Inspiration comes from all sorts of places. For New York Times best-selling author Joanne Molinaro — widely known as The Korean Vegan — it sparked over cooking shows during law school.
“It all started with Rachael Ray’s 30-minute meals on The Food Network,” Molinaro said. “I watched that show obsessively during law school. I never really cooked, but I loved watching her and found it so comforting.”
These days, Molinaro’s not just following in Ray’s footsteps — she’s carving a path of her own: lawyer by day, powerhouse culinary creator by night. She’s the founder of The Korean Vegan brand, which includes a best-selling cookbook, well-known blog, and a social media presence with 4.5 million fans. She’s also the brains behind the buzz-worthy The Korean Vegan TikTok channel, which has more than 3 million followers ready and waiting for her tasty plant-based recipes.
We talked with Molinaro about her rise to culinary-creator fame, including how she went from dabbling in TikTok to netting 3 million followers, plus the gear and food tips she swears by to make those recipes pop off the screen.
The Start of @TheKoreanVegan on TikTok
Molinaro, who’s been a lawyer since 2004, began her food-creator endeavors in 2016. She went from watching and learning via The Food Network to cooking and baking alongside her father-in-law from Rome. After she went vegan, her kitchen time picked up because there weren’t as many options.
“I had to learn quickly and, luckily, between Rachael Ray, YouTube, and the little bit of cooking I’d been doing with my husband and his father, I felt comfortable.”
In 2016, she leapt from hobbyist chef to The Korean Vegan, with a blog and handles on popular social media sites like Instagram and YouTube. When 2020 rolled around, it was time for a new experiment: TikTok.
@thekoreanvegan #vegan #glutenfree #pancakes #foodtiktok ♬ Buttercup – Jack Stauber
“I started TikTok largely because I wanted to know what all the fuss was about,” Molinaro said. She was intrigued by the platform’s vast potential and influence, particularly in politics. After watching as a consumer, she made the jump and became a TikTok creator.
“I knew I had a cookbook coming out in a year and that it would behoove me to expand my social reach. But I certainly didn’t have any ambitious plans,” she said. “Since I had already been posting a lot of my photographs on Instagram, I figured, ‘Why not just make a video with my phone?’ That’s literally what I did.”
Three million followers later, the leap paid off.
The Importance of TikTok
Molinaro started with a simple filming setup. “I threw my phone up against the wall while I was cooking and posted it on TikTok,” she said. The first two videos netted some views here and there. Then she went viral, and everything changed.
“Having a video go viral with millions of views in a couple of days was completely new to me, and it became almost addictive — I knew I wanted to keep doing that,” she said. She realized the potential reach for her brand and business. It quickly became part of The Koren Vegan social media strategy, particularly because of the minimal time investment.
@thekoreanvegan #kimchi #foodtiktok #koreanfood #tkvcookbook ♬ Somewhere In Between – August Wilhelmsson
“Sure, it’s not free because your time is worth money, but I was going to cook the same thing anyway,” she said. “It took me all of 30 minutes to edit the video after eating the food that I cooked. It’s such a low bar to entry.”
The return-on-investment for those 30 minutes? Off the charts.
[TikTok] made me, The Korean Vegan, recognizable to a million people in just 48 hours.
“[TikTok] made me, The Korean Vegan, recognizable to a million people in just 48 hours. Do you know how much advertisers would pay for that kind of visibility and reach?” she said. Her guess is at least tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars.
The increasingly popular social-media platform has not only helped her grow interest in her book and recipes. It’s become critical for the growth of her podcast.
“Just start. I almost guarantee it’s going to suck — just listen to my first podcast. But at least I did it,” she said, noting the same goes for photography. She knew little about the craft in the early days of her blog. Now, she’s the photographer behind the images in her New York Times best-selling and James Beard award-winning cookbook.
If starting feels overwhelming, take comfort. That first step doesn’t mean you have to do this new thing forever. It’s all about learning what works and what doesn’t. That knowledge comes from firsthand experience.
