'Holy grail of tubers': How chef Poppy O'Toole turned potatoes into TikTok stardom

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Our cookbook of the week is Poppy Cooks by Poppy O’Toole. To try a recipe from the book, check out: Bacon-y garlic-y potato-y; apples ‘n’ pears pork; and cheese and onion pie.

Poppy O’Toole found TikTok stardom in potatoes. One look at the Michelin-trained chef’s profile and it’s clear why.

With 53 million views and counting, her crisp and golden 15-hour potatoes simultaneously tap into the internet’s fascination with ASMR videos and lengthy recipes (100-hour brownies anyone?). From her “perfect roasties” to “Around the World in 80 Potatoes” recipe series, she has boundless enthusiasm for what the humble spud can do.

“There’s nowhere in the world that doesn’t love potatoes. They are just the holy grail of tubers,” says O’Toole, who goes by the handle Poppy Cooks. “There are so many things you can do with it. And that’s what I love. It never stops giving you a little bit of a gift every time.”

Her two million followers don’t just come for the potatoes, though. O’Toole also covers non-spud-related topics, including proper chopping techniques, a “life-changing” tomato sauce and how to make flawless poached eggs.

In March 2020, O’Toole was furloughed from her job as a junior sous-chef at the AllBright social club in London, England. Inspired by her younger siblings — Christian, 14, and Trixie, 11 — back in her hometown of Birmingham, she started making videos as a way “to keep (her) mind ticking over.”

When the furlough ended in June 2020, though, she reconsidered her path forward.

“I had a few months of being like, ‘Oh, it’s okay. I’m just going to make nice videos. I’ll be back at work soon.’ And then it was like, ‘Oh, no, that’s actually it now. There’s no going back, you haven’t got a job.’”

O’Toole’s TikTok success started with a daily recipe series showing her audience how she cooks at home. But it boomed when she posted her first recipe for crispy potatoes, then again with a “greatest potato hits” compilation video. It’s kept rising ever since.

I had a few months of being like, 'Oh, it's okay. I'm just going to make nice videos. I'll be back at work soon.' And then it was like, 'Oh, no, that's actually it now. There's no going back, you haven't got a job.'

Making TikToks turned into the creative outlet she needed, O’Toole recalls. By sharing her own food, she gained insight into how she likes to eat and cook. While she enjoyed cooking other people’s dishes in restaurants — with the occasional opportunity to “put your two pence in” — it helped her learn more about her style.

“Being able to be like, ‘Oh, I’ve got full free rein of this. This is all mine; I could just do whatever’ was really lovely. And it’s been able to show me what kind of food I genuinely love,” says O’Toole.

“And I realized I’m not very fancy. I like very standard food. I like to pretend I like oysters. I don’t,” she adds, laughing. “I like eating potatoes and cream. That’s about it.”

O’Toole expands on her talent for educating, not just entertaining, in her debut book, Poppy Cooks (Appetite by Random House, 2021). Writing a cookbook had been a dream for years, and she wanted it to be useful.

Through interacting with her audience and reading comments, she learned that people were interested in gaining fundamental cooking skills. Skills that, coming from a professional background, she had taken for granted and assumed everyone knew.

The result is “a teaching book with inspiration from TikTok.” Foundational skills underpin Poppy Cooks: Each chapter begins with at least one core recipe — whether cheese sauce, shortcrust pastry or tempura batter — which the rest of the recipes build off.

“They’re not the traditional core skills that you might get in a Larousse-like book,” says O’Toole, in reference to Larousse Gastronomique, the French culinary encyclopedia first published in 1938.

“It’s not your five mother sauces. But it’s confit garlic, which is so popular, and people love doing it. And it’s an enjoyable thing to do. Or there’s the flatbreads, again, which isn’t conventional, but it’s a good tip to have. If you’re in a rush, you go ‘I haven’t got anything, but I’ve got some yogurt and flour. Let’s just make some flatbreads.'”

She designed the book to suit various skill levels, from novices to people who cook on a regular basis.

Following the core recipes, every chapter has a go-to staple, brunch, potato (naturally), and more involved “Fancy AF,” such as beef shin lasagna, slow-roasted harissa lamb shoulder and the DIY chippy (chip shop) dinner.

“Those little nuggets of information, which I’ve learned through being in kitchens, I just wanted to be able to give that to anybody,” says O’Toole.

“Anyone who wants to get in the kitchen. Anyone who wants to have a go without loads of fancy tools. Without loads of fancy ingredients. Without loads of jargon, which only chefs understand.”

A self-described people person, O’Toole misses working in restaurants because of the social aspect. Though she’s surrounded by millions of people on TikTok, it just feels different.

She hasn’t ruled out getting back into professional kitchens through pop-ups or potentially her own restaurant down the line.

“It would be really good fun. But at the minute, I really want to keep on teaching people through content, through books, through any means possible. Because I enjoy it so much.”

As a chef, O’Toole was used to being behind-the-scenes. Moving into the spotlight was daunting at first, she recalls. She may have 31.3 million likes, but online affirmation usually comes hand in hand with at least some negativity.

“Being right at the front, it was an interesting transition. But I’m so happy that I just carried on,” she says. “Even when I was at work, I loved bringing people a little bit of happiness. Whatever it is that I can do, I go out of my way to try and make someone smile. And the fact that I can do that through my love of cooking is gobsmacking.”

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