The eight hottest food and drink influencers of 2023

The vlogger

Logan Paul has developed a few strings to his bow since making his online debut via the now defunct video-sharing platform Vine in 2013.

Not only has he built a combined social media following of around 85 million, many of whom follow the 27-year-old’s YouTube channel of short films, pranks, challenges and comedy sketches, but he’s also a WWE professional wrestler and an actor with roles in a handful of films and TV shows.

Needless to say, the YouTuber isn’t short of a quid or two, earning an estimated $120m through YouTube advertising and sponsored posts in the past few years, working with major brands from PepsiCo to HBO and US clothing chain Hanes.

The deals wouldn’t have come cheap either, with reports by Forbes that he nets around $150,000 per sponsored Facebook post and $80,000 per Instagram post.

But it’s hard to question his formidable pulling power for Gen Z. For proof, sceptics need look no further than the launch of energy drink brand Prime, which Paul co-launched with fellow YouTuber KSI in 2022, and which has led to carnage in UK stores, with limited supply still today leading products to sell out in minutes; with kids and teenagers pictured clambering over each other to grab a bottle after joining long queues outside stores as early as 5am; with huge mark-ups in some convenience stores; and bottles selling for hundreds and sometimes thousands of pounds on eBay.

Paul isn’t without controversy though. In 2018, YouTube cut some business ties with the vlogger after he posted a video showing the body of an apparent suicide victim in Japan, triggering widespread criticism.

Megan Rossi

The health guru

Megan Rossi is part of a new wave of health and fitness influencers. Where once all it took was an impressive set of abs for social media stars to attract followers and dish out flimsy advice on workouts and nutrition, there’s now an increasing savviness among young audiences, who are now turning to personalities with a little more substance.

Rossi is the epitome of that shift. Not only has she worked as a registered dietician and nutritionist for over a decade, she’s published a PhD in gut health, works as a leading research fellow at King’s College London, and opened The Gut Health clinic in London, charging up to £200 for a one-hour consultation.

In short, she knows what she’s talking about. And that expertise has fuelled the growth of Rossi’s social media presence, with nearly half a million followers on Instagram tuning in for a mix of her science-based recipes, advice and debunking of common gut myths.

Not only has her profile netted her a column on The Daily Mail, regular TV slots on daytime show This Morning and two bestselling books, she’s also attracted the attention of some big brands. Most recently Rossi worked with Holland & Barrett to share the importance of their #pootaboo movement.

As you’d expect, she’s selective though, preserving most of her social media feed for organic content and marketing her own brand Bio&Me, which she co-founded in 2019 alongside ex-Nestlé marketing director Jon Walsh. The range of prebiotic granolas, porridges and live yoghurts have now become one of the UK’s fastest-growing health brands.

Poppy O’Toole

The viral foodie

Poppy O’Toole has much to thank the humble spud for. After the Michelin-trained chef lost her job as a sous chef in a high-end private members’ club in Mayfair during the initial stages of the pandemic, she began posting cooking videos on TikTok.

Her goal was simply to make people laugh, she later said. But her humour and unfussy style quickly gained traction, with her indulgent potato recipes proving especially popular in the midst of a never-ending wave of miserable lockdowns.

Think slow-baked buttered potato slices deep-fried until golden and crispy, or garlic-buttered gnocchi with crispy sage. The former tickled TikTok’s tastebuds so much it received 60 million views (and counting) and firmly cemented O’Toole as the ‘Potato Queen.’ Gwyneth Paltrow even shared herself trying out one of O’Toole’s recipes.

O’Toole positions herself as an antidote to the Instagrammable plates that much of gen Z have grown up striving for. “I just want something quick and delicious that I can shove in my gob and enjoy every mouthful,” she told a student magazine. “It doesn’t need to be fancy. It just needs to be delicious food.”

The approach clearly plugged a gap. Now with over 3.8 million followers on TikTok and half a million on Instagram, the young chef has gone on to launch her debut cookbook, work as a judge on the BBC’s debut series of Young MasterChef and star in E4’s Celebrity Cooking School.

She’s also now partnered with the likes of cookware brands Ninja Kitchen UK and Tefal, whipping up recipes for a series using their range of pans, as well as Knorr and – of course – Jersey Royal potatoes.

Molly Mae Hague

The Love Islander

Love it or loathe it, Love Island is a force to be reckoned with. When the reality TV show first hit UK screens in 2015, featuring a cast of beautiful, tanned singletons looking for ‘love’ in a Spanish villa, it created a buzz unseen since the first three seasons of The X Factor.

And, despite plenty of controversies along the way, the format hasn’t lost its appeal in the seven years since, with 2022 marking its most-watched season ever and 3.4 million tuning into its ITV finale in August.

The show turns its bevy of beautiful stars into overnight celebrities, many walking away with modelling contracts, TV gigs and lucrative brand ambassador roles. But undoubtedly the most commercially successful of this group is Molly Mae Hague, who shot to fame during the show’s fifth season and, at just 23 years old, has an estimated net worth of £4.5m thanks to a slew of brand deals and a social media following of no less than 6.8 million.

