Los Angeles-based foodies are not all built the same. McKenna Marie, aka @mckennaiseating on TikTok, isn’t floating down the most affluent streets, seated at the high-end tables of Nobu and Spago. She is sampling fast food burgers, tacos, and snacks from her driver’s seat and making budget-friendly meals in her kitchen. Basically, her foodie knowledge is just as necessary for West Coast eaters as it is for those in significantly chillier East Coast regions. But, why watch this rising TikTok star? Marie embraces her quirks, showing off her silly side authentically with each video.
“I love to be cringe. That means I have a personality,” she says.
In search of new flavors — avoiding dreaded “flavor fatigue” — she is constantly searching for the latest fast food tricks, menu drops, and beyond. It’s safe to say, she is not down with eating the same lunch every day.
“I don’t know how people meal prep. I respect people who can do that…because I would die,” Marie jokes.
With 17.7 million likes on her account, it might come as a shock that Marie’s first TikTok video was posted on December 18, 2023. In fact, her simple buttered noodle video amassed almost 8 million views already.
“I feel the most personal connection with TikTok, and the people on TikTok, and I understand TikTok the most,” she explains.
While this may seem like a real “overnight success” story, Marie has been adamantly working in the content arena for an entire decade.
“Honestly, I’ve been posting online for like 10 years, so, it feels like a long time coming to me,” she explains. “I just randomly started posting and now it’s working. It’s been a long haul for me, personally.”
Of course, much of those early days for Marie’s original YouTube channel contained viral challenges, vlogs, and the like.
“I would always have a little bit of food and cooking videos sprinkled in there, but it definitely wasn’t like the main focus of my page at that time,” she says.
Nowadays, inspiration for Marie’s TikTok profile comes from the internet’s favorite food taste testers and adventurous eaters, Rhett and Link of Good Mythical Morning. From their overwhelmingly popular “Will It?” series where the duo sees if Pepsi will Pop-Tart or if fish will French Toast to their “Gut Check” series where they try every flavor of a particular brand, GMM has been a staple in Marie’s life.
Similar to GMM’s hosts and beloved comedians, Marie hopes to craft a chill and goofy space in her corner of the internet.
“I consciously make [my videos] a place where people can just go and watch me eat and I’m not talking about anything serious like calories or anything that’s going to take the lightness out of the videos,” she says.
All in all, @mckennaiseating and its success is, in part, thanks to pure boredom.
“I was so bored because me and my boyfriend travel [to the East Coast] for the holidays and stay for a while,” she says. “The weather was horrible [and] he worked and I stayed with his parents at his childhood home.”
From there, she simply decided to post her first video trying Chinese food in New York as she hung out in her boyfriend’s hometown. This fun little video ultimately evolved into consistently trying new fast foods for hundreds of thousands of viewers daily.
“I also love fast food like everybody else,” she says.
Ironically, Marie’s most popular video, her viral buttered noodle recipe, almost didn’t make the cut.
“I almost didn’t even post that video. I was like, this is so boring and stupid,” she says, laughing. “And then that’s like my most viewed video. You cannot predict these things.”
So, word to the wise, if you think a piece of content isn’t worth posting, maybe just give it a try. Your egg noodles might just be a star!
Much like her bowl of noodles, viewers are also fans of Marie’s recipe videos, including her Cheesy Gordita Crunch Taco Bell dupe, restaurant-quality eel sauce recipe, and her Tyler The Creator cinnamon waffle recreation. This offers Marie the space to do some storytelling and try out some bits. One video even stars her performing some good old-fashioned “millennial cringe” while eating pizza.
Though, in between cooking in her own kitchen and/or grabbing Taco Bell’s latest innovations and securing Trader Joe’s frozen favorites, Marie is trying local L.A. spots. Even though it can feel a little overwhelming to pick a place in the vast sea of city restaurants, Marie has a solid top three recommendations.
“For Mexican food, my favorite place is Don Cuco, I think they have the vibe down and the food is just really frickin’ good there. That’s probably the restaurant that I frequent the most,” she says.
If you’re looking for a good tuna roll or sashimi, you can’t go wrong with her fave Japanese spot, Shiki Sushi. Though, if you’re seeking some classic Italian eats, Osteria La Buca is the place to be.
“It’s got a cool hipster vibe. They have pizza and pasta, and they have this salad that was like the freshest lettuce ever,” Marie adds. “It was like a very simple salad, but they did something right in there.”
As far as her fast-growing foodie empire, Marie plans to keep sharing her sense of humor over TikTok videos, and maybe long-form YouTube videos if she feels called back to it. However, if there’s one goal she’s manifesting, it’s to be on one of those “cheesy Netflix shows like Is It Cake?.” (Frankly, who of us would not want to eat delicious cakes with Saturday Night Live alumnus Mikey Day?)
As we wait to see Marie featured on a goofy TV show or maybe even Good Mythical Morning itself *fingers crossed,* you can stay tuned to @mckennaiseating for daily eats and hilarious life musings from the foodie.