A cook who creates giant food such as Big Macs, Jaffa Cakes and a Creme Egg that weighs as much as a child, said requests for a giant grape are “impossible” to fulfil.
Phoenix Ross, 27, from Notting Hill, west London, started sharing his culinary exploits on TikTok and Instagram in recent months, dabbling in viral food trends and creating British classics.
After noticing a “slump” in his view count, however, the restaurant photographer has tried his hand at a new series titled But Bigger where he creates giant versions of normal foods with the aim of “appeasing the algorithm gods” to gain more engagement.
Phoenix has since whipped up pub chips spanning the length of a baking tray, a baked bean which covers an entire slice of toast, a football-sized tortellini and a Jaffa Cake, which filled an entire dinner plate.
Opting for “vibe-based cooking” instead of following a recipe, Phoenix has wowed his hundreds of thousands of followers, gaining millions of views and a host of requests for other food items such as a giant grape, which he said is “completely impossible”.
“There’s so many good cooks on the internet already – I can make a beef wellington and a lasagne but I wanted to do something to stand out,” Phoenix told PA Real Life.
“I decided to go the opposite way and do more wacky stuff, I just wanted to do funny things.”
Phoenix said he has been a home cook for his “entire life” and prior to becoming a restaurant photographer, he was “freelance chef-ing” for three years.
“This really helped me hone my skills but I was always a good cook before that, I was always interested in it,” he said.
Over the last six months, Phoenix has been sharing his culinary exploits on Instagram and TikTok under the handle Shef Phoenix – using an ‘S’ instead because he claims he is “not a real chef”.
“The food I make for content, sometimes I call it ‘camera food’ as it’s not really something I would ever make to eat,” he explained.
“Even the tamer stuff, it’s not something I would create if I wasn’t trying to appease the algorithm gods.”
On his platforms, Phoenix has dabbled in viral food trends and cooked up a variety of British classics, such as Cornish pasties, pies, stews and toad in the hole, with the aim of being “antagonistic towards Americans”.
“Those videos were more like rage bait, I kind of wanted people to argue in the comments,” he said.
“I feel like British food gets a lot of hate online which isn’t totally justified – Americans come and say our food looks like rations.”
Over time, however, Phoenix said he noticed a “slump” in his views.
“I thought I had to do something, and I had to do something big,” he said.
With this, Phoenix created his But Bigger series where he showcases giant versions of normal food to his 116,000 TikTok and 129,000 Instagram followers.
To date, he has created massive replicas of a baked bean, a Big Mac, a Creme Egg, a Jaffa Cake, a gyoza, a dumpling, a stuffed tortellini, pub chips and Froot Loops cereal.
Phoenix’s video showing how he built a giant Creme Egg, which required 20 chocolate bars and four kilograms of sugar to create the fondant filling, earned 2.8 million TikTok views, while his pub chips which spanned the length of a baking tray gained 2.5 million hits.
One of the most popular clips on his profile to date, with 3.1 million views, was the giant baked bean, which was described by one TikTok user as “totally majestic”.
To achieve his super-size goals, Phoenix said he does not follow a recipe or write anything down, instead opting for what he calls “vibe-based cooking”.
“I just do things and hope it works,” he said.
To create the giant baked bean, Phoenix blended a whole can of Heinz beans together before adding flour.
From there, he was able to shape the mixture into a large bean shape which covered a slice of bread.
He also poured the tomato sauce from the tin over the top.
For his giant tortellini, which gained 3.6 million views on TikTok, Phoenix made normal pasta dough and created a filling using ricotta cheese, spinach, garlic and walnuts.
He folded the pasta around the mixture, saying it is “just the way you would do with a regular size, but imagining it’s eight times bigger”.
Phoenix said he frequently receives requests from his followers to scale up the size of certain foods – but there is an overwhelming demand for a giant grape.
“It’s by the far the biggest request I’ve ever had, it’s at least 80% of my comments,” he said.
“I can’t do it and it’s completely impossible but it’s become a bit of a meme within the community.”
Phoenix also said giant spring rolls, samosas and sushi are among other popular requests he hopes to fulfil, although he feels “a big sushi would be kind of disgusting with a whole raw salmon”.
For a teaser of things yet to come, Phoenix hopes to create giant versions of mozzarella sticks and a doughnut.
“I don’t know if my boss will read this but I would definitely like to do this full time,” he said.
“I want to do some long-form stuff on YouTube and hopefully a cookbook soon too.”
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