Last week we looked at a creator who built an audience by explaining the why behind food. This week, it's about something people notice long before they pay attention to the recipe itself.

Very few food creators have turned those things into part of their identity as successfully as Jesse Jenkins (@adip_food).

Let's get into it.

Who's Jesse?

Jesse Jenkins has quietly become one of the most recognisable food creators in the UK.

Better known as @adip_food ("Another Day In Paradise"), Jesse started posting cooking videos in his west London kitchen during the pandemic after spending more than a decade working as a fashion photographer, shooting campaigns for brands including Marc Jacobs, Simone Rocha and Miu Miu. That creative background explains a lot about why his content feels so different.

Today, he has more than 897,000 Instagram followers, a Sunday Times bestselling cookbook, his own sparkling water brand (YEW) and collaborations with brands including atis and Secret Sandwich Shops. None of those feel like separate projects - they all look and feel like they're part of the same creative world.

The recipes are great, but that's not what makes Jesse instantly recognisable. It's everything around them.

The engine behind the growth isn't a single viral trick, it's a visual system he's applied to everything he makes, from a thumbnail to a cookbook cover.

What stood out:

• The typeface never changes. Every Reel uses the same gothic font. What changes is the colour: hot pink script for a vegetable dish, a dripping horror-movie typeface for a grilled mackerel burger, neon purple for "2026 Fish Tacos." The consistency makes the typography instantly recognisable, while the colour gives each dish its own personality.
• He starts at the end. Almost every Reel opens with the finished plate - usually scraped clean with just a few bites left. Before you've seen a single ingredient, you already know what you're making. It's a simple storytelling device that answers the viewer's biggest question immediately: "Is this worth watching?"
• The colour grading has become part of the brand. His videos run in a cool, smoky blue, a habit from a decade of shooting on film. "When you have cool tones, it really amplifies the colours of the food," he's said. "It makes the ingredients feel almost supernatural."
• It's a one-man studio. Jesse shoots, stars in, edits and colour-grades every video himself, and writes every recipe. Nothing is outsourced, which is a big part of why the aesthetic never slips.
• The brand doesn't stop at Instagram. His cookbook, Cooking With Vegetables, carries the same typography, photography and creative direction as his content. The same is true of YEW and his collaboration with atis. Everything feels like it's part of the same creative world.

See it for yourself - a few of his:

Ketchup takeaway

If someone cropped the food out of one of your videos...

Would people still know it was yours?

Viral posts you might have missed

In case you missed them, here are three worth a second look. Ice cream had a moment this week: @eitan (Eitan Bernath) made a two-ingredient watermelon version with just coconut milk, finished with lime and tajin. 385k likes and 6,887 reposts off an 808k following - nearly half his audience, for something he admits is "technically four ingredients."

Also worth a look: @whatinthechef's One Pot Marry Me Prawn Pasta, no fancy equipment, no fancy techniques, just a pasta-to-liquid ratio he gives away in the caption. 447k likes off a 944k following - nearly half his audience, for a recipe that's really just a formula.

And @itsvegansis is back with egg-free, dairy-free ferrero rocher donuts that "you'd never know" were free-from. 432k likes and 13.5k reposts off a 1.2m following - that repost number is the tell, people aren't just liking this one, they're sending it to someone.

Biggest gains

Let's get it. Who's on the gain train. Below are the creators with the biggest absolute recent growth from the past 30 days:

Ones to watch

Might not be up in the millions yet, but here's the accounts having a moment as they fly towards 100k and break the barrier:

Foodie's Foodie

Outside the numbers, some creators are just worth spotlighting on craft alone, the ones we like to call the Foodie's Foodie: real technique, real recipes, and the kind of account other creators and recipe developers actually follow. If you're not already, you should be. This time, it's @flavourfellas_.

The Flavour Fellas

@flavourfellas_

Two mates in London, 68.7k on Instagram, dropping a weekly flavour fix like clockwork every Sunday at 6pm. Flavour Fellas is run by Hamish Ruia, an ex-chef who trained at The River Cafe in London, alongside M Desoutter, and the account reads exactly like you'd expect from someone who's worked a River Cafe pass: confident, ingredient-led, no filler, and the kind of grid that other cooks bookmark rather than scroll past.

Follow on Instagram

So that's it for this issue. Be sure to subscribe and check back in for more. We've got some great content coming up!

Adina.

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