From chef to global star thanks to TikTok

Laurent Dagenais might be a name you know. Many of you follow him on social networks, and he is the one who is followed by more than one million eight hundred thousand subscribers on TikTok.

A year ago, the creator gave up his restaurant career to make a living on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram and is now glamorizing all over the world.

So our host Pierre-Olivier Zappa went to meet this culinary maestro who shows that great things can be done in his apartment kitchen!

“During COVID, I was kind of thinking ‘well, how do you stay healthy and also keep the passion for cooking alive,’ so I decided to make little videos of having fun at home when I’m alone,” explains Mr. Degenes.

The chef explains that he is no longer alone in his kitchen creating his videos.

“When I met Amandine, she started shooting videos for me, editing them,” he explains. “She convinced me to start a TikTok account. I thought it was for shuffle dance videos, but I eventually left an account and it went through the roof.”

Today, tens of millions of people around the world see the capsules Mr. Dagenais makes on TikTok.

“I think the best thing about a phone is the feeling of being able to almost feel like you’re in the kitchen with the person,” explains the chef. “It’s not an overly edited video with special effects and high-quality cameras, so I think people appreciate that it was actually shot on a phone.”

Despite the happiness a creator can have in capsules like Mr. Dagenais, the monetary aspect always remains an issue.

“In Canada, TikTok does not provide access to the Creators Fund,” Dagenais said. “TikTok has an annual budget that’s going to be broken down into the largest accounts, the most views, and I don’t have access to that here, so for me, the first revenue is about the sponsors.”

On top of that, the content creator ended his fiscal year with billings of over a quarter of a million dollars and hopes he can continue to live off his passion.

Watch the full interview in the video above.