Food Influencers Take the Spotlight

Jean-Pierre Boffe (65,000 Instagram followers)

She always sounds mildly annoyed, speaks in a monotone, has never revealed her real name, and wields a deadpan sense of humor—and that’s exactly why we love “Jean-Pierre Boffe.” Clearly, she knows her way around a kitchen: her mini herb and langoustine brioche puddings are as elegant as they are refined. Currently, JPB is sharing a series of recipes focused on “French classics”: hand-chopped tartare toasts, pasta with bisque sauce, onion soup… We only know that she lives in Paris’s lively Ménilmontant neighborhood and that her pseudonym is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to legendary food critic Jean-Pierre Coffe (1938–2016). Her transparency, even when masked as a joke, is part of her charm: “Guess what flies but doesn’t have wings? Me—I stole a recipe,” she says in a voiceover before crediting her demi-glace sausage and mash to the restaurant Gargantua. Monoprix recently teamed her up with a cheesemonger–influencer for a collaboration. And don’t forget her Instagram bio: “One day it’s good, one day it’s meh.”

Lauren De Gaudenzi, a.k.a. Lauren Bouffe (76,000 Instagram followers)

Queen of absurdity and over-the-top naïveté, she’ll place apples on a radiator to make applesauce or eat the scraps stuck in her sink drain… Sounds strange, but 32-year-old Lauren De Gaudenzi pulls it off with charm, thanks to her delightfully retro video effects and storytelling chops. A graduate of Sciences Po Grenoble and a master’s program in communication and brand strategy at ESSEC, she knows how to craft a compelling narrative. While humming tunes and using hilariously odd accents, she whips up comfort food (like a Kinder Maxi–inspired breakfast)—even if it doesn’t always turn out great. “Not sure if today’s a recipe or a cry for help,” she jokes. Retailers like Auchan and Netto have already tapped into her offbeat charm.

Sandy Ramier, a.k.a. La Grande Bouffe (562,000 Instagram followers)

She’s the star of the show. With her silver-white hair and nonstop punchlines, Sandy Ramier has been described by French TV show C l’hebdo as “a mix between Maïté and Florence Foresti.” A few gems: “Reading a recipe feels like going to the notary”; “Homemade gnocchi is my toxic ex—I get excited every time, and then once I start, I remember how much of a pain it is”; or, while slicing an onion, “Swear on my mom’s life, I almost lost a finger—thank God I’m superficial and wear fake nails.” And then there’s: “We add tomato paste for focus, and harissa for… hariss-attude.” On her page, bad taste is often part of the aesthetic—and it’s brilliant. We’re not the only ones who think so: publishing house Stock released her first book in March, La Grande Bouffe: Recipes to Learn Cooking While Cracking Up (€19.95), and brands are lining up to work with her (Martin hot sauces, Interfel, home services company Wecasa…). Fun fact: Sandy is entirely self-taught. “No one in my family ever cooked, and I never cooked with them either. Growing up, we mostly ate frozen meals and canned food,” she told M le magazine du Monde. She took to cooking during lockdown, after leaving her previous job—and hasn’t looked back since.

By Pomélo