How a Michelin-trained chef became a TikTok star after losing her job in the pandemic

• Poppy O'Toole has gone from Michelin-trained chef to TikTok star in just a year's time.
• O'Toole lost her job during the pandemic and began making cooking videos on TikTok.
• Now she has more than 1.5 million followers and a cookbook deal.

When chef Poppy O'Toole lost her job as the pandemic swept across the UK, she was devastated.

She had trained in a Michelin-starred restaurant and dreamed of opening her own one day. But suddenly her future had become one big question mark - that is, until she discovered TikTok.

Fast-forward a year and the 27-year-old star of @poppycooks has 1.5 million followers, where she teaches her fans how to make everything from McDonald's hash browns to the perfect roasted potatoes.

"I think I'm now known on TikTok as the potato queen, and I'm so happy to wear that crown all the time," O'Toole told Insider with a laugh. "I will reign in potato TikTok forever."

O'Toole's TikTok success has even landed her a cookbook deal. It's been an incredible ride that has completely reignited O'Toole's love for cooking - and changed her life.

Poppy O'Toole got her start in professional kitchens at a Michelin-starred restaurant

When she was just 18 years old, O'Toole landed an apprenticeship at Purnell's in Birmingham, England. The high standards and regimented schedule gave O'Toole a crash course in the restaurant world, and she quickly rose up the ranks as she continued her cooking career in London.

But O'Toole soon learned that success in the kitchen came with plenty of sacrifices.

"You're in the kitchen for 70 hours a week, whether you like it or not," she said. "So much of it is a team energy. Everyone sticks it out to the end, especially when you get to a managerial role as I was - everyone's looking up to you. You've got to make sure that you're setting the bar high, so you're going to be the last one to leave and the first one to arrive."

There were years of missed birthdays and family gatherings, not to mention the holidays. Even on the rare occasion that she did get Christmas off, O'Toole said she'd spend most of it trying to catch up on sleep.

When O'Toole was laid off in March after the pandemic forced restaurants to shut across the UK, she said it was a "devastating blow."

But it was also, for the first time in years, a chance for her to slow down and spend time with family again.

O'Toole's siblings introduced her to TikTok

O'Toole moved back to her parents' house after losing her job, but she found it hard to get her siblings' attention because they were obsessed with TikTok.

"They were just on their phones doing dances and I was like, 'What on earth are you doing?'" she recalled.

Then O'Toole saw that the app wasn't just for choreography and lip-synchs. People were also using it to post their own home cooking videos.

"I was like, "Well, I've got nothing to do so I might as well try it,'" she said. "I've always wanted to branch out and do more foodie stuff but I felt with Instagram I had all the people I used to work with, they're going to laugh at me. But TikTok is so massive, I could do it freely without anybody I know seeing it."

O'Toole started off with foods like churros and fries. But things really took off when she found the recipe for McDonald's hash browns and made a how-to video for her followers. Media outlets from around the world picked up O'Toole's video, which received more than 40,000 views.

@poppycooks

Recreating the McDonald’s hashbrown at home and it is SO easy. Who’s missing a Maccies rn? ##fyp ##food ##recipe ##chef ##mcdonalds ##foodporn

♬ Fast Food Song - CDM Project

"I was jumping around, popped the champagne, we all got way too excited," she said. "I thought that was going to be my peak. I was like, 'This is brilliant, this is all I've ever wanted to achieve.' And then I realized I wanted to achieve more than that."

In October, British publishing house Bloomsbury reached out about doing a cookbook for 2022

O'Toole had 100,000 TikTok followers at the time and thought she'd reached the peak of her social media career - until her potatoes brought even more success.

The UK went into lockdown for the third time in November, and O'Toole noticed that one of her potato videos had racked up a million views. So she decided to do a series celebrating 25 days of potatoes through lockdown.

Her follower count doubled within days, but that was just the beginning.

@poppycooks

Day 6 and it’s the gorgeous ✨ potato fondants ✨ ##potato ##potatoes ##potatotiktok ##chefsoftiktok ##hunry ##fondant ##french

♬ sweet dreams x seven nation made by POLY - Johnathon "NIGHTMÆR" Miranda

"Halfway through, I did a compilation video of all the potato recipes I'd done so far and just kind of welcomed people to potato TikTok, and that got 25 million views," O'Toole recalled. "I went to bed with 200,000 followers and woke up with over one million."

Bloomsbury was so excited about O'Toole's success that they've moved up the publishing date of her cookbook, which will now be out on September 16.

@poppycooks

Reply to @richyb_ We had to make over 40 dishes in four days and I styled each and every one ❤️ ##BTS ##photoshoot ##recipebook ##chef

♬ Dancing In The Moonlight x Pumped Up Kicks - darcy

O'Toole also credits TikTok with helping her become a better chef

While she hasn't cooked in a professional kitchen in over a year, O'Toole has had the time to forge her own style and become more confident in her skills while filming up to four different recipes a day at home for TikTok.

"As a chef, you're so used to cooking somebody else's food and having to do whatever everyone else says," O'Toole said. "It's really nice to be able to go, 'This is how I like to cook, this is how I like to eat, and I'm going to show you.'"

"But I think the biggest lesson I've learned is that I just need to be more confident in what I'm doing," she added. "I really did think nothing would ever come of this. I actually thought people were going to be like, 'Why is she doing this?'"

And while posting daily TikTok videos from her kitchen is no easy feat, the chef said it's also completely reignited her love for cooking. Gone are the days where she'd be too tired and burned out from work to make something for her family and friends. Now O'Toole looks forward to every day she spends in the kitchen.

"It's actually probably saved my career," she said. "It's a whole different way of cooking at home, and a whole different love and passion that I have for it. Being able to take the time and put love in it makes a massive difference."

"Now I adore food," she added. "I adored food anyway, but I absolutely adore food now."