TikToker uses her passion for cooking to become a viral sensation

Singapore — Engel Koh is not just any other person on TikTok, creating content. Don’t be fooled by her day job as the managing director of an events company. Ms Koh has amassed more than 26 million views on TikTok pursuing her passion – cooking.

Her love for cooking was rekindled during the Covid-19 circuit breaker when, she said, she finally found time to cook at home every day. She explained that she would film her creations as she was making them, and post the videos on TikTok after cooking.

Much to her surprise, she garnered more than six million views in just two months. Now, in less than a year on TikTok, she has had racked up more than 26 million views.

Always the entrepreneur, she has gone from one business to another, but they were completely unrelated to cooking. She started as a beauty consultant before opening her own hair and beauty salon. Four years later, she decided to start an events company.

Making videos of cup noodles with fried rice, and sweet and savoury puffs made from frozen pratas, Ms Koh says that her creativity stems from her love of food.

Though she films at home, her recording set-up is quite elaborate. Not only does she have various lights and phone stands to film the cooking process, Ms Koh also has many different backgrounds to showcase the foods she makes.

“I have a lot of props, I have a lot of backdrops”, she says.

“I think more than 50 backdrops and, yes, even more than 100 kinds of props”, Ms Koh adds.

Not only does she film the cooking process; once she is done, she takes photos of the food from various angles and even films herself eating it.

Ms Koh says she has even been approached by sponsors or advertisers, who have asked her to feature their products in her videos.

She doesn’t just do this alone, her love for food often takes her to restaurants she likes, where she films the experience and cuisines to share with her followers on TikTok.

Ms Koh adds that she has aspirations to even start her own cooking show, teaching others.