In the Spoon series Buttered Up, we interview content creators in the food space about what their job is like. This month, we chatted with Faith Christensen of @faithsfresh.
We all remember those Private Hampton Chefs, right? While she might not be a private chef in the Hampton’s, Faith Christensen, known as @faithsfresh on social media, is my favorite food creator on TikTok. Her recipes are dorm- friendly, plant-based, dairy-free, and quick and easy to make during the nights where you have five minutes between doing homework and studying to eat.
You might recognize Faith from her iconic Tupperware shake or her aesthetically-pleasing TikTok thumbnails but she never planned on becoming TikTok famous. “Obviously when you’re posting, you want stuff to blow up, but I never thought it would get to the point it’s at today.”
She started posting food videos in late 2019 because she saw other creators posting and those videos doing well, “I do similar stuff, so we’ll see what happens.” What happened was she gained a following of over two million on TikTok. Spoon sat down with Faith to ask her about her recipe inspiration and what it’s like to consistently go viral.
Spoon University: Did you think your videos would blow up the way that other foodie influencers have before?
Faith Christensen: I mean that was the goal, but I didn’t expect it to be that quick and that big, I’m happy it was awesome.
SU: A lot of your recipes are quick and easy. Do you think you’ve taught people how to cook?
FC: I feel like all my recipes are very easy because I don’t like spending a lot of time in the kitchen. I like to cook but I don’t like cooking full-course, crazy, culinary school dishes. It’s just super easy things with stuff that I already have on hand. I feel like a lot of people have a lot of access to the ingredients that I use, and they’re very accessible. A lot of them are pretty budget-friendly, which I like, and all the recipes are really easy, so I hope that people do see them and start cooking or learning how to cook.
SU: A lot of your recipes are plant based or vegan recipes. Is there a specific reason for that?
FC: It kinda had to do with the fact that I ate vegan most of the time. I like meat, and I eat meat, but I don’t eat it very often because I don’t like making it. I’ll only eat it usually when I’m out to eat because I don’t have to watch it being prepared.
SU: Your iconic shake has become popular in your comment sections and now it’s what you're known for. How did that make its way into your videos?
FC: I didn’t start it on purpose with the intention of it becoming like a thing. I shake [the Tupperware] because I feel like that’s the best way to make stuff outside of the videos. Then, I did it in a video last year, and I thought it was funny, like it looks stupid, you know? When I first posted it, people were commenting the shake, it’s so funny. The videos that I had the shake in, compared to not having it, did significantly better.
SU: Your cucumber sushi started a trend on TikTok where others started using cucumbers instead of seaweed paper. Did you ever think one of your recipes would become a TikTok trend?
FC: I posted something very similar over a year ago, and it did okay. I liked it when I made it, I thought it was good, so I was like, I’ll just do that again. I didn’t think it would blow up to the degree that it did. It’s kinda funny seeing people see my video and then recreate it cause I’ve done that with other people’s videos.
SU: Your TikTok page looks like a foodie's dream with so many different recipes and food combos I’ve never seen, especially the cookies n cream egg roll. How do you come up with ideas like that?
FC: The place I get the most inspiration from for my recipes is just from seeing other creators. Then being like, “I like that idea, I’m gonna make it my own.” Or seeing some of my old recipes and being like, “I really like these recipes, and people seem to like it a lot too — how can I recreate it but different?” That’s kinda what the egg rolls were like.