This week we're talking crunch.

Last edition was about a creator who built a brand through font. This week, it's someone who's built an audience by making food sound so good you can almost taste it through your phone.

If you've spent any time on food Instagram lately, chances are you've come across @arsenioeats. His videos are impossible to scroll past, and not because of over-the-top recipes or flashy editing - it's the sound. The first bite, the crack, the crunch. Somehow it works every single time.

Who's Arsenio?

Arsenio, better known as @arsenioeats (or, as he likes to call himself, the Crunch King), has been one of the fastest growing foodies on Instagram this year, adding 1.5m followers, going from a modest 100k audience to 1.6m in a little more than half a year.

What makes his content so addictive isn't that the recipes are wildly original. It's that he knows exactly what people want to experience.

• The crunch comes first. Before you know what he's making, you hear it. Every video starts with that first bite, and suddenly you're invested.
• A two-part release, not a one-off post. The tease goes up first, just the crunch and the reaction, captioned nothing but "recipe next." The payoff follows about a day later under the Crunch Chronicles banner with the full recipe, which means anyone who wants it has to come back the next day.
• He recreates food people already love. Raising Cane's, shawarma, fried chicken, cookies... familiar recipes that somehow look even better made at home.
• He's built a recognisable brand. Crunch King. Crunch Society. Crunch Chronicles. Everything feels connected without trying too hard.
• The numbers back it up. Most of his videos comfortably reach hundreds of thousands of views, with plenty passing the million mark and some climbing far beyond that.

The thing I like most is that the food isn't trying to be complicated.

But by obsessing over one detail, that perfect crunch, he's made his content instantly recognisable. You don't even need to see his username to know it's one of his videos.

A few favourites if you haven't come across him yet:

Ketchup takeaway

Sometimes standing out isn't about inventing something new.

It's about becoming known for doing one thing exceptionally well.

Viral posts you might have missed

In case you missed them, a few more worth a second look. Anime food content keeps finding new gears: @two_plaid_aprons recreated Sanji's Curry from One Piece step for step and pulled 6.8m views off 1.1m followers, proof that a beloved fictional dish is still one of the most reliable hooks in food content.

Also worth a look: @essen_paradies kept her Garlic Confit Carbonara behind a "comment recipe" prompt and still racked up 509K likes on the swirl alone, and @thegoldenbalance's Honey BBQ Mac pulled 4.6m views, right in line with his 4.7m following, the kind of steady number you get from an account that already has everyone's attention.

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

Not every food creator is trying to become the next MrBeast of cooking.

Some are just quietly making incredible food, and earning the respect of other chefs along the way. The comments are full of people asking about techniques instead of calories, and other creators save their videos because they actually learn something.

This week's pick is @fernicheffin.

If you haven't come across them before, start here:

Fernicheffin

@fernicheffin

He describes himself as 'just a broke boy doing some cooking', which is doing himself a bit of a disservice. Based in Amsterdam, Fernicheffin and his friend and fellow chef, Juan Fortunato (@jmf_gourmet), have spent the last five seasons building Broke but Bougie together, right down to running pop-up dinners co-branded JMF x Fernicheffin. The idea is simple: take affordable ingredients, cook them brilliantly, and plate them like something you'd happily pay for in a restaurant. Ferni's own following has grown past 180k, the pair have released four recipe e-books through the series, and between them they somehow make supermarket staples look genuinely exciting.

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.

---