get a better understanding of the industry.

But in short, the USDA implemented

a very watery set of standards

for what's considered organic.

Pollan calls the large companies

that produce organic food using industrial methods

as big organic.

And although they grow products

without synthetic pesticides and fertilizers

as required by the USDA,

they often engage in long distance transportation,

energy-intensive production, unethical migrant labor,

and animal cruelty.

As an example, on his book,

Pollan talks about a company called Petaluma Poultry.

He picked up a chicken from this company

from the supermarket

that claimed to be a sustainably farmed, free-range,

and even the company gave this chicken a name Rosie.

He ended up visiting the farm

and found it to be more of an animal factory.

Rosie lived in a shed with a 20,000 other Rosies

who lived very similar lives

to any other industrial chicken.

Other than the fact that their feet is certified organic,

the free-range label was allowed

because there was a little door in the shed

that led to a narrow grassy yard,

but the door remained shut

until the birds were at least five or six weeks old

to prevent them from potentially catching any diseases

and then the chickens were slaughtered only two weeks later.

So for most of their life they spend it

not seeing any sunlight or grass.

Well, I can believe that organic feed and fertilizers

cost more than synthetic ones,

which might justify a higher price

for organic goods than non-organic.

I also often wonder if organic industrial farms

know they can upcharge more

because people assume that these farms,

these companies are going above and beyond

a standard commercial farm

when in reality they aren't.

I mean studies show Americans are prepared to pay premium

to enhance their wellbeing.

Regardless the ability for big organic to function

means that smaller, more ethical farms are squashed out.

Something else I learned in the book is that

supermarket chains don't wanna work

with dozens of different organic farmers.

They'd rather work with one company that is big enough

to offer a complete line of fruits and vegetables

every SKU in the produce section.

Which means not only are small farms

having trouble finding buyers,

but also that it becomes more difficult for consumers

to find and buy quality food.

I think the positive thing though is that more consumers are

starting to recognize the lie of big organic.

And this is why the people who have the means are

more attracted to farmer's markets and grocery stores

like Erewhon which is a certified B Corp,

a certification meaning that

the company is ethical and sustainable.

However, I think I should mention

that large companies like Nespresso,

which I feel like at least

have a pretty large carbon footprint from their coffee pods

achieved the certification

which makes me question how rigorous the review process is.

But whether or not Erewhon is

as sustainable as they market themselves to be,

I'm still waiting for an Erewhon a tell-all documentary.

People believe it and they're willing to pay for it.

Also, there's been a growing concern

over health and wellness in the culture in general.

McKinsey's latest future of wellness research

found that zoomers and millennials are purchasing

more wellness products and services

than older generations across the US, China, and the UK.

Ballooning into an industry valued at $23.5 billion in 2023.

In terms of the food side of

the health and wellness category,

American consumers are buying more superfoods

investing in probiotic foods to improve their gut health

and approximately 28% of Americans are consuming

more protein than before.

A lot of this interest probably has to do with

having more access to information,

and then of course social media,

and the consequent focus on

appearance and desire for community.

I'm sure a good number of people

bought the Hailey Bieber Erewhon smoothies

for the sole purpose of being able to take part in a trend.

Me included, I'm not better than anyone else.

And my honest review is that

the smoothie was too sweet for my taste,

but Erewhon's non-celebrity affiliated mango smoothie,

which I can't remember the name of,

I tried that the last time I was in LA

and it was quite good.

Another reason is potentially COVID-19

and how it made us all consider

our health and wellness more seriously.

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Since the pandemic, I'd say,

we've seen the rise of a certain type of influencer,

the chefluencer,

AKA an influencer who makes cooking videos for social media

and who may or may not be working as an actual chef.

I would that the social media interest in chefs

mostly stem from pandemic cooking content

in which more people were at home

and either wanted to learn to cook to avoid eating out

or experimented in the kitchen to pass the time.

This meant that there were more people

wanting to make cooking content.

- [Narrator] Prep with me

for my client's 16-person dinner party.

- Here's the green onion.

- [Narrator] Thyme, garlic, and a little bit of butter

to base the steak.

