This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
When you think of TikTok food trends, a few things may come to mind: Dua Lipa’s spicy Diet Coke, feta pasta, or cucumber salad, to name a few. But butter boards were a moment. They were the brainchild of TikTok chef and cookbook author Justine Doiron (aka @justine_snacks on the internet) — despite the fact that she “tends to stay away” when it comes to trends on the app. “I’m not super excited by the food trends because I always poke holes in them, which is ironic, because I was part of a food trend,” the chef told Spoon University in a recent interview.
Her self-proclaimed guilty pleasure, though? The beverages. The 2020 pandemic craze Dalgona coffee “really got” Doiron, who started her account (which now has more than 2 million followers) in the midst of the lockdown. “Whenever everybody was putting balsamic vinegar in seltzer water and saying it tasted like Dr. Pepper, it didn’t, but I enjoyed it for what it was,” recalls Doiron. And forget crushed or cube: according to Justine, the circular ice that went TikTok-viral “owns” her. “That’s still my favorite ice,” she told Spoon University. “Love.”
For Doiron, passion for cooking started as a hobby, but has since turned into a cookbook, appearances at Food Network’s New York City Food & Wine Festival, and partnerships that I could only dream about, including one with Cayman Jack. Rather than your typical influencer endorsement, though, Doiron got hands-on for the first-ever Cayman Jack River Cruise at this year’s NYC Wine and Food Festival, which I was lucky enough to attend and chat with the chef. Doiron, who made Crab Tostadas to pair with Cayman Jack’s line of Sweet Heat Margaritas, says she’ll “jump at any chance to develop a menu.” And despite an untraditional start in the food world, I can attest she’s damn good at doing just that.
“Food was always a hobby and always in the back of my mind, I just never had the right mix of confidence and time to really dive into it until the pandemic,” said Doiron. The chef, who studied Hotel Administration (a branch of hospitality), recalls being surrounded in college by peers who were really into food, but she didn’t pursue it in school because she was “so intimidated” by her peers.
“In college, I was really focused on eating cheaply. I was running on student loans, and I think my grocery budget had to be between twenty to forty dollars a week,” Doiron recalls. Although she confesses that she’s “not super hype about the things I would do,” she knew she needed sustenance: Doiron recalled buying frozen vegetables in bulk, veggie burgers, and then splurging on a few good condiments.
“I didn’t get into cooking until later, because it’s an expensive hobby, and when you’re trying to pay for an education, it’s not really a hobby that you can dive into.”
Along the way, the TikTok chef has picked up a few tips and tricks for how to cook effectively on a budget. When it comes to hosting — “which is so fun” — Justine recommends that you focus on the food, and instead optimize your drinks. For example, buying ready-to-drink cocktails (Doiron recommends Cayman Jack’s RTD Sweet Heat Peach Margaritas, which she pairs with her own recipe for Blackened Cod Skewers), because you’ll now have margaritas and can skip buying several different ingredients, such as triple sec and tequila. “Then, you’re saving work as well, and you can focus on the food.”
When it comes to cooking on a budget, Justine swears by a chef’s knife and a honer. “I’ve been really getting on people — women, especially — for not having a good six-inch to eight-inch blade knife,” Doiron says, adding that “it just makes you so much more empowered.” With those two things, you don’t need to sharpen your knives as much, or buy new knife blades entirely. “You can just hone it — bar face down, or you put it tip down on the board, put your knife at a 20 degree angle and slide it down four times. Easy,” says Doiron. No matter what your skill level or cooking experience, “You are a pro.”
But, even a professional chef hates cooking sometimes — especially for a midnight snack. When asked about her 1 a.m. food cravings, Doiron says “Oh, this is so embarrassing… I’m probably scrounging,” she says. (I, personally, prefer the term girl dinner.) “If I’m starving, I don’t really want to cook anything that’ll take me longer than five minutes, so I’m probably in my freezer, I’m getting bread and toasting it, and there’s going to be a heavy layer of either butter or avocado or tahini or something on there, and then whatever leftovers I have – I always have a lot of leftovers – are going on the side.”
While she loves a good midnight toast, Justine also recognizes the brilliance of creative dishes, especially when it’s the best food of the season. The chef can’t stop thinking about a recent luncheon she attended in New York State, where they served olive-oil poached salmon with pistachio crust and wilted watercress on top, a chickpea ratatouille with beets and squash, and a grilled summer squash topped with a yogurt dressing. “I think people have finally realized how great [squash] are; the best flavor and best-textured vegetable for sure,” says Doiron, who has been a proponent of squash since day one.
These types of dishes, though, aren’t always accessible on a college budget. Doiron recommends using herb finishing salt, which can be found almost anywhere, to level up your dishes. “It’s usually a mixture of flaky salt and Herbs De Provence, and that’s my fancy one,” she says. Or, if she’s feeling ambitious, Doiron will make Dukkah, an Egyptian spice blend that she’s “been putting on everything” as of late. “I think it’s so good, it’s like everything but the bagel seasoning leveled-up,” she opined. Dukkah can be bought or made, and Justine has a recipe for it in her upcoming cookbook.
“This year is going crazy,” says Doiron, who is currently looking to expand into more long-form content. “And then, of course, the book is coming out in October, so from [now] until December, you will see me all across America annoying every bookstore in the entire world.”
You can keep up with Justine Doiron on Instagram, and stay tuned for her upcoming book, Justine Cooks, available nationwide in October.