Keith Lee, a former MMA fighter, has amassed 16 million followers with his food reviews and cooking tutorials. The TikTok star discusses his 'fame,' the Atlanta food tour drama, and the importance of family.
cool Los Angeles afternoon, while most of the city is still deciding what’s for lunch, one of the country’sis in a Studio City parking lot, absolutely housing a spicy double cheeseburger.
“Not you eating the onions off the console,” Erma jokes, cackling as Lee laughs so hard he has to catch his breath. Without any context, the scene might simply be two siblings bonding over a meal. But when Lee posts a supercut of the video onthat night, 4.8 million people tune in. Even before Lee has properly finished his lunch, a sizable queue is trailing from Easy Street Burgers’ cash register out of the open door and down the sidewalk.
GETTING SURROUNDED IN the middle of an L.A. burger joint is a far cry from where Keith Lee started 15 years ago. Lee grew up in Detroit with his parents and three siblings. He was expelled from at least four schools. He struggled with anxiety and depression, which manifested as intense communication problems and confrontations with classmates, teachers, and his parents. When he was 16, he was kicked out of the house after continual arguments with his father. “I was a liability.
When Kevin joined the UFC at 21 — the MMA equivalent of getting drafted by the NFL — the entire family moved from Detroit to Las Vegas. But about to turn 18, separated from friends, and with no plans to go to college, Lee quickly fell back into depression. His brother showed up at the apartment one day, took one look at Lee’s dark room and unshaven face, and dragged him to his gym. It was Lee’s fresh start: the world of mixed martial arts.
In his video reviews, Lee critiqued several of the city’s eateries, expressing small frustrations with how hard it was to get reservations or walk in to eat. Restaurants that he was able to visit, he showered them with praise and donations. But the viral incidents — ones where Lee wasn’t able to find a seat or wasn’t served — became the discourse around the food tour.
While TikTok users began flocking to Lee’s page to watch him prepare meals for his pregnant wife, behind the scenes, Lee was actually using the cooking videos to help heal his relationship with food.
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