Apart from being a health emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a nightmare for economies around the world. With businesses closed during the lockdowns, millions of people, especially those working in the hospitality industry, lost their jobs and struggled to make their ends meet. One such story is of London-based chef Poppy O’Toole, who used to work at a kitchen before the outbreak of the virus forced him out of work.
Poppy is a Michelin-trained chef and has been working in kitchens since the age of 18. The pandemic forced her out of work and she struggled to pay her house rent. According to Daily Mail, Poppy moved to her parent’s house for the time being where she started uploading recipe videos on TikTok with some help from her siblings. Her initial uploads failed to strike a chord with the users and they went unnoticed.
And just then the magic formula popped up. Poppy uploaded a potato recipe on her TikTok account and it grabbed instant attention online. People loved her passion for potato recipes and creativity, and it racked over a million views. Poppy followed the video with other potato recipes, and it became a series. She experimented with new dishes featuring potatoes and made ‘spudnuts’, doughnuts made of potatoes
From 10,000 followers, Poppy climbed up to 1 million followers overnight and she became an internet sensation.
Cut to 2021, Poppy now has partnered with many big names and brands that include the likes of American Express. Her videos garner over 3 lakh views daily with many, many comments. She is now a full-time social media influencer and has no plans to go back to her previous job. Poppy said that her new job is much better than being a chef and she earns more. She soon will be launching her own recipe book.
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