Brooke Madigan thought she had her post-grad years of her life perfectly planned out. She would move to New York City, get a job in PR, and climb the corporate ladder. Not on the agenda? Attending culinary school, becoming a TikTok star, and (humanely) killing a live lobster in a video with nearly 3 million views.
Madigan’s daily videos documenting her journey through culinary school (@helloiambrooke) accrued over 50,000 followers and millions of views on TikTok. From mastering knife skills to crafting delicate pastries and duck pastrami from scratch, her delightful day-in-the-life videos of her time in culinary school explained complex cooking techniques in mouthwatering and highly digestible detail.
“I always loved cooking and dreamed of attending culinary school one day, but it’s never felt like a realistic career path,” Madigan says. Her dreams became a reality in an unexpected way. She graduated from Syracuse in May 2023 and spent several months navigating a tough job market before starting to explore other options.
After lots of research (she’s a self identified Type-A planner), Madigan realized culinary school could be the perfect next step. She took the leap and enrolled in the Institute for Culinary Education (ICE) in New York City. The program allowed her to attend school in the mornings and work a corporate food job in the evenings. “It’s been such a great decision,” Madigan says. “It fits my lifestyle and what I’m trying to do perfectly.”
Madigan graduated from ICE in May and now works in a professional kitchen in New York City, but before attending culinary school, she wasn’t known for her social media presence. “I don’t like being the center of attention,” she admits. “I was always really uncomfortable filming myself prior to doing this.” However, inspired by other culinary school TikTokers, she decided to document her experience through the platform. “I knew all my friends and family spread out across the country would want to know what I’m doing,” she continues. “It’s a great way to document everything and will be very fun to look back on for the memories.”
What started as a way to share with friends and family quickly gained traction with a much wider audience, if Madigan’s over thousands TikTok followers are any indication.
“The response has been shockingly positive,” Madigan says. “I’ve been so surprised every single day that people are actually wanting to watch this, but it’s really, really fun for me.”
Madigan’s videos not only showcased her impressive kitchen skills (like whipping up a white truffle-infused egg custard with chive potato chip in an actual eggshell!), but also helped demystify culinary school for viewers.
“I think that there’s a lot of unknown about culinary school compared to a ‘normal’ university,” she explains. “It’s kind of like cosmetology school, you don’t really know what that’s all about until you see someone doing it or showing you or telling you about it.”
Madigan’s content resonated with a diverse audience. “At first, my target audience was anyone who might be thinking about culinary school and want to know what it’s actually like,” she says. “But it’s also for people who just like food and cooking. And maybe people who don’t even like cooking.”
Balancing her online presence with the demands of culinary school was surprisingly easy for Madigan. Editing her videos took about an hour every day, and filming was rarely an issue (students at ICE are encouraged to take videos in class).
For Madigan, the most rewarding aspect of making her videos is the interactions with viewers. “I had a day where I made something that I wasn’t happy with, and the comment section was so supportive,” she says. “That gives me more confidence. Just seeing people happy about the content that I’m putting out is so wild to me.”
Madigan particularly appreciates the more *unique* skills she’s acquired at culinary school. “Honestly, the thing that stood out the most to me in my entire school experience was working with lobster,” she laughs. (By working with lobster, she means splitting a live lobster with a knife.) “It about did me in. It’s something that I never would have done if I had not gone to school, and I will not forget it.” Luckily, thanks to her TikTok account, Madigan’s lobster experience (and the delicious lobster roll she made from it) is forever immortalized on the internet.
Madigan’s TikTok videos have always centered on her culinary school experience, but since earning her culinary degree, she has been working as a line cook at Jean-Gorges. Her content still revolves around food, whether it’s sharing her culinary day job or trying out new restaurants in New York City.
She plans to focus future videos on applying her culinary school knowledge in the home kitchen. “Being able to connect the two, real-world home cooking versus what I’ve done in school and what the techniques ‘should be,’” she says. She also hopes to craft more general food content, such as recipes, baking videos, and restaurant reviews.
As for her career beyond social media, Madigan is keeping her options open. “I’ve done a complete 180… I could be doing a million different things in the next five years.” In the future, you might see her on private chef TikTok. “It would be a great way for me to continue to be in the kitchen and utilize my passion for cooking,” she says. “I love the idea of working for a person or a family rather than 10 hours in a restaurant day in and day out.”
Madigan also hopes to go into food media in some capacity, such as working as a recipe developer or in a test kitchen. Wherever she ends up, followers can rest assured it will result in some mouthwatering culinary content. “I’m planning to stay in food for a while,” she says. “It makes the most sense and it’s what I’m super passionate about and so I just want to see where it’s going to go.”