“No one’s saying you need to do it again,” she said. “It’s not like you posted to TikTok and signed a contract that you’ll post every day for the rest of your life. There’s no pressure — just do it.”
How to Break into “FoodTok”
Your first scroll through The Korean Vegan’s TikTok page will inevitably make you hungry. On the second run-through, you’ll also find FoodTok creator inspiration. Her first tip for making your food and recipe videos stand out on TikTok is lighting.
Lighting is at least 90 percent of it. If you have bad lighting, I can’t help you!
“Lighting is at least 90 percent of it. If you have bad lighting, I can’t help you!” she said. “Find your light. I’m a natural light person, so I’m not a big fan of creating [artificial light].” This could come from filming near a window, or cooking and filming at certain times of day when the light is brighter.
While natural light helps The Korean Vegan shine, she’s quick to say that everyone has to find the style and look that fits their brand — whether that’s bright colors, muted hues, creative lighting, or anything in between. Additionally, film with the viewer’s consumption in mind.
@thekoreanvegan #foodtiktok #koreanfood #라면 #ramen #ramyeon #foodtok ♬ Chopin Nocturne No. 2 Piano Mono – moshimo sound design
“From a technical perspective, these platforms are designed for top-down viewing. It does really well. It’s optimized for the way we look at mobile devices,” she said. “A lot of times, I’ll start with that top-down view to give a sense of what we’re making. This gives them all the information they need in the first couple of seconds.”
Another key food content tip: Add movement. Molinaro has very few static moments in her videos. She notes that movement is incredibly important in short-form videos because people don’t have patience. They need to be constantly stimulated. This can be everything from action shots of cooking to steam rising from the dish.
Use Social Media for Inspiration, Not Comparison
It’s easy to scroll through Instagram or TikTok and feel less-than compared to other creators. Although, not only are you seeing a fraction of the actual story or the creator’s life, you’re also missing out on a major chance for inspiration and growth.
Being on Instagram was the best thing for my photography because it forced me to consider other aesthetics, moods, white balances, and color palettes, without understanding the technical terms.
“Being on Instagram was the best thing for my photography because it forced me to consider other aesthetics, moods, white balances, and color palettes, without understanding the technical terms,” Molinaro said. “I would just see a photograph of food that looked amazing, that was different and made me feel something. I wanted to have that vibe with my own photographs.”
View this post on Instagram
She spent hours and hours tinkering and experimenting to learn these tricks for herself. “I had to do a lot of studying and practice to figure out how to recreate that kind of photo. And, once I recreated it, did I actually like it as much as I thought? Or how can I tweak this to make it mine, and to make it say what I want to say?”
According to Molinaro, this process is ever evolving — even now, following her growing list of awards and accolades. One key lesson from Molinaro’s Instagram inspiration sessions? If you admire someone else’s work, you don’t have to be a silent viewer.
“In one case, I became friends with [a creator I followed], and I invited her over. I was like, ‘I want to learn from you,’” Molinaro said. “I did the same thing a month ago for videography.” This led to an informal three-day mini bootcamp training sessions.
“It completely changed the way I make videos now.”
The Korean Vegan’s Go-To Camera
While Molinaro started TikTok filming on her iPhone, she does have cameras that she swears by: the Canon Mark III and Canon Mark IV.
“My setup evolves, but I’m pretty die hard about my equipment,” she said. “I’m a Canon gal. I love Canon and that is largely a function of its color.”
She also uses C-stands for nailing those overhead food shots. With these, it’s particularly important to find the right C-stand to support the weight of your camera and lens combination. You can watch a full overview of Molinaro’s TikTok setup on The Korean Vegan’s YouTube.
Craving more inspiration from food content creators? Check out our latest What’s In My Bag? post from Jessica Hirsch, aka @CheatDayEats.
Featured image by The Korean Vegan