- But also more people wanting to consume said content.

But we also have to talk about Jeremy Allen White

whose consistent placement on

the white boy of the month charts probably helped.

White has been in Hollywood for a bit of time now,

but his role as sexy chef Carmy in The Bear

catapulted him into the spotlight

and memefied kitchen lingo like yes, chef.

Riding the hot chef wave last year The Cut published a piece

profiling the rise of thirst trap chefs

like Cedrik Lorenzen and Anthony Randello

who not only cook topless

but also make explicitly central gestures

to the food they're handling.

- How many people were scared?

Me too, I was really, really scared.

- I'm not sure if these guys are

killing two birds with one stone

by using TikTok as both their job and their dating app

or if they've just realized that to go viral

you have to be a bit more creative and theatrical.

Whatever the reason,

I think part of why they've become so successful doing this

is because of how cooking has been

traditionally delegated as a woman's tour

and so there is something pleasing or cringeworthy

or at least interesting about

seeing a man embracing that role

and putting an aggressively masculine spin on it.

To clarify,

this kind of cooking content does not work on me.

I'm not like you bitches, just kidding.

But I see why it's appealing for some women.

Dani Maher wrote for Esquire about these TikTok creators

and notes that for men the kitchen is a playground.

She quotes academic Irina Mihalache who wrote,

"The process of making cooking safe for men included

the emphasis on play and experimentation

as the main difference

between masculine cooking and domestic suburban cooking.

While women cooked out of necessity,

the new man of the 1960s cooked out of pleasure."

Maher notes,

"Perhaps it is this blend of pleasure and play

with the expertise these hot chefs exemplify

that is key.

Those are some of the traits we associate

with people who cook us luscious meals

and we can't help

but imagine how such traits might extend into, say,

their approach to romance."

I would say that the traits associated with a guy

who cooks for fun include creativity, passion, discipline,

and knowledge of how to use his hands.

And imagining someone who loves to cook for you every meal,

a task that many of us don't enjoy doing

or at least I don't enjoy doing is also appealing.

Woman chefs have benefited too though.

Gabbriette who had a bit of a following

from being in the band Nasty Cherry exploded in popularity

when she started producing cooking videos.

While her food looks good,

I think the whole package of being a pretty girl

with a strong aesthetic

who has a hobby is what makes her successful.

Viktoriia Vasileva writes in her Substack,

"It's cool to be hot

but in today's oversaturated influencer economy,

it's even cooler if you are hot and have a hobby.

It's also refreshing to see content creators

care about something more than

the likes and comments that they get."

Fashion model food content is nothing new, okay?

There's a bunch of videos on YouTube of

Victoria's Secret models

vlogging about what they eat in a day.

Usually it's less well received

the non-model food influencer content I find,

which I'll talk about later,

but what makes Gabbriette interesting is that

she breaks away from the mold of like

acai bowls and superfood powders

to like actual foods that could be appealing to non-models

such as empanadas and scallop crudo.

She still does have a mostly health conscious way of eating.

She often makes recipes that are grain free

with vegan ingredients,

but it seems like she's actually interested

in making food that she wants to eat

and not just making food that she's like supposed to eat.

This is all on top of having actual culinary skills,

which cannot be said for some models.

I think what works for Gabbriette is that

she doesn't try to be relatable.

I think especially in the realm of food,

a lot of people have difficulty seeing models as relatable.

Being able to cook good food

and recreate recipes of existing supermarket products is

incredibly impressive

and it's a very niche skill.

And something that I think people would watch

even if like the person making this content

wasn't conventionally attractive,

but obviously it still helps if you are.

That's not to say that every model with cooking skills is

getting positive attention though.

Nara Smith, a model and home cook

became notorious on TikTok for her slow cooking videos,

and I really mean slow cooking.

- [Nara] Toddlers requested some yogurt this morning

and we were running low,

so I just decided to make it myself.

- [Mina] Nara is a stay-at-home mom.

She has two young kids, is pregnant,

and spends most of her day cooking for her family

while wearing beautiful outfits.

