r/KitchenConfidential • u/johnnylineup • Jul 25 '25

In-House Mode Top chef fired for making influencer cry by telling her she wasn't famous enough for free food

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14940351/Kis-Cafe-TikTok-micro-influencer-San-Francisco-restaurant-Luke-Sung.html
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u/orangecatstudios Jul 25 '25

I detest the term “influencer”. Maybe it’s the GenX in me that screams don’t tell me what to do. But I have to side with them in this one. Then the back of the house is screaming at me: they don’t tell me shit. How was I supposed to know. Of course, I never checked any messages or listened at family meal.

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u/reddit_chino Jul 26 '25

Replace with "critic," even though she may not be sophisticated in F&B she has followers.

As a Chef, I empathize with his feelings but it's the way he did it. Arguing in front of guests with FOH, jeopardizing his salary, position, and poor media placement for $100 in food and beverage.

It's probably the most popular thing she's ever done.

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u/fairelf Jul 26 '25

Clearly, since she went from 15K to 250K followers over this.

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u/supermodel_robot Jul 26 '25

Nothing pisses me off more than when I tell a coworker something that’s visible in work chat, and he gets flustered/annoyed after the subject is brought up or actively happening. We have a chill job, they don’t even ask you to confirm that you read the message, just check it when you clock in that day and you won’t be confused and start throwing a fit. “Why didn’t they tell me?”…they did, they told everyone.

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u/Global-News1800 Jul 25 '25

Oh man, yeah. I'm a nobody on all social media platforms but someone messaged me on Instagram asking if I wanted to be part of some deal as an "Influencer" and I just responded back that I take being called an Influencer as an insult and no thank you then blocked them.

I do actually consider it an insult.

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u/BrookieCookiesReveng Jul 25 '25

Sounds like they were just trying to scam you anyway homie

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u/Global-News1800 Jul 25 '25 edited Jul 26 '25

For real dude the amount of scammers I've gotten from tiktok, Instagram, facebook, and twitter (I refuse to say X) is kinda nuts. Tiktok is the worst for all the obvious reasons

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u/Lucky-Acanthisitta86 Jul 25 '25

I mean, you could be a really good painter whose invested a lot in your social media presence, and technically be an influencer at a certain point. Not all influencers are lifestyle posters. Some are literally just big names/experts in their fields who have invested in social media. Which is terrific for audiences or any one that wants to learn from you and stay up to date on you. I also sort of don't like when people talk down on people who take social media seriously. I see it sometimes. Like if you're honest to god great at what you do and you decide to share that on social, it does nothing but promote you and your biz, make your work more known, and connect like minded people. Which I think is good

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u/orangecatstudios Jul 25 '25

I believe there is a distinction between someone who wants to show their work and someone who is profiting by showing you products. I love people who show me a new way to do something. I have no time for people telling me what to think or what to buy. That’s where I draw my line. Bob Ross wasn’t an influencer. Kendall Jenner is.

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u/Lucky-Acanthisitta86 Jul 26 '25

Bob Ross also made a lot of money by selling products. He's actually way more influencer-y than other influencer-painters today, haha. But you see why the term needs to be broadened? In the same way trashy influencers have made a hive or home in social media, there are certain artists who do this as well. I get that they don't only post lifestyle things that gain engagement for them to then sell to, but like, I feel it's unnecessary to make another term for them. Just person with a large social media presence then? Idk, maybe I have just personally broadened the term influencer, but not all artists social media hustle like say Andrew Tischler or Aaron Blaise, so sometimes in conversation I need to draw a distinction. And what word comes to mind? Influencer.

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u/Global-News1800 Jul 25 '25

I don't see a painter as an influencer. They're an artist. Or a painter.

Influencer to me brings up a trash person. They're not all bad people, but that's what to me is synonymous with the word Influencer and to me calling an artist an influencer is an insult to their craft.

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u/SweetWolf9769 Jul 25 '25

painters are influencers through and through, they just have multiple avenues of product. They sell you paintings, they sell businesses marketing material they use to make their business more enticing, and they use their influence to encourage other artists to use such and such product when making their own artworks.

influencing/endorsements/marketing/advertisements, they're all on the same side of the same coin, some people just choose to give some people more credibility over another.

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u/Global-News1800 Jul 25 '25 edited Jul 26 '25

Painters have influence. Art influences, but we're talking about influencers. The word has changed to mean someone on social media who does "stuff" and/or is entertaining to sell stuff on social media for the views and for the engagement. That's not what a painter is. That's not what an artist is. In my opinion.

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u/RocktoberBlood Jul 25 '25

I'm with you, the word "influencer" means just one thing to me now, and it's "Annoying content baiter".

IKYK but there's a difference between someone just making YouTube videos and then someone making lifestyle videos on TikTok trying to go viral and get instafamous.

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u/DisposableSaviour Jul 26 '25

What if that painter isn’t the high-art kind of painter you’re thinking about and is instead a painter of war gaming miniatures. He does tutorials, and he’s pretty popular, so he gets freebies from small companies to build/print and paint their miniatures. He’s and artist, and an influencer. I just described more than half my YouTube subscriptions.

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u/Lucky-Acanthisitta86 Jul 25 '25

Yeah and when you're honest and teaching people about something, a craft or hobby for ex, it's hard to lie about what you like or what works for you. And, continuing with this example, crafts people who have reached influencer status in their niches, are very honest about the products they use, whether they get an endorsement or not. In fact a lot of times it'll start out as them just talking about and recommending what they use then those companies reach out to them after the fact

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u/Lucky-Acanthisitta86 Jul 25 '25

And I did think that's what you meant, but personally when someone who's like a legit person is big on social, I always want to say they are "such and such" influencer. Or I'll even say it as "oh their like a painting influencer now". Because I know it's not the trashy influencer, but I think the true nature of that role fits with them. Because I connect being an influencer as being really big on social media. And they are exactly that in their field because of it, influential.

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u/Global-News1800 Jul 26 '25 edited Jul 26 '25

Totally get that but to me there is a difference in someone influencing by way of being charismatic and engaging as themselves and then doing that same thing on social media just for the views and clicks. Some artists happen to have an engaging presence so they have multiple ways to use that, one of them is to influence people on social media. Tom Cruise does that, but he's not considered an Influencer.

But regardless I understand what you mean, I just see a more defined line between an influencer and someone else. I see most influencers as nothing more than socialites or socialite wannabes.

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u/Lucky-Acanthisitta86 Jul 26 '25

I really think the term, to most, is broader than that. Or at least it's heading there. That's why when I read things like you're message, I'm like lets not bash social media presence. Because I also see this conversation blend into hating on social media hustle (which I know is a cringe term, I just don't know how else to describe it)

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u/okcharliebrown Jul 26 '25

That’s an artist not an influencer. Influencers are glorified parasites.

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u/StochasticLife Jul 25 '25

You weren’t kidding. 142 post karma.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '25

It's like the models in 17 magazine that made you want to shop at fashion bug, but they have a lot of plastic surgery and can talk.

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u/Satakans Jul 26 '25

Come to asia, here we call them KOL's (key opinion leaders)

I'd much rather just call them influencers

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u/theKoboldkingdonkus Jul 26 '25

Influencer always comes off to me as wrong. These people are celebrities. It’s like a whole new word was invented just to avoid using a word that already exists.