Martim Gil is successful with recipes on social media – 12/10/2023 – Food

Gastronomy student Martim Gil, 21, is a success in the world of digital influencers with millions of views on recipe videos posted on his social networks. “Within a week, I had 4,000 followers. Then I started gaining 30,000 a day,” he says.

He has almost 30 million likes on TikTok and already has more than a million followers on the same network and more than 340 thousand on Instagram. He describes himself as “that kid who likes to cook” and states that his real favorite activity in the kitchen is not following predetermined recipes. The aspiring chef prefers to explore his creativity in preparing different and harmonious dishes with some ingredients he finds in the pantry at home.

The first video, posted in April 2022, has more than a million views and went viral right from the start. “The recipe was just rice that I made for lunch. I fried a little pork steak and made a Caesar salad. That was it, reheated rice with meat”, he explains.

Subsequently, the gaucho improved his techniques and took more risks. The materials produced already include records of recipes for fettuccine alfredo, paella, steak tartare, creme brulèe, cannoli, tarte tatin and, of course, six or seven digit numbers in their posts.

Still, the student says that recordings don’t always go as planned. “For example, the macaron is very complicated. It needs a super specific point in the dough, it has to have the right flour, almond flour, and an exact temperature in the oven. There can’t be any moisture in the dough, because it rises and then It goes down. I took it out of the oven and all of mine shriveled up. They looked horrible. I put it in the video and there was nothing I could do because it was already 3am”, he recalls.

Martim did not stop testing French cuisine, one of the most classic and renowned in the world, and decided to venture into other nationalities. He has already recorded videos teaching recipes for bao, a steamed bun traditional in China, nachos, typical of Mexico, cod with cream, a Portuguese dish, pavlova, an Australian dessert, and also svíčková na smetaně, one of the most famous meals in the Czech Republic – the country where he lived between 2019 and 2020.

“The exchange opened my eyes to a lot of things. In Prague, I had contact with gastronomy from all over the world, because it is a very diverse city. It was the first time I ate kebab, which is now one of my favorite foods. In my first host family [família anfitriã]I cooked a Brazilian dish for my parents once a week so we could have this cultural exchange”, he says.

Amid the pandemic, which began during his time in Europe, Martim returned to Rio Grande do Sul and began studying foreign trade. He studied in Novo Hamburgo for three semesters and, in 2022, decided to interrupt college to dedicate himself to new activities. “The decision to change from one college to another was very quick. I had been thinking about it for a long time, but I did everything in one day. I spoke to my parents and decided on the course. On the same date, I enrolled in gastronomy at UCS [Universidade de Caxias do Sul]. I came home and recorded my first video.”

“I didn’t know if I wanted to share it on social media and I sent this video to Duda, my girlfriend. She gave me the idea of ​​posting it on TikTok but I didn’t even have a profile picture there, as I only used it to watch videos and not published nothing”, he says. The gaucho made the suggested changes and became identifiable on the network. “I adjusted the photo and posted it. Within an hour, many notifications of likes and comments began to appear and I saw that it had about 30,000 views. I thought it would come to nothing, because no one followed me and I didn’t understand how the algorithm worked. The numbers were rising.”

Duda insisted that Martim continue producing the videos and, subsequently, became involved with the recordings. On their fifth attempt, the couple published step-by-step instructions for a burger with bacon, sauce and cheese. The result? Almost a million likes. The recognition was enough encouragement for him to still dream of being a content creator – an idea he has maintained since he was a child, around 11 or 12 years old, when he created a gameplay channel on YouTube. “I really wanted to be a YouTuber at that time, because there was no TikTok or Reels, but I knew I wanted to produce something. It’s really cool that all this happened, because I can finally work with what I love.”

“This life as an influencer is really fun. My recording routine takes place on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and I edit there in the early hours of the morning. I also like to exchange ideas with those who recognize me on the street or in the mall. People always ask to take a photo – even with my father or Duda”, Martim laughs.

In a short time, he conquered his space in the world of social networks and started publishing his videos on Instagram and, now, on YouTube. “I started posting four weeks ago and more or less the same thing is happening that happened on Instagram the first few times. Engagement started around the fourth or fifth video. Now, I have half a million posts on the platform.”

For Martim, setting up a restaurant is not a priority for his professional career as a chef. After finishing his university studies, he says he wants to continue working as a gastronomic communicator, just like Matty Matheson, his first reference on YouTube. “Cooking was something that I discovered as a passion recently. I really have in mind the idea of ​​doing a gastronomy program on a TV channel and that is my goal”, he concludes.