She’s also one of the few Love Islanders to remain loved up, having given birth to her first child with Tommy Fury in January after the pair finished as runners-up in the series.

Not only did Hague quickly land a six-figure deal with fast fashion chain PrettyLittleThing in 2019, for whom she is creative director, she’s also worked as an ambassador for cosmetics companies Beauty Works and Cosmetips, as well as launching her own tanning line.

The influencer has sometimes played fast and loose with advertising rules though, falling foul of the ASA in July 2022 for failing to tell followers her outfit was part of an advertisement – something Hague brushed off as simply a “mistake”.

Amelia Dimoldenberg

The YouTuber

Known for her deadpan humour, sarcasm and awkward silences, Amelia Dimoldenberg has reimagined the celebrity interview for the gen Z era.

Creator of ‘dating show’ Chicken Shop Date, in which the British journalist sits down with famous faces in – you guessed it – a fried chicken shop, Dimoldenberg has steadily grown the concept to an almost cult status, with nearly two million YouTube subscribers and everyone from US rapper Jack Harlow to actress Keke Palmer and fellow interviewer Louis Theroux taking a seat opposite Dimoldenberg. Such is her clout that she reportedly turned down an offer for a date with Drake after his busy schedule meant the show would need to be filmed in Sweden. It would need to happen in the UK, she told the musician. “That’s what the fans want.”

It’s this deep understanding of what young audiences want that has propelled Dimoldenberg out of the chicken shop and into a raft of mainstream presenting gigs in recent years, fronting shows for ITV, Channel 4 and even interviewing A-listers on the red carpet at the Golden Globes. She’s also partnered with a growing number of brands all keen to leverage her insight into a gen Z mindset, from Nando’s to Rightguard and Popchips. In January she was announced as the latest ambassador for P&G-owned Olay UK, adding a dash of her irreverent humour to a witty TV ad and set of social media shorts. She has plans for plenty more projects in the future too. “My ambitions are much larger than [Chicken Shop Date] and I need to ensure that it’s not going to go on forever,” she told GQ. “The shop must close down at some point.”

Baga Chipz

The drag queen

Few reality TV shows can rival the cultural impact of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Premiering in the US in 2009, the trailblazing format pits a group of drag queens against one another with colourful, hilarious and – sometimes – heart-breaking results. Not only has the show given rise to some of the 21st century’s most affirmative one-liners – “if you can’t love yourself, then how the hell you gonna love somebody else?” – but it’s flown the flag for the power of greater diversity and inclusivity on primetime TV, shaping the popular culture gen Z has grown up with.

Which is why, when RuPaul brought the show to the UK in 2019, it turned many of its contestants into overnight sensations, including Baga Chipz. Finishing in third place on the first series, the English drag queen charmed viewers (and judges) with her confidence, slapstick comedy catwalks, and imitations of everyone from the Queen to Margaret Thatcher.

Drag Race wasn’t her first TV appearance. Chipz first appeared on screens in 2014 in Drag Queens of London, a series documenting the lives of drag queens over a three-month period. But it did do wonders for her profile. In the three years since, she has brought that self-proclaimed ‘uniqueness’ to brand campaigns, signing six-figure deals for the likes of Strongbow, Malibu and McCain.

In fact, the star was sensationally announced as McCain’s first ever creative director in 2022, though the venture wasn’t without its hiccups. The brand’s tongue-in-cheek ad starring the reality star was temporarily pulled in June after several complaints to the ASA over its use of ‘offensive’ language.

Khaby Lame

The TikToker

In June 2022, comedian Khaby Lame became the most followed TikTok star in the world, dethroning 18-year-old dancer Charli D’Amelio with 142.5 million followers on the entertainment platform. And all without saying a word. Literally.

Born in Senegal and raised in Italy, Khabane Lame was working in a factory before being made redundant at the outbreak of the pandemic. It was then he joined TikTok, quickly gaining huge popularity for his witty but wordless videos, often featuring him silently mocking the so-called ‘life hacks’ shared by other content creators.

Some of his most popular videos lasted only a few seconds but attracted nearly 300 million views, firmly establishing Lame as a social media influencer who knew exactly what he was doing on the platform, savvy enough to realise that keeping schtum helped make his content universal. The New York Times attribute Lame’s success to his “universal exasperated everyman quality”.

It wasn’t long before Lame was raking in some serious cash as a result of his efforts. According to Fortune magazine, he makes up to $750,000 per post. When it comes to brand partnerships, he plays firmly in the big leagues reportedly charging up to $400,000 for a brand endorsement deal.

Last year, he signed a multiyear deal with Hugo Boss featuring in the #BeYourOwnBoss campaign, became a brand ambassador for cryptocurrency exchange platform Binance, starred in a McDonald’s ad alongside actor Jason Sudekis and K-pop sensation Itzy, and was picked by PepsiCo to promote its new nitrogen-infused drink, Nitro Pepsi.

Oh, and did we mention he’s only 22?