Cover The celebrity chef and content creator Erwan Heussaff is the man behind The Fat Kid Inside Studios
The celebrity chef and content creator Erwan Heussaff is the man behind The Fat Kid Inside Studios
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Content creator, creative director and Youtube sensation, Erwan Heussaff has international award-giving bodies noticing, most recent of which is the prestigious James Beard Awards
For a time, Erwan Heussaff had a hard time trying to find his footing.
He got accepted at France’s prestigious cooking school Ferrandi in Paris but last minute, backed out and chose to do business. “I got cold feet and didn’t know if I wanted to cook inside the kitchen. It felt so static.”
He opened a string of restaurants and bars, and while some ran their course, some had to shut down before their due time. “I always said that I wanted to do an MBA. The opening and closing of all my restaurants, that was my school. It was costly, but I ended up learning a lot.”
But when he finally pursued something he has always had an intense fascination for, his line of work was rewarded and validated not just with a solid and loyal fanbase and a handful of sponsored brands but also with prestigious industry recognition, the most recent of which is the much-coveted James Beard Awards where he won in the Broadcast Media category.
In case you missed it: This James Beard Awardee built a media business from his love of food
Born to parents who love to cook and eat, the young Heussaff naturally took on the family flair and spent much time in the kitchen growing up. At age ten, he would toil on a 15-course dinner for his folks come holidays and, often, for their friends when they were over for a special occasion.
“I just really enjoyed the food. I was chunky when I was six. I just enjoyed eating,” he says. “What I love most is that you can recreate flavours and dishes you’ve tried simply through memory and taste. I’d cook insane-tasting dinners with massive main dishes and make too much food.”
He may have passed up the opportunity to learn culinary professionally, but his thirst for knowledge didn’t cease. While finishing his business degree, he took minors in food, including a four-year sommelier programme, which he juggled with advertising classes. That gave him a broader perspective on the industry and even reinforced his decision not to be a chef, as he realised that he takes pleasure in developing concepts more than slugging them out each night in a temperamental kitchen.
Above Heussaff is always game to search, harvest and sample regional specialities and lesser-known delicacies
Heussaff is always game to search, harvest and sample regional specialities and lesser-known delicacies
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After graduation, he moved to Russia to manage the operations of the business centres, pastry shops, bars and canteens of a French food services and facilities management company. Caught in the dead of winter in a small city with nothing but boredom keeping him company, Heussaff decided to entertain himself by doing a random post on social media.
He remembers being on Facebook and seeing that some of his friends were whining about being unable to cook because of a missing ingredient. “I looked at my pantry, which barely had any fresh vegetables, and I was like, why are you guys complaining? You can do so much with what you have, and so, as a joke, I started making food videos with bare minimum equipment and ingredients,” he says. He uploaded those, and to his surprise, they were received pretty well.
Noticing that online video has legs, he set up The Fat Kid Inside, a website focused on weight loss, which he had much experience and credibility on after having shed many pounds. He started it at a time when Atkins and South Beach were all the rage, and so his recipes, meal plans and words of encouragement were such a hit that it snowballed and drove him to tap into other arenas, including YouTube.
In case you missed it: Erwan Heussaff Launches 4 new cooking shows
In 2010, an offer to work for a large-scale industrial catering company had Heussaff packing his bags and moving to the Philippines. Once people got word about his forte, education and background, opportunities to open a restaurant soon landed on his lap—and he was quick to snatch it.
“Being in my twenties, I think it was an ego thing,” he says about being a player in the bar and restaurant scene. “I knew the concept and cost game, I understood them, and so it was a natural thing to do.” In 2014, he opened Hatch 22, a neighbourhood cafe and bakery located at Rockwell. From one, it multiplied to many, ten to be exact, including The Hungry Hound Pub and Kitchen, Yes Please, and Niner Ichi Nana.
It was around the same time that he started doing digital videos. And after saturating subjects on fitness, he chose to zero in on Filipino cuisine. “I started doing Pinoy recipes because I wasn’t great at shooting myself. I wasn’t great as an on-cam talent regarding what people are looking for, such as having high energy, always smiling and fun. I posted every three months, sometimes two weeks. I was not serious.”
Related: How to be a food writer
Above Heussaff is always game to search, harvest and sample regional specialities and lesser-known delicacies
Heussaff is always game to search, harvest and sample regional specialities and lesser-known delicacies
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Until a production company, who dug his style and treatment, approached him and asked if he was interested in working together. They produced a couple of food series, but the need for more funding made what should be a profitable hobby unsustainable.
However, now that he has found what he truly enjoys, which is creating content, he will not give up that easily. And so, he taught himself how to shoot better and opened his own production company, which not only churns out videos for their channel called FEATR but also for other brands and clients that acknowledge their work as well as a distribution platform.
From a tiny nook that doubled as a bar in Poblacion to a 500-sqm workroom in Mandaluyong, and from a small starting group of eight to now at 23, The Fat Kid Inside Studios has undoubtedly grown to become among the formidable names rocking the online food scene, producing close to 60 vertical shorts and long-form videos each month.
See also: Food travel vlogs: 5 Youtube channels to binge-watch
FEATR’s videos aim to spark discourse and continue the conversation about Filipino food started by the likes of the late great Anthony Bourdain. Such as the record-breaking 17-minute 2021 single feature on one of the country’s rarest salts (the craft of which is upheld solely by two families), which garnered over three million views and merited over four thousand comments, many of which were praise for the awareness on the heritage product. Because of this, Heussaff ’s production team is exhausting their efforts to unearth more of our artisanal salts, such as duldul in Guimaras and asin sugpo in Pangasinan, and hopefully bring about the same effect and influence on the viewing public, which the asin tibuok did—more so, on their makers.
“Before the video came out, asin tibuok wasn’t a part of the tourism map of Bohol. But once it did, it contributed to the discussion. The governor put it on the tourism map, and it became one of the most visited places in the province.” He adds, “The fund from the video was able to pay for their structure that was struck down by the typhoon. It shows how video can create an impact. We started getting into salt when we saw that they were doing so well. Our graphics team is already working on their branding, depending on their location. Hopefully, the artisans would want to use it so they can go to market online.”
In case you missed it: 6 decadent Filipino ingredients you should know: Asin tibuok, taba ng talangka, and more
Above Fish and seaweed prep at Enting’s restaurant in Sagay City
Fish and seaweed prep at Enting’s restaurant in Sagay City
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Before, they would appear in a province and hope things work out. These days, they have employed researchers who spend much time on the phone or the field so that when they visit a region or a city, they’ll leave the trip with multiple episodes for different series.
When they trekked to Baguio earlier this year, they produced nine videos total, which collectively earned close to seven million views. None of these were sensational and dramatic, but all were factual, cultural and historical.
“I grew tired of hearing that Filipino cuisine is on the rise. Or that it is the next big thing,” he says. “I’m obsessed with the idea of how to get it there. And I think it has to be approached from all fronts. I think Jollibee plays a part in it because it represents part of our culture. The same with what the Fil-Am chefs are doing in the US, pushing things forward there. People like Stephan Duhesme of Metiz, Jordy Navarra of Toyo Eatery, and the Hapag boys all focus on local ingredients. All these are happening simultaneously, and the missing piece is food media, digital specifically.” This is precisely where FEATR fits in.
He adds, “Be it cultural heritage or agricultural production, these are important in nation-building. And so, if we can play a part in that, that’d be awesome.”
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