Why is everyone on Instagram eating?

Love it or hate it, more and more Instagrammers are filming themselves eating. I explain why they're doing it and what it's got to do with porn. Plus a tasty warming recipe.

Photo by Jarritos Mexican Soda on Unsplash

If your Instagram feed is anything like mine, it’s now a rolling gorge-fest, crowded with cooks tucking into food, shaking their heads in disbelief at its deliciousness and closing their eyes to savour it. You know what I mean.

I first noticed it during lockdown in 2020 when chef Thomas Straker began filming himself scoffing tiramisu, crispy crushed potatoes and other lovely things he’d just shown us how to cook. In an interview much later, he recalled it was just a way to pass the time during lockdown.

At that point, he had 900 social media followers. Now? Straker boasts 1 million and 1.7 million fans on Instagram and TikTok respectively. And he’s just opened his own London restaurant.

Since then, on-camera eating on Instagram has surged, and videos (known as Reels on Insta for those, like me, not hip to this particular groove) made by cooks, recipe developers and food writers are displacing still images. As I’m clueless about this stuff, I asked Camilla Richardson, a social media coach at Pink Storm Social, to explain what’s going on.

“Essentially Reels on Instagram are led by trends on TikTok, and these types of eating reels are what TikTok is all about, and what Instagram really wants to get to,” she says. “It’s all about personality and essentially you are being the star of the show. The algorithm essentially likes what the viewers like, and the viewers love Reels with oodles of personality, which means faces included.”

Food and recipes have always been the most popular Insta themes. And just like with cookbooks – you’re more likely to make a recipe that has an accompanying image – the more Reels you use to bring your creations to life, the more popular they will be. 

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that eating is an essential element but including your face definitely is,” Richardson says, adding that it depends a bit on your audience. Viewers aged 40+ don’t really care about the eating bit. “But if it’s a younger audience then I would say eating the final recipe would be ideal,” she says. “If you want to grow, and grow an engaged audience, then you need to make your Reels as engaging as possible. I  would say is that eating the recipe at the end equals very engaging content.”

One of the reasons I started a Substack was that I just couldn’t see myself making these types of Reels, and I thought I’d feel more at home on platforms like this one, hiding behind the words. (I’m still on Instagram, mainly posting old-school snaps of my dinner). I’d feel too self-conscious, and worried about repelling viewers.

But people do like watching perfect strangers eat, says neuroscientist Dr Rachel Herz, author of Why You Eat What You Eat. She told me that people enjoy watching other people eating to feel more socially connected. We’re also fascinated by human/animal behaviour. “Eating, like other physical behaviours we do, is part of what it means to be a human animal,” Dr Herz said. “And watching other people engage in our animal nature is alluring - like watching porn but more socially acceptable.” Well there you have it.

(She says older people don’t fancy watching people eat as much as younger people because its reminds us of our ‘animalness’ and that’s a subtle reminder of our own mortality and that ‘your time alone is fleeting.’

For some cooks and food writers, making these videos is now essential to earning their living. Award-winning cookbook author and food writer Ed Smith switched from stills to Reels on Insta about 18 months ago. “I'm not a natural show-off and avoided doing what was clearly needed until summer 2021 [when his book, Crave, was published],” he says. “As with most things, once you've done it once you realise the embarrassment is internal and no one else gives a shit.”

He’s keenly aware that promoting himself, his skills and recipes this way makes him an easy target for sneerers. “But whatever the merits or demerits, for me, it's essential for my 'brand' and income, both directly and indirectly,” he says. “The reason I 'show myself eating' is a consequence of deciding that I should show myself/my face within my Reels. It appears that to grow and maintain a 'community', and to get true engagement, there needs to be personality in what you're doing.”

He also knows that no-one wants to watch protracted shots of people chomping and pulling faces, so he edits judiciously. “The total amount of time of me 'eating' will generally be less than 1 second in the context a 45-60 second clip, “ he says. ”But I can't think of any people on Instagram who really show a significant amount of time doing this. And name me a recipe-focused TV programme from the last 30 years that hasn't shown the chef or guest putting food in their mouth?” He’s right.

Smith says his Reels haven’t actually boosted his Insta numbers much but have helped him maintain his following and stay ‘relevant’. “Should have done it sooner,” he adds.

Cookbook writer John Gregory-Smith started filming Reels, including the eating shots, the week after Instagram launched the feature in 2019. It worked so well for him he soon stopped posting still images completely. And he hasn’t looked back.

When he started Reels he had 40K Instagram followers; that’s now soared to almost 500K (and 300K on TikTok). “My numbers have gone mad and it’s all down to video as I haven’t posted a still in 3 years,” he says. He recently changed his Reels format to put the eating part at the beginning to ensure viewers knew that the video was his from the start.

But do you really need to eat on social media to succeed at it? There are wonderful accounts with healthy followings that don’t. Chef and cookbook author Claire Thomson has grown her following to 118K with instructive set-piece cookery videos where no spoon or fork goes near her mouth. “I’m not ever going to shovel food into my mouth,” she told me. “My mum would be on the phone right away.”

And of course, there are terrific food Instagrammers who rarely dabble in Reels at all, sticking to images (often they have a distinctive look) and engaging captions (I’m thinking particularly of Rachel Roddy here). Or they use other means to engage viewers and build their brand. Felicity Cloake, whose darling dog Wilf is as much a star of her Instagram feed as the fodder, is a brilliant example.

After all this, I’m not sure what conclusions to draw. I know publishers factor in your social media following (among many other things) when considering you for a cookbook deal, as do newspaper and magazine editors when they appoint food columnists. And those juicy sponsorships and advertising deals only go to social media stars with stratospheric numbers of followers. If that’s what you're chasing, and/or your income depends on it, you’d better tuck in.

For the time being I’m steering clear of eating on Insta. The only time you’ll see me put food in my mouth is when we’re dining together in real life.

Gigantes beans and haloumi in spicy tomato sauce

This easy, delicious and comforting recipe is from Easy Mediterranean, image by Alan Benson.

Serves 4-6

200 g (7 oz) dried gigantes beans, soaked overnight

1 carrot, cut into 3 pieces

1 celery stalk, cut into 3 pieces

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

1 large onion, finely chopped ½ red capsicum (pepper), chopped

sea salt flakes

1-3 teaspoons harissa paste, or to taste

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 heaped teaspoon dried oregano

300 ml (10½ fl oz) tomato passata

freshly ground black pepper

250 g (9 oz) haloumi cheese, cut into 1 cm (½ inch) slices

Rinse and drain the beans, put them in a large saucepan and cover with lots of cold water, then add the carrot, celery and bay leaves.

Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until slightly tender but not soft - the exact time will depend on the age of the beans. Drain, keeping 200 ml (7 fl oz) of the cooking liquid, and discard the bay leaves, carrot and celery (or use the vegetables in another dish).

Preheat the oven to 160°C (315°F).

While the beans are cooking, warm the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion, capsicum and a pinch of sea salt, and fry for 8 minutes. Add the harissa paste and tomato paste, and stir around in the onion mixture for a couple of minutes, then add the oregano, beans, passata, cooking liquid, and sea salt and black pepper. Tip the mixture into an ovenproof dish, cover with a double layer of foil and bake for 1 hour.

Remove the dish from the oven and check on the sauce - if it looks a little dry, stir in a splash of water. Tuck the haloumi slices into the bean mixture, cover with the foil and cook for a further 45 minutes.

Drizzle with a little more olive oil to serve.