{"id":19382,"date":"2023-04-10T15:36:43","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T19:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=19382"},"modified":"2023-06-05T12:51:25","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T16:51:25","slug":"merril-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/merril-food\/","title":{"rendered":"From Food Network to TikTok, Hotelie Is a Gen-Z Culinary Star"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Matthew Merril \u201926 loves cooking\u2014and his skills and enthusiasm have garnered millions of fans, especially among the college crowd<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Lindsay Lennon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s cook a turkey in a dorm room,\u201d Hotelie Matthew Merril \u201926<\/a> declares in a TikTok video<\/a> posted shortly before Thanksgiving 2022. He then scrubs carrots in a bathroom sink in North Campus\u2019s Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hall before moving back to his room and\u2014crouching next to his bed\u2014plopping them into a roasting pan with onions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merril, a bona fide influencer who has 2.6 million followers<\/a> on TikTok, deftly wields a chef\u2019s knife to unwrap the raw turkey; he removes the gizzards, loosens the skin, and creates a butter compound with seasonings and fresh spices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the <\/em>craziest thing I\u2019ve ever done in my life,\u201d he exclaims, buttering the bird with his bare hands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Merril finishes prepping, he hauls the turkey down in the elevator to the shared kitchen for roasting, to the stares of passersby. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cCould this be the very first dorm room turkey?\u201d he muses once he\u2019s back in his room, slicing the succulent, nearly picture-perfect bird. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dubbed a \u201cculinary prodigy\u201d by Mashed<\/em>, Merril\u2014whose TikTok channel has spurred a slew of corporate partnerships, speaking engagements, and a cookbook, Teen Baking Bootcamp<\/em>\u2014seems to have been rehearsing for his role as an online influencer long before the title existed. Many fans grew up watching him on Food Network, where he debuted on \u201cKids Baking Championship\u201d at age 10.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Despite growing up in what he describes as a \u201chousehold where neither of my parents could cook,\u201d Merril has long had a passion for food. It was sparked by his late grandmother, an Iraqi immigrant who put an American spin on traditional dishes like curries and baklava.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Merril honored her on TikTok on Christmas Eve 2022\u2014the family\u2019s first without her\u2014by making her recipe for caramel cookies<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe kitchen felt like a lab to me\u2014it was this great place where I could explore,\u201d he says. \u201cSome mornings, my mom would be like, \u2018Who\u2019s in the kitchen at 7 a.m.?\u2019 And it was 7-year-old me, making cinnamon rolls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merril was a Food Network fanatic and devoured cooking videos on YouTube to hone his technique. In fifth grade, after watching the debut episode of \u201cKids Baking Championship,\u201d he was confident he could be a contestant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The kitchen felt like a lab to me\u2014it was this great place where I could explore.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

After an application and several auditions\u2014where his longtime love of performing in youth theater came in handy\u2014he landed on the second season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merril made the cut through seven episodes, winning the \u201cMacaron Stackaron\u201d challenge (which required the kids to bake three dozen of the challenging confections, piled five inches high) before losing in the eighth and final round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merril\u2019s run led to appearances on more Food Network programs, like \u201cChopped Junior\u201d and \u201cGuy\u2019s Grocery Games.\u201d In 2020, he started posting on TikTok\u2014and discovered he already had a fan base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI loved you in middle school,\u201d one user commented. \u201cYou were literally my favorite and I was always rooting for you,\u201d wrote another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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