New York, Dec. 3 -- BuzzFeed’s Tasty today unveiled a new class of talent expanding Tasty’s roster of top Creators who will open up new partnership opportunities and appear in successful content formats that resonate with the Tasty audience. Esteemed chefs and lifestyle personalities Ellen Bennett of Hedley & Bennett, Esdras Ochoa of Final Table and Joe Sasto of Top Chef as well as Tasty’s own Alvin Zhou, Inga Lam and Merle O’Neal will join the program.
The six new Creators, including three fan-favorite Tasty producers and three culinary trailblazers, range in background and experiences - representing and catering to Tasty’s massive and diverse audience while also furthering Tasty’s mission to make cooking and food more fun and accessible. The new class of Creators join Tasty’s roster of top talent including Marcus Samuelsson, JJ Johnson, Kanchan Koya, Alix Traeger, Alexis deBoschnek and Rie McClenny.
Through the program, Tasty talent will appear in signature content formats and shows that consistently garner massive audiences like I Draw, You Cook which has more than 139 million views to date. The new class of Tasty Creators are being introduced to the audience through special programming as part of Tasty’s Holiday Hacks Week. By incorporating them into themed tentpole content, the Creators are becoming familiar faces in an organic way that showcases their backgrounds and personalities.
“By expanding our Talent Program, we now have even more ways for our audience to cook with Tasty and connect with our Creators, who are authentic extensions of the Tasty brand,” said Tasty’s Executive Producer Hannah Williams. “The new class is an amazing group of our homegrown talent and renowned chefs who are already giving brands a valuable way to integrate with Tasty and reach our massive audience through tried and true content formats.”
The Tasty Talent Program is part of BuzzFeed’s larger Creators Program, which extends across BuzzFeed brands and includes more than 40 Creators from identity-focused brands like Goodful for wellness and Nifty for home, as well as the first animated Creator, the wildly popular “Good Advice Cupcake.” The Creators Program extends opportunities for talent to appear in viral content, work around the world with top brands, and exponentially grow their social followings. BuzzFeed’s Creators reach nearly 17 million people across social platforms on their own, and that reach is amplified even further to BuzzFeed’s audience.
Tasty, the world’s largest social food network, reaches more than 400 million people a month globally. Since popularizing the top-down video format that revolutionized digital food media, Tasty has since become a fully diversified leading global food brand. Beyond its talent program, the brand also offers a series of best-selling cookbooks, an ever-expanding kitchenware line at Walmart, an app that makes cooking and grocery shopping with Tasty even easier, and global consumer food products.
About the Tasty Creators:
Ellen Bennett is the founder and CEO of Hedley & Bennett, a culinary workwear brand that outfits thousands of chefs, restaurants, brands and consumers around the world. Ellen started her cooking career in Mexico, where she attended culinary school, then as a line cook at Bäco Mercat and 2-Michelin starred Providence in Los Angeles, and has now become one of the most prominent figures in the world of food culture.
Esdras Ochoa is the founder & executive chef at Mexicali Taco & Co., 11 Westside in the Kennedy Town area in Hong Kong, and a co-founder/partner at Salazar restaurant in Los Angeles. In 2020, he will be opening Reunión 19 in Austin, TX. Born in Mexico City and raised in Mexicali and the US border town of Calexico, CA, Esdras’ food is inspired by his time spent in baja and his early career through a small taco stand business in downtown Los Angeles that eventually earned him the name as LA’s Taco King, Today, his main passion is sharing his heritage and culture through his cuisine to folks all around the world. Esdras was recently featured on Netflix’s ‘The Final Table.’
Joe Sasto was one of the top 3 final contestants on Top Chef S15. His signature style of cooking is primarily through "Fatto-a-Mano" pasta, making visually appealing and colorful food. He started his culinary career in the Bay Area mentoring under some of San Francisco's most acclaimed chefs in two and three-Michelin starred restaurants, and recently relocated to Los Angeles.
Alvin Zhou was one of Tasty’s first producers, who helped grow the brand into the world’s largest social food network. Alvin creates premium creative content including both long-form series and short-form recipe videos, and has consistently produced some of Tasty’s most popular videos since its founding in 2015. Alvin currently stars, produces and is the mastermind behind the hit series Making It Big. He was recognized in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2018.
Inga Lam is a Tasty producer who grew up in Hong Kong and Taiwan. She loves to travel and creates highly engaging content showcasing the intersection of food and culture, often recreating wildly visual never-seen-before foods from around the world. Inga also creates, produces and hosts various long-form series, including the popular show Trendy Vs. Traditional, and has produced some of Tasty’s most viral hits with over 200 million views across her videos.
Merle O’Neal is a Tasty producer who takes an honest and playful approach to wellness, producing educational and entertaining videos that promote a healthy lifestyle, such as “How To Regrow Fruit From Your Kitchen,” which is the most shared video in BuzzFeed’s history with over 380M views. Merle spearheaded the launch and helped grow Tasty Vegetarian and is behind some of the most viral vegan cooking content on the Internet.
About BuzzFeed:
BuzzFeed is the world’s leading tech-powered media company, with a cross-platform news and entertainment network that reaches hundreds of millions of people globally. The company produces articles, lists, quizzes, videos, original series; lifestyle content through brands including Tasty, the world’s largest social food network; original reporting and investigative journalism through BuzzFeed News; strategic partnerships, licensing and product development through BuzzFeed Marketing; and original productions across broadcast, cable, SVOD, film and digital platforms for BuzzFeed Studios.