TikTok Changed How We Cook. What Changes When It’s Gone?

Ahead of a potential ban of the app, The Times spoke to 11 prominent food content creators about what is at stake.

Whether you cherish your morning TikTok scroll or the mere mention of the video platform sends you shrieking into a sensory-deprivation pod, there is no denying that the app has fundamentally transformed culinary culture in the United States.

The app has saved restaurants from closing, helped strangers form tight-knit communities and occasionally made Americans feel a little less alone. And for recipe developers, chicken-tender reviewers and everyone in between, TikTok has presented the opportunity to build a substantial livelihood somewhat casually using the app’s creator fund, which pays users directly based on video views, as well as through sponsorships with brands. If the new American dream is to go viral, then clicking “post” on TikTok is the modern equivalent of punching in at 9 a.m.

Last year, President Biden signed a bill into law that could lead to a ban of the app in the United States on Jan. 19. Last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments from both sides of the debate. As a potential ban looms, we spoke to 11 influential TikTok food content creators about what is at stake. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Ed Kim: When we started TikTok, mom really had no retirement in sight — she was going to work 40 hours a week at a casino until her body physically couldn’t do her job anymore. I have hundreds of thousands in student loan debt. So when TikTok came up and we started to see we can make a decent amount of money to pay the rent, that’s when it clicked: This is real.

There have been really cool opportunities not only money wise, but opening her eyes to different food and cultures, and then we get to spend a lot of time together, too. The thing mom says is that it’s like her second life. She never really expanded outside of McDonald’s breakfast, or things like that. It’s a whole new world — trying Indian food for the first time.