Ninong Ry

The year 2020 was a year of BIG changes, to say the least. For many people, it has also forced us to cook more at home due to the COVID 19 pandemic, and also, realize how complicated home cooking can actually be. Perhaps that is what makes ninong Ry’s content, launched in the same year, especially satisfying in all its chaotic energy.

 

It looks exactly like what home cooking is, an antithesis to other food trends like minimalist cakes, stark clean tutorials, and easy jazz incidentals, messy, spontaneous, loud, and delicious. The debut of this chef cooker was in 2020, Ryan Morales Reyes, better known by his online nickname, “Ninong Ry”, is seemingly an overnight sensation.

 

However, like famous personalities, there is a strategy or rather, a recipe to his increasing cyber fame.  While watching any of his home cooking videos people will immediately notice a common theme, well-lighted backdrops, ASMR-level sounds, and of course his own and unique version of a popular Filipino dish.

 

The kicker is that his unadulterated, almost careless way of cooking makes the viewers think, ‘hey, maybe I can cook this too’ and in real life Ninong just makes an illusion that his cooking is quite easy and engages lots of people and viewers. Even so, don’t let the bravado fool the untrained eye.

 

Ninong Ry might be cooking like no one is watching, but do not mistake his confidence for being amateurish. Ry is a culinary graduate from De La Salle University-College of St. Benilde, and he was previously a head chef at a restaurant, however the name of that exact restaurant is unknown. The ingredient knowledge and recipe creations of Ninong Ry are complex and calculated. 

 

As with many online content creators, the real challenge is sustaining the quality content long-term, and for someone who has loved food since he was a child, Ninong Ry makes his motivation, like his cooking style, come across as effortless. It helps that his persona is just like the videos he creates, down-to-earth, relatable, and fun.

 

On YouTube Ninong has had a presence for only 2 years, however as of December 2021 his channel has more than 1.2 million subscribers.

On his YouTube channel there are 217 uploaded videos and more than 93 million total number of views. The very first video that was uploaded to the YouTube channel of Ninong Ry is called “ Sizzling Crispy Kare-Kare gamit ang apat na klaseng ng mane dahil ang crush mo sayo’y walang pake”. This video was uploaded back on July 13, 2020 and it gained more than 574K views, about 8K likes and 430 positive, amazed and encouraging comments. Besides YouTube Ninong is also active on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

 

On Instagram his account is called ninongry and the audience here exceeds 159K followers.

 

As for Twitter Ninong joined this platform and created his channel in November 2020. His channel on Twitter is Ninong Ry. On this platform there are about 5K followers.

 

The last social media platform on which Ninong has a presence is Facebook. Here, his account is called Ninong Ry and the audience is more than 4.7 million.