Her husband is also a model and a Mormon,

which has caused many people to believe

that they're pushing Mormon propaganda.

I wanna add though that Nara has recently said

she's not a practicing Mormon

and the two were not married in a temple.

- I don't wear garments, I didn't get married in the temple.

Both me and my husband are on our own journeys

and figuring out how we want to raise our kids.

- I personally have no issue with Nara.

And what I find really weird about all of this is that

she's sort of become the poster child

for the whole tradwife movement

when to my knowledge,

she has never said her lifestyle is better

than other people's

and she's never said that woman like shouldn't be working.

She hasn't said anything crazy.

And she's also not even fully

a stay-at-home mom in my opinion,

because in my opinion,

anyone who's monetizing content on TikTok is

not a stay-at-home mom.

They are like a work from home mom.

She's a content creator.

And also while I think that

she probably loves cooking like genuinely,

I highly doubt that she spends this much time cooking

every single thing that her kids eat.

But also if she had the time and she loves to do it,

then like who cares?

I think the root cause of people's fury

towards Nara Smith is because they feel that

she's encapsulating like the perfect ideal of motherhood

that's been spoonfed to all of us by Western society.

She's a rich young mom

who spends a lot of time nurturing her family.

She loves doing it, and she's beautiful,

and never seems stressed and never complains online.

And it's also not lost in me that she's Black

and Black women are held to remarkably unfair standards,

especially when it comes to motherhood.

The writer of the Substack CartoonsHateHer,

wrote a really great essay on

the feeling of guilt a lot of mothers have

that I think is relevant

and also really nice

because she writes like as a mother herself.

She writes,

"This is one reason that mom discourse is so toxic.

When you say that you've made a certain decision,

for example, working versus staying home

or using screens versus not using screens,

you are implying that

the other choice is harmful to children,

or at least not beneficial.

You can say, this is just me,

I don't judge anyone who does things differently

as I often do,

but the implication is there.

You made the choice for a reason.

Yes, every kid is different,

but on some level you think you chose the better thing,

otherwise, why would you have chosen it?

It can be difficult to reach across the aisle sometimes

and talk with women who have made

all the opposite decisions we have,

feeling neither judgmental of them or judged by them."

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Regardless of how we feel towards certain food influencers,

the one thing that's true is that food is in.

And brands who are always

quick to cash in on a mainstream interest

are pivoting towards food as well.

Technically this isn't like a super new idea.

Giorgio Armani made history in 1998

when he opened the first luxury branded restaurant,

the Emporio Armani cafe in Paris.

At the time, Armani told Forbes that he wanted

a new concept to give customers a break from shopping,

a place to have lunch or a drink after work.

But the difference is in those days,

branded restaurants were developed

to keep customers in the store longer

with the hope that they would spend more.

It was a sort of like bonus thing for existing clients.

But now there are restaurants designed

as marketing attractions

with the goal of acquiring new customers.

Zoe Hofman writes for nss magazine,

"Not only does it increase revenue,

but it also solidifies brands

as more than just places to buy clothes,

they become cultural elements of society,

recognized for more than their collections.

And of course, working with Michelin-starred chefs

means the food is delicious,

which is always a positive point."

These restaurants allow luxury brands

to fold in more people into their brand community

without having to compromise their clothing prices.

A Gucci Osteria burger at their Beverly Hills location

will cost you about $48 before tax and tip,

which is still considered quite a lot for a burger,

but is much more affordable

compared to anything they sell at their boutiques.

Ralph Lauren actually offers two tiers of food pricing,

a model that mimics how the brand offers

both expensive and cheaper clothing lines.

Their Polo Bar in Manhattan qualifies

for a $3 sign rating I think.

But for anyone who doesn't pay $45 for a branzino,

but who still wants to be folded

into the Ralph Lauren brand,

well lucky for them they can purchase a latte

from the brand's coffee stand Ralph's Coffee for under $10.

Having drank a luxury branded coffee from a redacted brand

because you know, I'm not trying to start any drama,

I can say there's nothing really special

about branded coffee,

at least the one I had.

The only thing that's special is the logoed coffee cup,