| CHOW BELLA | t Café Under the Influence We had a few questions for Jenn Baluch, whose Arizona foodie TikTok account took off during the pandemic. BY ROBRT L. PELA I n the new world, Jenn Baluch be- lieves, restaurant critics may well be replaced by food influencers. “I don’t think people go out of their way to find restaurant reviews anymore,” says the award-winning founder of Tastes of AZ, a webpage de- voted to marketing restaurants. “People are reading what’s on Yelp or turning toward personalities they can trust. It’s why I turned away from journalism. I saw that social media is taking over, and I saw the power of video.” The look on someone’s face when she’s eating an empanada is what people want today, Baluch says. “With a food review, you don’t know the person writing the article or what they like for food. With a social media platform, you get to know the person who’s eat- ing, and you see their facial expres- sion, and you can tell if the food is good.” Before she made a name for herself as a promoter of tostadas, Baluch was a project coordinator for the Arizona Cardinals. Fur- loughed last year, she launched her webpage and a TikTok chan- nel devoted to promoting little- known local restaurants. Success came nearly overnight, thanks in part to COVID. “I created Tastes of AZ in Feb- ruary 2020, and the pandemic came in March,” she remembers. “Restaurants were struggling dur- ing the pandemic. I brought them business.” She now has more than 100,000 follow- She knows it’s gross to be grateful for a murderous health crisis. “I can truly thank COVID,” she writes on her webpage. “Which seems twisted.” It turned out that being a food influ- encer was Baluch’s calling. “People liked my personality,” she explains, “and seeing my face in front of the camera let them trust me. Once you gain trust, you become an influencer, and the trust keeps building up, and hopefully, you don’t break it.” Being trustworthy has led to a big year 34 for Baluch, who’s been named Influencer of the Year by something called @arizo- nainfluencer. She’s also appeared in a clip Baluch says you can trust this face. Courtesy Jenn Baluch ers on TikTok, where her handle is @taste- sofaz. place, their pupusas are bomb.” Or: “The fried tacos here are frickin’ bomb.” And “Y’all, doesn’t this pizza look bomb?” Viewers like that Baluch can’t pronounce “pappardelle” and that she makes a joke about it. She’s generous with her choices, and her commentary is jam-packed and punc- tuation-free, allowing her to cram as many exclamations into Tik Tok’s super-short videos as possible. Baluch knows it’s enough to say that something is “the best,” and not to say why. This is the 21st century, where promotion trumps criticism, where commercials have replaced critical think- ing, and telling us what you ordered is what viewers want. But Baluch is no stranger to cui- on the Cooking Channel’s Food Paradise. The key to her success has been know- ing what her audience wants. “Mine loves tacos,” she explains. “When I post about tacos I get three times the likes and com- ments and views as when I post about a salad.” Baluch provides her taco lovers with video-friendly commentary in a language they recognize. Food is often “amazing,” and “legit,” and is more frequently “bomb,” as in “I found a bomb Salvadoran >> p 36 SEPT 9TH – SEPT 15TH, 2021 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
