Kim was formerly an engineer but pivoted to food media after his blog on the DC food scene (called Eat the Capital) took off. Over the past year, he’s repeatedly gone viral by making short chef challenges, such as: “Can you make a gourmet meal with McDonald’s chicken nuggets?”
In a phone chat, Kim tells me that those digital views turn into real foot traffic and that TikTok is the number one converter for restaurants. The app is getting more people through the door than Instagram,…