Deez Interviews: Meet the Tasty producer who quit college for a life of internet fame, cooking on camera, and cookie dough
Happy Friday to all you Deezers old and new — for newbies, Fridays are the days we publish a Q&A with someone doing cool stuff in the media industry.
Today, our interview is with Tasty’s Alvin Zhou, who you’ve probably seen (or at least, you’ve seen his hands) in your Facebook feed whipping up scrumptious cookies or giant, jiggly cheesecakes. Alvin talked to us about dropping out of college to focus on Tasty full time, being internet famous, and his dream dinner party menu. Enjoy!
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The interviewee: Alvin Zhou (follow him on Insta @alvinzhoupwns)
The gig: Tasty producer
What’s an average day look like for you?
I'll get in, grab some coffee, and check my meetings for the day. If I'm shooting, I'll usually grab groceries nearby or get them delivered. Then I'll prep my gear and shoot for most of the day. If I'm not shooting, I'll work on video edits, brainstorm ideas, eat snacks, and go to meetings.
I usually cook lunch for myself in the Tasty space and offer up any leftovers to the team. Sometimes I'll make 10 pounds of cookie dough if I have a party or event to go to later. The rest of the day is usually filled with meetings, eating, drinking lots of seltzer, and cooking.
It's well-known BuzzFeed lore that you started as the youngest producer on Tasty back in 2016, and eventually dropped out of Columbia University to focus on it fully. What was making that decision like?
The idea of dropping out almost came immediately when I started to see my videos rack up views. I had never thought of this becoming a real job, but once I got hired full-time junior year, it was extremely easy to imagine myself not having to continue school anymore.
I worked 40+ hours a week on top of school, so I would go to work during the day (skipped MANY classes) and come back around 9 p.m. to finish up homework. I think a real tipping point came when I was studying with my friends in our common room at 1 a.m. while they were cramming furiously for separate class. They had their heads buried in textbooks and notes, while I was casually browsing Amazon Prime Now on my laptop to see which steaks I should buy for my shoot tomorrow. It was a pretty easy decision to drop out after that.
I'm curious about how your work overlaps with your personal life. You grew up learning to cook as a teen to help feed your family. Are you a big home cook now when you're off the clock?
I mostly cook at the office, since we have amazing kitchen equipment and ingredients. I eat a lot (probably too much) so by the time I get home, I'm not really hungry anymore. That means I usually do all of my cooking at work, but sometimes I'll bring some stuff home to play around with. I recently moved into a nicer apartment setup, so I think I'll start cooking at home a lot more now.
Let's talk about being internet famous: Have you always been comfortable being on camera? How do you deal with being constantly stopped on the street and swarmed at boba shops and all of that??
I'm not really the kind of person that "loves" being on camera. Being "talent" or a "personality" wasn't something I felt was super important to me, but I knew I needed to be the one that cooked the food because I wanted to control how my food looked. It was a new process for me to be on camera, and I think my mentality was to try and have fun, goof off (maybe a bit too much), and hope that people didn't hate me.
It's always pretty humbling to be recognized since it means that people took the time out of their day to watch a lot of our videos, which is awesome. It's great motivation for me to continue making food videos as cool as I can.
Finally, let’s say you get to throw the dinner party of your wildest dreams. What's on the menu???
Cucumber salad
Extra crispy fries
Steak with red wine sauce and garlic butter
Korean fried chicken
Jeni's ice cream sundae bar
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Don’t forget to follow Alvin @alvinzhoupwns, and have an extra crispy weekend!