It took home cook and creative Icoy Rapadas only half a year to make an impact in the online food content space. His secret? As cheesy as it sounds, it was just being himself
If you spend a lot of time on the internet, then you might have already seen Icoy Rapadas’ cooking content on your social media feed. And if you haven’t yet, they go as such—he strolls into his apartment after a long day of work. Rapadas shrugs off his jacket, takes off his accessories, and starts cooking his meal for the evening.
Whether it’s a comforting creamy chicken dish (his family’s own recipe), a mouthwatering croque madame (“pina-sosyal na ham and egg and cheese sandwich”), or his own recreation of a meal he’s seen on a TV show (see: Chef Sydney’s famous omelet from “The Bear”), it always looks pretty damn good.
“I actually first started [making videos] during the pandemic, putting out a total of five videos. Format was completely different back then, but it still gained some traction,” Icoy Rapadas says.
Pair these visuals with some calm, composed commentary reminiscent of an ASMR video. He speaks casually in a mix of Filipino and English; it sounds exactly like a friend teaching you how to craft a dish from scratch over Facetime. Throwing in an unexpected joke or two and some personal tidbits here and there, he’s done with the meal before you know it and sits down to eat.
Rapadas ends every video with a single word, delivered in both a warm yet nonchalant manner: “Kain.”
Sounds simple, yes, but these videos are exactly what charmed his rapidly growing fanbase, garnering him 142,000 followers on TikTok, 150,000 on Facebook, and 98,000 on Instagram as of writing. In just half a year since starting in January 2024, Rapadas has gone full-time food content creator, quitting his corporate day job as the brand deals came reeling in—truly a success story for aspiring food content creators out there.
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His average viewer would be surprised to find out that once upon a time, Rapadas was “an eat- to-live, not a live-to-eat type of guy.” His love for food only started in 2016, when a former colleague who knew all the best restaurants around their office in Kapitolyo introduced him to the wonders of great meals. Cooking came soon after when Rapadas took a break from work for nine months, doing it out of necessity and learning how to make the dishes he craved from his parents’ home.
“I actually first started [making videos] during the pandemic, putting out a total of five videos. Format was completely different back then, but it still gained some traction,” Rapadas says about his early content creation days. “Pero ‘di ko tinuloy kasi ‘di ko pa kaya i-handle ’yung mga haters, so I stopped.”
Finally, after taking some additional culinary classes at CCA Manila in 2022 and moving into his own place last year—the very same one his viewers see in his videos—Rapadas decided to craft food content again with a refreshed perspective. While food remains the main attraction of his videos, Rapadas, who also happens to front the rock band Lions and Acrobats, wanted to sprinkle bits of lifestyle and his unique personality in his content, with space and fashion turning into supporting elements that his audience can appreciate. This food-slash-lifestyle combo, he thinks, is exactly the type of material lacking in the local food content space.
“When I put [my content] out, it was just good timing, serving a certain gap in the market. On a local level, the food content here is really about the food, about the recipes. That’s where most of the focus is rather than the person creating the food.”
“When I put [my content] out, it was just good timing, serving a certain gap in the market. On a local level, the food content here is really about the food, about the recipes. That’s where most of the focus is rather than the person creating the food,” Rapadas shares. “In other countries, it recently became a thing where people have taken more interest in the creator and their lifestyle rather than just the food.”
Rapadas drew from renowned international food influencers like Olivia Tiedemann, Anna Archibald and Kevin Serai, Matty Matheson, and Yung Cook God among others. He says, “When I tried taking on that approach, it worked almost instantly. I took inspiration from all of them and put together a format that works for me. ‘Di ako nag copy-paste, ginaya ko lang ‘yung atake, but I made sure to just highlight who I am, and share my stories.”
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What makes Rapadas’ videos stand out from other Filipino food content creators is most definitely the supporting character of his content—fashion. He emphasizes further that fashion’s infiltration into F&B has become somewhat of a recent phenomenon, citing how “chefcore” style and workwear are now a trend. From local restaurants collaborating with brands for merchandise to the meticulous plating of dishes, the focus on aesthetics enhances the overall dining experience, making food a multi-sensory affair. Its convergence with fashion also resonates with consumers’ desire for self-expression and connection to culinary culture.
“My sense of style is heavily influenced by Japanese fashion, amekaji wear, workwear, Japanese Americana, and ivy primarily, tapos minsan may gorpcore din,” says Rapadas, with his clothing not going unnoticed by his viewers and other prominent names in food, such as JP Anglo and content creator Cyrus Jimenez.
“I think that’s when it clicked for me that people will only start following you when they’re invested in you.”
For Rapadas, the secret to success in this new age of food content creation are, first, to be a chronic online consumer (“That’s how you’ll know where and how you’ll fit in”) and second, to just be yourself, as cheesy as that sounds.
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“I think that’s when it clicked for me that people will only start following you when they’re invested in you,” he advises. “Find a way to showcase who you are. You have to have a strong sense of self, kilalanin mo sarili mo, then find a way to best show that. When you figure that out, unique ‘yan because no one else is like you.”
And to that, we say in true Icoy Rapadas fashion—boogsh.
