Diana Nguyen and Cham Keat, two content creators who own the social media food site Hypefoodies, were recently interviewed and featured by NBC Washington for their contributions to small restaurants in the area, in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (May) in the US.
Vietnamese-born content creator Diana Nguyen
The Arlington, Virginia-based couple uses Hypefoodies to highlight delicious, under-the-radar restaurants in the Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia DMVs. Hypefoodies now has 86,500 Instagram followers and 80,000 TikTok followers.
Before becoming a "hot TikToker," Diana was a behavioral therapist for an autism support facility and CK worked in an Amazon warehouse. The two discovered their passion for food after trips back to their home country of Vietnam, where they experienced unique flavors that Vietnamese restaurants in the DMV couldn't compare to. In 2017, they decided to create Hypefoodies to showcase the best food to eat in the DMV and beyond. In 2018, they started posting daily, and that's when Hypefoodies became widely known, according to Voyage Baltimore magazine.
A year later, the couple truly saw the impact they had on the food community when they received messages from small business owners saying that their content had changed their lives. From there, CK and Diana received more photography, video, and advertising contracts until the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Diana and CK then decided to quit their professional jobs to focus more on the Hypefoodies project.
Currently, in addition to videos sharing dining locations, CK and Diana also introduce events, travel experiences, festivals, and lifestyle content. They work with brands to promote products and collaborate with local restaurants and food businesses to create honest review videos, and manage social media accounts for many restaurants in the DMV area. "Due to high demand, please be patient if we have delays in responding," the couple wrote on Hypefoodies to their partners.
In an interview, the couple said the journey has not always been smooth, but they have mostly found it fulfilling and enjoyable.
Despite their influence through their content, the couple prefer not to be called “influencers,” instead calling themselves content creators. “We love what we do and appreciate the people who have embraced what we do,” the couple told Taste the Dram magazine.
In addition, their immigrant backgrounds have made them more empathetic toward small and minority businesses. “We didn’t grow up with a lot of money. We feel like our upbringings of humility influenced us to focus on minority-owned businesses because they remind us of where we came from and where our parents came from,” CK and Diana say.
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