The likes of Instagram and TikTok don't cover the reality of the restaurant, but they do tell the story of what users around the world are craving. But which is the most sought-after cuisine on social media right now?
There is no area of our lives that is no longer on social media. Gastronomy is one of the sexiest of these areas - it's spectacular, colourful, diverse and almost everyone loves to eat.
Chef's Pencil is an international gastronomy magazine, launched in 2009 by a Dutch chef living in Australia, Paul Hegeman. Today, it is one of the world's most respected professional magazines and is now run in partnership with Amazon.
This time, the magazine team, led by Ioana Neamt he was researching, which kitchens are loved by social media users, including Instagram and TikTok. The editors of Chef's Pencil analysed Instagram data going back one year, from February 2022 to March 2023.
In 2023, TikTok will not be left out of a social media survey. It's a staggering number, but with over 1 billion registered users, the app for uploading short videos is now one of the most popular platforms. TikTok was studied using a different method, using statistics on all views to date, published in March 2023.
The two competing platforms
Instagram is all about visuals. While Facebook is all about sharing content with more text, sometimes even with descriptions of entire thought processes, Instagram is also about beautiful images and now videos.
TikTok is a Chinese video-sharing app, formerly known as musical.ly, which was mainly loved by teenagers and has been available in the western world since 2017 (it is still used in China as 抖 音, or Dǒuyīn).
Videos from amateur and professional chefs, restaurant video reviews and home-made food hacks are all the rage on both platforms. To date, the hashtag #food has surpassed 498 million hits on Instagram, with Reels mini-videos clearly competing with TikTok.
Top 20 cuisines around the world
The three most popular national cuisines on Instagram are, in order of popularity, Italian, Indian and Japanese. Italian food received 20.8 million hashtags last year alone, 16% more than the previous year.
The app's Asian origins are certainly shaping the biggest trends in TikTok. Korean cuisine is the absolute favourite of the audience here, with 15 billion (!) views to date. Korean cuisine cannot match the popularity of Italian and Indian cuisine on Instagram, where it is “only” ranked 4th, and 5th on a yearly basis.
To add to the triumph of Indian cuisine, the current estimated population of the subcontinent is 1.4 billion. However, Indian eateries and elegant restaurants are popular all over the world.
When it comes to Korean cuisine, we know very little about it in Hungary. Recently, a Korean staple dish, kimchi, a favourite fermented cabbage and chilli dish, has become very popular in more advanced gastronomic circles, but the breakthrough is still to come.
Japanese cuisine is also at the top. It is safe to say that Japanese food is not part of everyday life - like Italian pizza or American hamburgers. But it's an old truth that the exotic nature of Japanese cuisine makes it forever exciting, and even if we don't eat ramen soup and sushi every day, we're happy to click on Japanese content.
From Italian cuisine and the top step on the podium is out of the question. The whole world pasta and eating pizza, there is no summer without Italian gelato, just as there is no coffee without Italian espresso. #pizza is the third most popular dish on Instagram, with 66 million hits. Italian pasta shouldn't be dismissed either: the hashtag pasta has been featured nearly 5 million times on Instagram in the last 12 months alone, making it the 5th most popular dish on the platform.
Thanks to Chef's Pencil the detailed results.
