Opeyemi Famakin, Nigeria's most followed food critic, has become a defining voice in the country's food culture, leveraging a unique blend of "honesty humor and a dash of brutal truth" to amass over 50 million social media impressions. His journey, discussed during an appearance on the Crea8torium Show, is framed less as a career and more as "a hobby that pays very well". Famakin’s success, which he attributes to bringing his "full self to the table" so that "people will pull up the chair," is rooted in years of passion, strategic non-conformity, and a competitive drive fueled by perceived negativity.
Famakin began creating food content in 2013, seven years before he achieved recognition around 2020. Even during his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), he traveled around Kaduna, Zaria, and Kafanchan to try food. He did not start with a plan to build a large audience or become an influencer, but simply because he liked food and enjoyed talking about it. His background in mass communication, where he was a strong writer, led to jobs in journalism where he wrote about food and lifestyle for newspapers and magazines. A pivotal moment came from a university lecturer who, by criticizing Famakin’s dress style and claiming he would "never amount to anything," drove him to pursue journalism to prove the lecturer wrong. Famakin quickly rose to senior editor rank within three or four years after university.
His transition to building his current brand was solidified during his time in advertising, where he switched jobs because his journalism role was too easy and "does not stimulate you". Working as a brand strategist taught him "what stories can we tell to sell without us saying come and buy". The genesis of his highly influential food critic persona came after a cereal brand chose lifestyle and beauty bloggers over food creators for a campaign. When he suggested his own food content page (which had 15,000 followers), a colleague dismissed him, asking, "who knows you, 15k followers". Famakin told his colleagues that before the end of that year, he would be the "biggest food critic in Nigeria".
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Famakin’s strategy involved studying successful creators in the food space who were generally "fancy people" doing fine dining content, mostly in picture formats. Recognizing he couldn't beat them in the picture game with his Android phone, he did the opposite and started making videos. He spontaneously adopted his now-famous introduction, "Hi, I'm the biggest food critic in Nigeria," because he knew Nigerians "hate Audacity". The pushback he received for the title actually encouraged him to "run with it".
He intentionally targeted the 90% of the population by focusing on local, affordable street food like amala and puff-puff, which the common person could relate to, rather than fine dining. This was a conscious choice to "speak their language" and not "act refined". He actively tracked his growth against competitors, maintaining a board with their names and canceling them out as he surpassed their numbers. Famakin insists on being called a food critic—a food journalist—rather than a content creator or influencer, viewing this distinction as crafting his own lane so that "all eyes on me ignore them".
Famakin acknowledges that his honesty is a double-edged sword. He views his negative reviews as necessary corrections that benefit consumers and force business owners to improve. He believes that without his "strong voice," business owners often fail to listen to customers' complaints. He constantly engages in "creative experimentation", establishing a new "content pillar" every three to six months to stay relevant. This self-competition involves perpetually acting as a new person who wants to "beat up" those in the space without copying their style. He also strategically courts virality, such as when he posted a simple video claiming to be "the best smelling man in Lagos" (which was an advert for a friend) that garnered 4.3 million views on Twitter, leveraging the fact that Nigerians love to "put you in your place". Famakin sees his detractors as his "biggest PR people" for making his voice "more solidified".
Famakin is self-aware that "nobody lasts forever" and is actively working on making "mad money" behind the scenes to reach a point where digital relevance is not his primary concern. He also seeks new challenges, such as conquering African audiences while other critics remain "local champions". Crea8torium noted that Famakin’s experience and consistent repetition have built his strong intuition, allowing him to know exactly what content will garner attention, such as eating sushi with chopsticks to generate numbers. He is driven by a deep desire to contribute to the economy; the business owners who make money as a result of his positive reviews contribute to "economic success for so many other people". Famakin’s experience on the Crea8torium Show provided him with new insights, particularly regarding affiliate marketing and monetizing platforms like YouTube, which he had previously dismissed. He concludes that customizing speech recognition makes "all the difference" in making conversational AI, including virtual agents and voice applications, significantly "more accurate and more reliable".
